What 'Living at Baseline' Actually Means

Someone asked me the other day how Baseline got its name.

In psychology and neuroscience, baseline usually refers to a state, where your nervous system naturally settles when there's no immediate threat or demand. But baseline is so much more than that to me personally.

I don't usually share many personal things, but I feel like this might be helpful because I know so many of you can relate.

 This is one of those things that came from lived experience first, and only later did I make sense of it intellectually. Not the other way around.

I lived far away from baseline for a really long time. So far that I forgot what baseline even felt like.

Rushing, pushing, being in overdrive—that became my learned baseline. And anything away from that felt extremely uncomfortable. Which kept getting reinforced by a world that validates the rush, the dysregulation, the working and functioning like machines.

I knew I should pause. Relax. Rest.

But as soon as I tried, my thoughts were racing. My body felt restless. It was easier to go for a 10k run than to read one chapter of a book. Easier to stay busy than to sit still.

I knew it wasn't sustainable. But I also didn't know how to break it.

It took changing my entire environment to start shifting this. Moving countries. Living at a slower pace. Traveling. Time completely offline. Nature….

Only then did I start relearning that baseline was safe. And only after that felt shift—after my body actually experienced what regulated felt like—did I have something to come back to. No amount of intellectualising or thinking about it could have gotten me there.

I had to feel it first.

I'm so grateful that I was in a privileged position and stage in my life where I was able to do all this. But I know this isn't possible for so many of you. And everyone deserves and should have access to that felt shift.

So what is baseline, actually?

Your baseline isn't some aspirational state of permanent calm or never feeling stressed. Your baseline is the place where your nervous system feels safe enough to actually function.

It's this sweet spot—this window where you're regulated enough to think clearly, feel your feelings without being consumed by them, make decisions that actually align with what you want, and respond to life instead of just reacting to it.

It's not excitement or peak performance or blissed-out meditation. It's simpler than that. It's just regulated. Present. Here. And from that place, everything changes.

Most of us are living away from baseline and don't even realize it.

We've normalized constant low-level stress. We've made overdrive the default. We think that tight chest, shallow breath, racing mind, never-quite-relaxing feeling is just how life is.

But it's not. That's dysregulation. That's living away from baseline.

And the cost is huge.

Living away from baseline costs you everything that actually matters.

You can't think clearly. Your brain literally can't access its full capacity when you're dysregulated. You can't access your emotions properly. Either everything feels overwhelming, or you feel nothing at all. You're either flooded or shut down.

You lose access to your intuition. That quiet, clear knowing only shows up when you're regulated. When you're away from baseline, all you hear is anxiety.

Your relationships suffer. You're either clingy and anxious or distant and withdrawn. Everything feels harder than it should. Tasks that would be simple at baseline feel overwhelming.

You can't rest. Even when you try to relax, your body won't let you. You're scrolling but not actually resting. Lying down but not actually sleeping.

You make decisions you regret. Because you're making them from fear or pressure or shutdown. Not from that clear, grounded place where you actually know what's right.

But when you're at baseline, everything shifts.

You can think clearly. Make decisions that actually align with what you want. Feel your feelings without being consumed by them. Access your intuition. Be present with people without losing yourself. Rest when you need to rest.

You can just be here. In your life. Instead of constantly trying to manage your way through it.

That's what I mean by baseline. And that's why it changes everything.

Most of us don't know how to get back there because we've been away from it for so long. We think dysregulation is just our personality. That anxiety is just who we are.

And when we do try to regulate—the breathing exercises, the meditation, the self-care—it doesn't stick. We take a breath, feel slightly better for a second, and then go right back to the dysregulated state because that's where we've been living.

I get it. I lived that for years. Knowing I should rest but not being able to. My nervous system had learned that overdrive was safe, and anything else felt dangerous.

This is why I'm building Baseline.

Not as another app that tells you to breathe when you're already completely overwhelmed. Not as a tracker that gives you data about how stressed you are.

But as a tool that brings you back to baseline. That helps you recognize when you're moving away from it before you're completely dysregulated. That helps you feel that shift in your body, not just understand it intellectually.

Because you can't think your way to baseline. You can't achieve your way there. You can't optimize your way there. You have to feel your way there. 

It's about recognizing the signals your body is giving you before they become emergencies. Building the capacity to actually live at baseline instead of just trying to recover from being away from it all the time.

Living at baseline doesn't mean nothing ever bothers you or you're always calm. It means you have the capacity to feel what you feel, respond to what's actually happening, and come back to center instead of spiraling or shutting down.

It means your nervous system has the flexibility to move—to activate when you need energy, to settle when you need rest, and to find that middle ground where you can just be present.

Baseline. Is a different way of living. It's choosing to build a life where you're actually regulated more often than you're dysregulated. Where you're present more often than you're just getting through.

We're getting closer to our official launch. Join BASELINE to be first to know when we're ready.

And come join us on Instagram at @baselineapp.io—we're building this as a community, a place to talk about the nervous system in human words and share what actually helps in real life.

Your support means everything. Follow, share, say hi. 

Let's create more moments at baseline together.