Remember

Nervous System Regulation Exercises

These nervous system regulation exercises and techniques will help to bring you from a state of overwhelm back to the safe zone.

Use these tools when:

  • You feel anxiety and worry
  • Your thoughts are racing
  • Your body is nervous
  • Your nervous system is agitated

These tools are split into small groups: Energetic Balance, Emotional Resilience, Restful Sleep, Body Wellness.

Energetic Balance

Nervous system regulation is closely tied to balancing the body’s energy flow. Techniques that stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system (like breathwork or grounding exercises) help to manage stress responses and ensure a smoother flow of energy throughout the body.

Practices like humming, gargling, or deep diaphragmatic breathing that activate the vagus nerve, promoting relaxation.

Techniques like alternate nostril breathing (pranayama) or 4-7-8 breathing that help calm the nervous system.

Activities like walking barefoot or visualizing roots connecting to the earth can help calm an overactive nervous system.

Since the nervous system plays a crucial role in regulating energy and stress responses, it aligns well with the focus of maintaining energetic harmony.

Since the nervous system plays a crucial role in regulating energy and stress responses, it aligns well with the focus of maintaining energetic harmony.

Emotional Resilience

Nervous system regulation is key to emotional resilience because it directly affects how we respond to stressors and manage emotional triggers. When the nervous system is regulated, it’s easier to process emotions without becoming overwhelmed.

Techniques like the 5-4-3-2-1 method or progressive muscle relaxation help bring focus to the present moment and calm the body.

Practices like placing a hand on the heart and taking deep breaths can help regulate the nervous system during moments of anxiety or stress.

Using breath to down-regulate the nervous system helps maintain emotional balance during challenging times.

A regulated nervous system allows for more adaptive emotional responses, making it a foundational aspect of building resilience.

Restful Sleep

Nervous system regulation is essential for achieving quality sleep, as an overactive sympathetic nervous system can lead to difficulties in falling and staying asleep. The focus here would be on techniques that calm the body before bed.

Practices like 4-7-8 breathing or guided relaxation help shift the body into a state more conducive to sleep.

Activities that help transition the nervous system into a restful state, such as warm baths, gentle stretching, or listening to calming sounds.

Visualizations that focus on calming the nervous system to encourage deeper sleep.

Nervous system regulation can help prevent racing thoughts and physical restlessness that often disrupt sleep, making it a valuable part of this toolkit.

Body Wellness

Physical practices that promote nervous system regulation, like yoga, gentle stretching, or body-based mindfulness techniques, help keep the body in balance. This can improve overall physical health and the ability to recover from stress.

Poses and sequences that encourage parasympathetic activation, like child’s pose or legs-up-the-wall.

Movement practices that focus on releasing stored tension in the body, supporting a regulated nervous system.

Somatic movement exercises: These exercises include shaking, rocking, and other gentle, deliberate movements that can help release trauma and restore energy flow.

Techniques like self-massage or working with a practitioner to release physical tension, which can calm the nervous system.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR): This technique involves tensing and then relaxing different muscle groups to reduce muscle tension and promote relaxation.

Butterfly tapping

Trauma Release Exercises (TRE): This series of stretches uses the lower body muscles to build up shaking in the legs. Once the body is shaking, you lie on the floor and encourage the vibrations to move through the body. You can learn TRE through books, DVDs, apps, or by working with a Certified TRE Provider.

Physical well-being is deeply connected to how the nervous system functions. A body that is in balance can better handle stress and maintain overall health.

Resources

Thought Management

Slow down the thinking but allow the thoughts to flow…

Increasing Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) flexibility to Come Back into Balance

Why Do We Want to Increasing Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) flexibility?

Increasing autonomic nervous system (ANS) flexibility refers to enhancing the system’s ability to adapt to various internal and external stressors more efficiently. The ANS controls involuntary physiological functions like heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, and blood pressure. It has two main branches:

  1. Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) – responsible for the “fight or flight” response, which activates during stress or danger.
  2. Parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) – responsible for the “rest and digest” state, which promotes relaxation and recovery.

ANS flexibility means being able to shift smoothly between these states as needed, rather than being stuck in one. For example, someone with good flexibility can handle stress and quickly return to a calm state when the stressor is gone. This balance can improve emotional resilience, physical health, and stress management.

Practices like deep breathing, mindfulness, meditation, and somatic exercises can help increase this flexibility by improving the regulation of the nervous system.