States shift all day. That's normal.
A nervous system in good shape doesn't stay calm all the time — itmoves. Something startles you, you rev up; it passes, you settle. You get absorbed in something, you brighten; you tire, you dim. The states are supposed to shift. Flexibility is the health, not permanent calm.
Think of an ordinary morning. The alarm jolts you (a little activation). Coffee and quiet settle you. A tense email spikes you. A walk outside brings you back down. None of that is a problem — it's a nervous system doing exactly its job, rising and falling with the day.
Trouble looks less like "having states" and more like getting stuck in one — staying revved long after the stressor is gone, or staying shut down when it would be safe to come back up. A lot of healing is simply widening the range again, so the system can move the way it's meant to.
And the very first skill is small: just noticing which way the weather is blowing, without needing to fix it.
You can leave the path at any step — nothing here is required.