The Silent System Running the Show
...and why you should start paying attention to it.
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This year, my nights learned a new language. I’d wake at 3:17 a.m., mind already mid-sentence, as if I’d come in late to a meeting I didn’t remember scheduling. I’d lie there, watching thoughts stack: what happened, what’s next, what I could have done differently. Losing a business I had worked hard on for two years was more than a professional rupture; it was a nervous system event. It took me at least half a year to adapt to a new reality after moving across the ocean and starting my life anew. Even after the dust settled, my body didn’t believe it. Workdays bled into evenings, sleep came fractured, and the hum of vigilance stayed. At some point, I realised that I was running on survival circuitry.
Add to that the war in my home country, Ukraine, where my family, friends, and millions of innocent people live with daily fear. The anxiety and pain are constant, like background music in the supermarket you can’t turn off. Except this isn’t a store you can leave; it’s a waking nightmare that keeps replaying, testing the edges of sanity and hope.
Through it all, I managed to keep it together, but something deeper kept shaking, because there’s a silent system that runs the show. Keep reading to learn all about it.
What’s Allostatic Load and Why Should You Care?
Entrepreneurship is written in verbs—build, raise, ship, scale—but the body asks different questions: Can I down-shift? Can I recover?
When we skip those questions long enough, we don’t merely feel “tired.” We accumulate what scientists call allostatic load—the physiological wear-and-tear of chronic stress. It’s the price of constant adaptation, and leaders overdraw this account more than most.
Entrepreneurship, researchers note, is among the most stressful occupations. A meta-analysis of over 140 studies found that founders experience uniquely high uncertainty, blurred work–life boundaries, and an emotional investment that fuses identity with performance.
A Frontiers in Psychology study quantified the effect: perceived entrepreneurial stress correlated negatively with well-being, while well-being itself predicted resilience. In other words, recovery isn’t indulgence — it’s infrastructure.
What the Body Is Trying to Tell You
The nervous system has two pedals: sympathetic activation (get moving) and parasympathetic recovery (slow down). Healthy regulation is alternating between the two. Chronic overdrive locks us into vigilance — great for short bursts, destructive when sustained.
One physiological marker of that balance is cardiac vagal control, linked to emotion regulation and stress recovery.
Simple, low-cost inputs make measurable differences:
Slow, paced breathing — around five to six breaths per minute — reduces anxiety and boosts high-frequency heart-rate variability, a sign of parasympathetic activity.
Mindful breathing or short meditation sessions improve cognitive control and stress response when practiced consistently.
Psychological detachment — consciously ending the workday and avoiding “affective rumination” — predicts better well-being and next-day performance.
None of these are wellness by the way. They’re ways of teaching your body it’s safe again — the necessary precondition for clarity and creativity.
A Practical Rest Protocol for CEOs
You don’t need a monastery or a sabbatical. You need a system.
That’s what I told myself after running in stress mode for too long, and started doing this:
1) Schedule 20–30 minutes of “nervous-system maintenance” daily.
Treat it as a meeting with your future self. Step away, close your door, and breathe slowly (inhale 4 s, exhale 6 s) for ten minutes. Add a body scan or light stretch. Or even better — get out for a walk!
2) Build micro-pauses into your day.
Every 90 minutes, stand up, look out a window, and take three slow breaths. It resets visual focus and interrupts sympathetic dominance — a cheap way to lower cognitive fatigue.
3) End the workday on purpose.
Thirty minutes before bed, start a shutdown ritual: no screens, no Slack. Write down the unfinished, promise to revisit it in the morning. Detachment is discipline, not laziness.
4) Schedule social regulation.
A weekly founder check-in — one business topic, one body topic — creates accountability for recovery. Studies have shown that perceived social support moderates stress and enhances entrepreneurial resilience.
5) Protect one hour a week for restorative activity.
Yoga, walking, breathwork, gardening — anything rhythmic and non-competitive. Over time, the nervous system learns the cue: this is when we down-shift.
Why This Is a Performance Decision, Not Self-Care Theater
When you’re sympathetically jacked, you think faster but decide worse. You read threat into neutral feedback, overcorrect timelines, and tighten conversations until they snap. The body keeps score in your tone, not just your pulse.
Rest is recalibration. Leaders who regulate well make better strategic calls and communicate from stability. Those who don’t become unpredictable — to themselves and everyone around them.
From an accountability lens, I can see my part in it. When I was a first-time CEO, I treated urgency as leadership. I let adrenaline masquerade as focus. I believed my body should keep pace with my ambition instead of partnering with it. If I could redo that season, I’d plan recovery better.
Try This for One Week
Block five nervous-system sessions (20–30 minutes each).
Before and after, rate your physical tension from 1–10.
Follow a shutdown ritual four nights this week.
Ask one peer: “What’s one thing you’re doing to recover?” Borrow it.
Then watch what changes: reaction time, tone in meetings, clarity in decisions. The ROI shows up fast.
#GoldenFindings
Rest won’t write code or close your next round, but it restores the only system that can — you. If mastery means performing under pressure, then true mastery means knowing when to release it.
For those curious to explore this further, here are a few Golden Findings — essential reads for first-time and aspiring CEOs learning to balance performance and recovery:
Harvard Business Review — Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure
A foundational read on why sustainable performance depends on recovery cycles, not nonstop output.The Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
A groundbreaking exploration of how stress and trauma are stored in the body, and how understanding this connection helps leaders rebuild emotional and physical resilience.Huberman Lab Podcast — Tools for Managing Stress & Anxiety
Practical, science-based tools for regulating the nervous system through breath, movement, and mindset.
#CEOCheck
When does your body first tell you you’re over the line — and what would it look like to respond before it shouts?
We’re so busy during the week, and I’m sure your mailbox is overloaded, just like mine. So, I am revisiting the original idea of sharing my emails with you on Sundays, when we all can breathe and reflect better.
Let’s Connect!
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