Be More Zebra

Why your nervous system thinks you're being chased by a lion — and what to do about it.

Zebras don’t get ulcers.

It sounds almost amusing when you first hear it. After all, zebras live on the African plains, where they are genuinely, repeatedly chased for their lives by predators. Heart racing, adrenaline surging, in full survival mode.

And yet, once the threat has passed, they shake it off, quite literally,and go back to grazing. Calm. Present. No overthinking. No replaying. No anticipatory dread about the next lion.

They complete the stress cycle. Most of us never do.

The Modern-Day Lion

Today’s threats do not look like predators. They look like overflowing inboxes, back-to-back meetings, financial pressure, family demands, performance expectations and the nagging sense that no matter how much you do, there is always more.

And unlike a lion on the plains, these stressors do not disappear once the immediate threat passes. They linger. They stack. They follow us into the evening, into sleep, into the weekend.

The result is what I often describe as cumulative strain. Not one catastrophic stressful event. Just a constant, low-level signal to the body that it is not quite safe to switch off.

Stress is not always loud. Sometimes it is just the quiet, relentless feeling of never quite being done.

What Is Actually Happening in Your Body

When your brain perceives a threat, real or imagined, physical or psychological, it activates your sympathetic nervous system; the fight-or-flight response.

Your body floods with cortisol and adrenaline. Heart rate increases. Blood diverts away from digestion, immunity and reproduction and towards your muscles and brain. Your body prepares for action.

This is a brilliant, elegant system when the threat is short-lived. In modern life, the perceived threat is almost never short-lived.

So the stress response stays partially activated. Cortisol stays elevated. The body keeps resources diverted. Over time, the systems that were deprioritised - digestion, immunity, sleep, hormonal balance - start to show the strain.

This is not about an inability to cope. It is physiology. Your body responds exactly as designed. The challenge: your body is not designed for this particular kind of relentless, never-quite-resolved stress.

Signs Your Nervous System May Be Struggling

Many people do not identify as stressed. They are just “busy” or “getting on with it.” But the body tends to tell a more honest story.

You might notice:

•       Feeling tired but unable to properly relax

•       Waking in the night or at 3am with a busy mind

•       Craving sugar or caffeine to get through the day

•       Digestive issues — bloating, discomfort, irregular patterns

•       Getting ill frequently or taking a long time to recover

•       Feeling irritable, reactive or easily overwhelmed

•       Going through the motions but never feeling genuinely restored

These are not random. They are signals. Your nervous system asking, in the only language it has, for a different kind of support.

The Missing Piece: Completing the Stress Cycle

In their book burnout, biologists Emily and Amelia Nagoski, describe something that changed how many people think about stress: the stress cycle.

The stressor and the stress response are not the same thing. You can remove the stressor - finish the project, resolve the conflict, get through the difficult week - and still have stress hormones circulating in your body, waiting to be discharged.

Zebras discharge stress physically. They run, they shake, they breathe hard, and then they settle.

We sit with it. We move from one demand to the next. We tell ourselves we will relax later. And later rarely comes.

The result is a nervous system that never fully gets the message that the threat has passed.

You can remove the stressor and still carry the stress. Completing the cycle is what allows the body to let it go.

Five Ways to Become More Zebra

This is not about removing pressure from your life. For athletes, high performers and people with full lives, that is neither possible nor always desirable. It is about building in the recovery that makes the pressure sustainable.

These are not dramatic interventions. They are 1% shifts. Done consistently, they change how your body holds stress over time.

1. Use your breath as a reset

The quickest way to shift from sympathetic (fight or flight) to parasympathetic (rest and digest) is through the breathing. A longer exhale than inhale activates the vagus nerve and signals safety to the nervous system.

Try this: inhale through your nose for four counts, exhale slowly for six. Repeat five times. Drop your shoulders. Unclench your jaw. That is a zebra moment. And it costs sixty seconds (see the box breathing blog).

2. Eat in a calm state

Digestion requires your parasympathetic nervous system to be active. If you are eating while rushing, scrolling or standing at the kitchen counter, your body cannot fully able to digest and absorb what you consume.

Before eating, take three slow breaths. Sit down. Slow the pace. Even five minutes of calm eating makes a physiological difference. This is one of the simplest and most underestimated shifts you can make.

3. Stabilise your blood sugar

Blood sugar instability is a hidden stressor. When glucose drops, the body releases cortisol to bring it back up. This keeps you in a low-level stress loop without you realising it.

Including protein with each meal, eating regularly and avoiding long gaps all support steadier energy, and a calmer nervous system as a result.

4. Move, but match movement to your energy

Exercise is one of the most effective ways to complete the stress cycle - it burns through the cortisol and adrenaline your body released. But the type of movement matters.

If you are already depleted, high-intensity training every day can add to the stress load rather than reduce it. Walking, strength work and gentler movement all help regulate the nervous system. The goal is to move in a way that energises rather than empties.

5. Build your own zebra moments

These are small, deliberate pauses that signal to your body: the threat has passed. They do not need to be long. They need to be real.

It might be getting ten minutes outside at lunchtime without your phone. Ring-fencing your lunch, so you get a moment to yourself. Listening to music that genuinely grounds you. Writing things down to clear the mental clutter - your to-do list that can be worked on tomorrow. The specific thing matters less than the intention behind it: you are choosing, briefly, to stop running.

A Note for Athletes and High Performers

If you operate in a high-performance environment, whether in sport, business or both, this is not about softening your approach or reducing your ambition.

It rests on the same principle that underpins elite training: you cannot build capacity without recovery. The adaptation happens in recovery, not the work.

The most resilient performers don't push hardest without stopping. They have learned to recover as intentionally as they train. Stress and recovery. Output and restoration. That rhythm is what makes performance sustainable.

Becoming more zebra is not the opposite of high performance. It is the foundation of it.

Your 1% This Month

You do not need to overhaul your life to support your nervous system. You need one small, consistent shift.

Choose one from this list and try it for two weeks:

•       Five slow breaths before a meeting, a meal or bed

•       Eating lunch sitting down without a screen for five days

•       One ten-minute walk outside without your phone each day

•       Adding protein to breakfast to stabilise your morning energy

Notice what changes. Not just in how you feel, but in how you respond. How quickly you recover from a difficult moment. How easily you fall asleep. How present you are in the quiet bits of the day.

That is your nervous system finding its way back to calm. One small signal at a time.

Want support with this?

Whether you are an athlete managing a heavy training load, someone in a demanding professional role, or simply trying to feel more like yourself again - understanding your nervous system is one of the most useful things you can do for your health and performance.

I work with individuals and corporate teams to build practical, evidence-based strategies that support resilience, energy and sustainable performance. If this resonates, book a free 30-minute Health & Energy Review.

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