Three Simple Techniques To Calm Your Nervous System
It's a tough world out there
We’re being assaulted from all directions with grim news, pressures in our daily life and the latest trends on social media.
Five years ago, I succumbed to burnout. It had been building for years prior to the point where I literally found myself, one morning at work, rocking in front of my computer, unable to process any more information in or out.
For months I had been experiencing maximum levels of stress just to get through the day. Menopause had made me into an anxiety-riven shadow of my former self. When I got covid, it further screwed up my nervous system to a point where several months later, my body collapsed inwards with chronic fatigue.
I didn’t know any of these techniques then. I learnt them as part of the therapy that helped me to recover from long covid, having discovered that my autonomous nervous system was severely dis-regulated.
Nowadays, I have a totally different relationship with myself.
I’m kind and loving in the way I treat myself physically, mentally and emotionally. I regularly spend a minute or two doing one or more of these techniques as I go about my day. They help to settle me and keep my nervous system regulated.
1) Touching your fingertips with your thumb
This is a fabulous thing to do when you’re feeling nervous. I learnt it when doing some emotional freedom technique (EFT) training last year. You can do it without anyone noticing, maybe in a social situation or under the table when you’re in a meeting. When I do it, I find that my breathing steadies and I stay grounded when I’d otherwise get panicky.
Simply touch the side of each fingertip with your thumb
2) Put your hand on your heart
As my love and kindness for myself grew, I started placing my hand on my heart when I was in a situation where I needed a lot from my body and I wanted to be encouraging to myself.
I put my hand on my heart, thank my body and reassure it that although we have to do something tiring or challenging now, we can get through it and rest later.
I recently saw a post on Substack from a doctor who said that if you place your hand on your heart for twenty seconds your nervous system slows down and settles.
Normally, I don’t leave my hand there for that long, but I’ve been experimenting. After twenty seconds or so, I can feel my shoulders drop and my breathing slows.
3) Eye exercises
This was the first exercise I learnt when I started having therapy to help with my long-covid. The eye movement stimulates the vagus nerve which is the nerve that runs from the brain, through the body to the gut. It is your nervous system. Other nerves branch off from it and affect all of the organs in the body.
I’m not going to try to explain it here. You’ll have to watch the video. It’s a fantastic technique which helps to regulate your nervous system. I do it every night at bedtime and during the day if I feel I need it. Again, I can feel my muscles relax, my neck and shoulders lighten and my breathing slows.
Let me know in the comments which one is your favourite.
Plodding gently
Cali x
Yes! I have tried all three of these. The eye thing works so well - I yawned just watching you do it, lol. I forget to do it. I often put one hand on my heart and one on my belly, I think that's the most natural thing for me. Touching each finger wasn't so impactful for me, but if I actually add a rhythmic tapping to each finger before switching, it does seem to help. Not as much as full EFT, but in a pinch. Thanks for sharing these with everyone Cali!
I feel like the time in which we find ourselves is one of relentless information, coming at us at warp speed and it erodes our bandwidth to cope and process.