September 22, 2025
When Pablo came across Nervous System Mastery, he was at a crossroads. Coming out of COVID, he'd recognized how burnt out he was and made a promise to himself: no new projects, just recovery time. When he saw the NSM ad, his rational mind resisted as it was the kind of intensive program he was trying to avoid.
But something deeper was calling. Despite all the internal alarms saying he should be taking it easy, Pablo's intuition was clear: this was important. He'd learned to trust that inner guidance, even when it contradicted his comfort zones, because it consistently led him toward his next necessary lesson.
Before NSM, Pablo had a complete blind spot about his nervous system. Looking back now, he describes it as being like "not knowing what the sun is, but it's here every single day." He existed without understanding the fundamental system that was driving his daily experience.
The NSM Approach
When Pablo joined cohort 2 in October 2023, he gained his first framework for understanding his internal states. The core questions became: Am I in dorsal shutdown? Am I in sympathetic activation? Or am I in parasympathetic regulation? These simple distinctions gave him language for experiences that had previously been mysterious.
Pablo describes NSM as planting "strong seeds" that would grow and develop over the following years. While he absorbed the foundational concepts during the course, he acknowledges that he didn't have the awareness at the time to fully appreciate how profound nervous system work could be.
Major Turning Points
- Creating an Internal Dashboard: Pablo learned to recognize his different nervous system states like characters in his life—the anxious, problem-solving version; the withdrawn, apathetic version; and the curious, wonder-filled version. This awareness became like having a car's dashboard, providing crucial information about his internal state.
- Distinguishing Self from Others: A crucial skill emerged in learning to differentiate between his own nervous system activation and what he was picking up from others. Previously, he'd assume all dysregulation was his own, but he learned to recognize when someone else's agitated state was simply being detected by his nervous system.
- Professional Transformation: As a project manager, Pablo began applying nervous system awareness to workplace communication. Understanding that his messages might dysregulate others, he learned to attune to colleagues' states and adjust his approach accordingly—slowing down for activated people, creating space for those who were shut down.
What Changed?
- Emotional Foundation: NSM provided the soil for Pablo's emotional life to grow. Having previously struggled to feel emotions, he now describes being "really happy with the emotional life" he's developed over the past three years.
- Somatic Approach to Healing: Pablo learned to approach trauma and emotional backlog from a nervous system perspective rather than getting caught in mental stories. Physical sensations became guides to what needed attention, making healing more visceral and effective.
- Relational Attunement: He developed the ability to consciously co-regulate with others, putting a hand on someone's shoulder when they're having a difficult time or adjusting his energy to match what a situation requires.
Life Now
Pablo describes experiencing a "renaissance" with nervous system work—coming back to the basics with much deeper appreciation for how foundational this work is. What once seemed like abstract concepts now feels like crucial infrastructure for "living a life of creation and of healing."
He continues exploring practices that serve him, developing new experiments, and maintaining awareness of his nervous system throughout the day. The work has become a cornerstone for how he approaches both personal growth and professional relationships.
Pablo has also become passionate about spreading "nervous system literacy," recognizing that many people lack the language to understand their internal experiences. He sees sharing these concepts as giving others valuable tools for relating to themselves and others.
Pablo's Parting Words
For Pablo, NSM's power lies in providing a visceral framework for understanding and working with internal states. The language and concepts aren't just abstract ideas—they're addresses for lived experience that help people navigate their inner landscape.
He encourages others to trust their intuition about this work, even when it challenges comfort or current life structures. The nervous system foundation supports everything else—emotional development, relational skills, and the ability to create meaningful change in the world.
Pablo believes that developing nervous system literacy is crucial not just for individual wellbeing, but for creating the conditions where authentic expression and genuine connection can flourish. As he puts it, awareness of these states allows us to "truly dance with someone else's nervous system" in conscious, intentional ways.
Pablo Estrada is a project manager transitioning to entrepreneurship, passionate about spreading nervous system literacy and supporting others in their journey toward authentic expression and emotional freedom.