Regulate & Rewire: An Anxiety & Depression Podcast

This episode kicks off a new 3-part series on capacity and support. Amanda unpacks why so many of us are chronically overfunctioning and under-supported, and why that imbalance, not just the stress itself, is often what drives anxiety and eventual burnout or depression. She shares a personal story about operating at ninety-five percent capacity as her default for over a decade, including a callout from a friend and a moment in therapy that both named the pattern before she could see it herself.
The episode closes with a reframe: instead of asking “what’s the minimum help I can get by on,” ask “what is the absolute most support I can get, ask for, accept, or invest in right now.” The next two episodes will walk through Amanda’s free Capacity + Support Audit, a mini workbook for assessing your own capacity and reworking the balance of stressors and supports in your life.
3 Takeaways:
Capacity is variable. Anxiety, depression, stress, grief, illness, or a demanding season all lower your capacity, and your expectations and support need to adjust with it.
“Can I do this?” isn’t always the right question. Also ask, “What is doing this costing me?”
What Is the Absolute Most Support You Can Get Right Now? You don’t have to wait until you’ve exceeded your capacity to let yourself have more support. 
Resources mentioned:
The Capacity + Support Audit (free workbook, coming in the next two episodes) — will be linked with next week's episode
Strategy Calls (for Regulated Living Members) — join the membership
CLICK HERE for the full show notes, resources, and 3 tangible takeaways!
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Looking for more support?
RESTORE, Our 16-week 1:1 coaching program
Regulated Living Membership
Regulated Health functional lab testing
Order my book: Healing Through the Vagus Nerve
*Want me to talk about something specific on the podcast? Let me know HERE.
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Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Website: https://www.regulatedliving.com/podcast

Email: amanda@regulatedliving.com

Instagram: @amandaontherise

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@amandaontherise

Sparked by a real question from a member Q&A, this episode tackles something Amanda hears constantly: weight gain during a season of depression, and the shame that tends to follow it. She walks through why those behaviors, low energy, less movement, food as comfort, made complete sense given the context, and why "getting back to your old body" is the wrong goal to chase. She also pushes back on the trendy claim that regulating your nervous system alone will melt off the weight, offers a consistency-first approach to movement for anyone whose motivation still feels offline, and makes the case for why food doesn't need to become the enemy on the way to feeling better.
3 Takeaways:
Your behaviors made sense given the context you were in. Weight gain during depression often reflects lower energy, lower motivation, and food stepping in as an accessible source of comfort, not a personal failure.
You're not digging yourself out of a hole, you're building forward from here. Recovery isn't about returning to who you were before. It's about supporting the person you are in your life right now.
Consistency comes before intensity, and motivation follows action. Start with the smallest version of movement your system will actually repeat, and let motivation catch up behind you rather than waiting for it to lead.
Resources mentioned:
Strategy Sessions (members only) — Click Here
Regulated Reset, through Regulated Health — Click Here
CLICK HERE for the full show notes, resources, and 3 tangible takeaways!
—
Looking for more support?
RESTORE, Our 16-week 1:1 coaching program
Regulated Living Membership
Regulated Health functional lab testing
Order my book: Healing Through the Vagus Nerve
*Want me to talk about something specific on the podcast? Let me know HERE.
—
Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Website: https://www.regulatedliving.com/podcast

Email: amanda@regulatedliving.com

Instagram: @amandaontherise

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@amandaontherise

A client's offhand comment about crying through a sad movie sparked something Amanda hasn't been able to stop thinking about: the contained cry. In this episode, Amanda unpacks the real difference between containing an emotion and suppressing it, why giving a feeling boundaries can actually be one of the smartest moves your nervous system makes, and how the concept of titration explains why touching the edge of something hard, then coming back, then touching it again, is often more healing than trying to feel it all at once. She also shows how this idea extends beyond crying into contained anger, contained worry, and contained grief, and why learning to trust that a feeling has an ending is at the heart of real self-trust.
3 Takeaways:
Containment is not suppression. Suppression says you're not allowed to be here. Containment says I know you're here, and I'll make space for you when I have the capacity to do that.
Every wave you ride all the way through teaches your nervous system where the ending is. The more times you feel something intensely and come out the other side intact, the less threatening the beginning of that feeling becomes.
Titration is about pacing. Touching the edge of something hard, coming back, and touching it again lets your nervous system take in new information without getting overwhelmed by all of it at once.
CLICK HERE for the full show notes, resources, and 3 tangible takeaways!
—
Looking for more support?
RESTORE, Our 16-week 1:1 coaching program
Regulated Living Membership
Regulated Health functional lab testing
Order my book: Healing Through the Vagus Nerve
*Want me to talk about something specific on the podcast? Let me know HERE.
—
Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Website: https://www.regulatedliving.com/podcast

Email: amanda@regulatedliving.com

Instagram: @amandaontherise

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@amandaontherise

Your gut and brain are in constant conversation, which means what’s happening in your gut can influence your mood, stress response, sleep, and overall mental health—and chronic stress and nervous system dysregulation can influence your gut right back. In this episode, we unpack the gut-brain axis, microbiome, inflammation, and common gut disruptors; explore when gut health might be a missing piece in persistent anxiety or depression; and talk through the foundational habits and functional testing that can help you know where to start.
3 Takeaways:
Your gut and brain are in constant, bidirectional conversation. Mental health isn’t just happening in your head, and digestive health isn’t separate from your nervous system. Stress can disrupt the gut, and gut dysfunction can add stress back into the system—which also means there are multiple places you can intervene.
Gut health is one piece of the physiological environment your brain and nervous system are functioning within. Yes, physiology matters; but we're not going to turn one physiological mechanism into The One singular explanation as to why your symptoms exist.
Start with the foundations, then get more specific if needed. Sleep, diverse nourishment, movement, connection, and nervous system regulation all support gut-brain health. If those foundations are reasonably supported and you’re still struggling, targeted testing may help identify what’s keeping you stuck.
CLICK HERE for the full show notes, resources, and 3 tangible takeaways!
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Resources Mentioned:
Healing Through the Vagus Nerve by Amanda Armstrong — pages 40–41
Our Gut Health Testing + support: CLICK HERE
Some mentioned sources:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36881351/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27067014/
https://ipa-biotics.org/exploring-the-gut-brain-connection-psychiatric-medications-obesity-and-microbiome-interventions/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7883890/

—
Looking for more support?
RESTORE, Our 16-week 1:1 coaching program
Regulated Living Membership
Regulated Health functional lab testing
Order my book: Healing Through the Vagus Nerve
*Want me to talk about something specific on the podcast? Let me know HERE.
—
Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Website: https://www.regulatedliving.com/podcast

Email: amanda@regulatedliving.com

Instagram: @amandaontherise

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@amandaontherise

In this episode, Amanda tells the story of a cancelled flight, three kids, a dog, and three extra days away from home, and the strangely flat, checked-out response she had to it. Instead of treating that numbness as a problem, she breaks down why it was her nervous system doing exactly its job. Along the way, she offers a new way to actually measure healing (hint: it's not whether you still get anxious), a guardrail against turning nervous system work into one more thing to grade yourself on, and a look at what quietly builds the kind of capacity that was working in the background long before she needed it.
3 Takeaways:
Regulation doesn't mean not reacting. A healthy nervous system still moves into activation, frustration, or even mild shutdown under stress. The goal is flexibility, not permanent calm.
Measure healing by distance and speed, not by absence. Instead of asking whether you still get anxious or still shut down, ask how far you go, how long you stay there, and how quickly you find your way back.
Capacity is built quietly, long before you need it. The unglamorous, consistent inputs, regulation, movement, sleep, nourishment, and connection, are what determine how you land on your hardest days.
CLICK HERE for the full show notes, resources, and 3 tangible takeaways!
---
Looking for more support?
RESTORE, Our 16-week 1:1 coaching program
Regulated Living Membership
Regulated Health functional lab testing
Order my book: Healing Through the Vagus Nerve
*Want me to talk about something specific on the podcast? Let me know HERE.
—
Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Website: https://www.regulatedliving.com/podcast

Email: amanda@regulatedliving.com

Instagram: @amandaontherise

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@amandaontherise