🥛 My “Capacity Glass” A Simple Way I Track My Nervous System

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I call it my capacity glass.

When it’s full, I have no space. When it’s lower or empty I have room.

That’s it. Simple. Visual. Honest.

After years of burnout, I realised I couldn’t rely on waiting until I was overwhelmed to notice I was overwhelmed. My nervous system would already be flooded by then. So I started drawing a small glass each day and shading in how full it feels.

Sometimes it’s 20%.

Sometimes it’s 70%.

Sometimes it’s right at the top or even spilling over.

There’s no judgment — just information.

🧠 Why this matters in trauma healing

When we’ve experienced trauma, our “glass” can fill much faster than other people’s.

Things that might not seem big externally can take up a lot of internal capacity:

background anxiety

hypervigilance

masking

people pleasing

emotional flashbacks

overthinking

disrupted sleep

If we don’t track it, we can end up blaming ourselves:

“Why can’t I cope?”

“Why am I so sensitive?”

“Why am I tired again?”

The glass reminds me that It’s not weakness. It’s capacity.

And here’s something else I’ve noticed. Many of us are far more aware of other people’s capacity than our own. We can sense when someone else is overwhelmed.

We adjust.

We shrink.

We step in.

We carry.

But we don’t always ask ourselves, “How full is my glass?”

Trauma can train us to monitor others for safety.

Healing invites us to include ourselves in that awareness.

🏡 How we use it in my family

We now ask each other “How full is your glass?” Before:

starting a difficult conversation

asking for help

making plans