How Our Nervous System Impacts Our Spending with Michelle Grosser – EP 482

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Do you notice a difference in your spending habits when you’re calm and collected versus when you’re stressed and overwhelmed? Science is about to blow your mind in this episode! Jen and Jill, along with Michelle from The Calm Mom Podcast, let you in on the science behind our nervous system affecting our spending so you can hit two birds with one stone: a relaxed mind and a money win!

Our body will always lead and our mind will follow.

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Michelle is an attorney, pastor, Nervous System Expert, Certified Master Life Coach, and host of The Calm Mom Podcast. Through somatic and neuroscience-based modalities, she coaches women through discovering what’s beneath their triggers and emotions, so they can begin their healing journey and find peace in the present. She deeply believes that the most profound thing we can offer our children is our own healing. She and her husband Jeff have two daughters and live in Houston, TX.

The Nervous System and Our Spending

Our nervous system is our body’s command center, constantly working with one primary goal: keeping us safe. Michelle explains that, from a neuroscience perspective, our nervous system influences our thoughts and behavior. Most of these decisions are unconscious, shaping our money habits, patterns, and more.

She emphasizes the importance of awareness and equipping ourselves with tools to regulate our nervous system. Because when our system is dysregulated, we tend to spend on things we believe will fix a problem, though it’s really just a band-aid solution.

Mindset Shift or Just A Dysregulated Nervous System?

According to Michelle, 20% of our nerves run from the brain to the body, while the 80% run from the body to the brain. It’s like knowing what to do but finding it hard to follow through. So only when the mindset and body align—because of the regulated nervous system—is when we will see real growth and make the actions we want to take.

To identify dysregulation, Michelle breaks it down into two parts: Mentally, you might notice a fight, flight, or freeze response. Physically, symptoms include stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, your heart racing, digestive issues, insomnia, gut problems, muscle tension, aching joints, and chronic stress.

How to Regulate our Nervous System?

Our body doesn’t understand verbal language—it communicates through breath, movement, sound, touch, and temperature changes. That’s why Michelle suggests regulating the body first, allowing the mind to follow. Because what we do with our body directly impacts our mind.

Daily Practices to Take for A Regulated System

Michelle recommends daily practices to help us get out of our head and into our body. Simple movements like shaking to release energy, breathing exercises, and grounding techniques can reduce stress. But, she reminds us that nothing heals by pushing harder, if we’re already at the edge and we add up more stress to our dysregulated system, it’s not gonna work.

What's a recent money situation that felt overwhelming to you? How did you handle it?

When moving cross-country, Michelle encountered SO MANY $ decisions so she did laps in a swimming pool before making plans. Jen finds out that she needs to spend $11,000 for a window she doesn’t want, and she’s definitely gonna shake it off. Jill’s flight got doubled so she walked away from it.

Get more from Michelle

Bill of The Week

Thank you Michelle for sharing about your bill of sale – to sell all the stuff you don’t need anymore! Hustle culture, stress, and frivolous spending!

Thanks so Much for Listening!

Thank you so much for listening. We love love love reading your kind reviews and we especially loved this one from:

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It’s not too late

I was never taught about money (in fact, I was taught to never talk about it) and it was only through finding the Frugal Friends podcast that I realized I could educate myself. FF makes learning about new ways of thinking around money and frugality easy and friendly. The hosts seem like empathetic people who’ve been there, done that, and are giving you their best advice from those experiences. I feel hopeful about the future now. I’m making changes and have told friends who are now listening, which means, hey — I have frugal friends, too!

If you want to check out our monthly challenge community head to frugalfriendspodcast.com/club to see what challenge we have coming up next.

And keep leaving us reviews on iTunes or Stitcher, and sending the screenshot to reviews@frugalfriendspodcast.com. And don’t forget to share your favorite quote from the episode by using the hashtag #FrugalFriendsNote. 😉

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