Your nervous system learned how to protect you. Now it’s learning how to trust again. Every gentle practice is a conversation between your mind, body and your future — one where safety replaces survival.
Here are 8 simple, compassionate ways to begin bringing it back into balance:
1. Slow Your Exhale
Try breathing in for 4 counts and out for 6. This tells your brain “we are safe.” The magic is in breathing slowly and rhythmically, which overtime retrains your nervous system to stop living in survival mode.
This is something I practice when I wake up, if I feel myself start to panic, and before bedtime to help me fall asleep.
2. Gentle Bilateral Movement
Walking, swaying or slowly alternating tapping your left and right sides activates both hemispheres of your brain. You don’t need intensity. You just need rhythm. Let your body remember that it knows how to move safely.
3. Cold Water on Your Face
A physical reset button. Splashing cool water on your face or holding a cool cloth against your cheeks activates the vagus nerve and helps slow a racing stress response. It’s one of the fastest ways to interrupt anxiety spirals.
4. Familiarize Your Environment
Gently look around and name what you see: the colors, shapes, light, and objects in the room. This tells your nervous system, I am here, and I am not in danger. Orienting grounds you in reality instead of memory, fear, or anticipation. You’re not dissociating — you’re anchoring.
5. Safe Human Connection
A calm voice, a hug, or even a text or video call exchange with someone who feels emotionally safe can regulate your nervous system more than any technique. We are wired to heal in connection.
6. Put Your Hand on Your Body
A hand on your chest, stomach, or thigh tells your nervous system you’re here and you’re safe. Touch is grounding. It creates a sense of containment when emotions feel big. Sometimes healing starts with simply staying with yourself.
7. Humming or Singing Softly
Humming, singing, or even lightly chanting stimulates the vagus nerve through vibration in the throat and chest. This helps shift your body out of fight-or-flight and into a calmer parasympathetic state. You don’t need to sound good. You just need to feel the vibration. It’s one of the simplest ways to tell your nervous system, we’re safe enough to make sound. A solid tool for those with driving anxiety.
8. Slow Eye Movement
Slowly moving your eyes side to side while keeping your head still helps your brain process stress and reduce emotional intensity. This mimics a mild form of bilateral eye movement used in trauma therapies. You’re not forcing anything — you’re simply giving your nervous system a signal that it can reorganize and settle.
Simply Jennifer 