Feeling Stressed? Try These 3 Nervous System Practices

No matter where you are in your healing journey, learning how to support your nervous system is an important part of coming home to yourself.

Learning to care for your nervous system isn't complicated. You don't need special equipment or hours of time. In fact, these practices work with things you already know how to do: breathe, touch and connect with the natural world.

In this article, I'm sharing three of my favorite techniques that I teach my clients, students and use regularly myself. Each one gives you something practical to reach for when you're feeling stressed, overwhelmed or simply want to return to your center.

With time, these techniques can become an anchor. There is something deeply empowering about knowing that no matter how your day is going or what is happening around you that you can return your awareness to your body and gently return to your center.

✦ In This Article

• A simple touch practice to help you feel grounded and centered
• Ways to use your breath to release tension and return to the present moment
• How connecting with nature can support your nervous system
• Why having a practice to reach for can become an anchor in itself

1. Hands on Heart and Belly

One of my favorite anchoring practices is to place one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly.

Gently close your eyes and just breathe and notice.

Feel the weight of your hand on your chest. Feel the presence and warmth of your hands. Notice the rise and fall of your chest and the suppleness of your belly as your breath flows in and out.

You may want to experiment with bringing your awareness first to your heart, then moving your awareness down to your belly and finally noticing both at the same time.

Keep your awareness on your breath. See if you can allow your belly to expand with a full belly breath. Notice the peak of your inhale and the low point of your exhale.

You can even imagine that you're a balloon, gently filling with air as you breathe in and then letting all of the air out as you breathe out.

You don't need to change anything or make anything happen. Just breathe and notice.

Stay here for as long as feels right.

Why this works

Part of what makes this practice so grounding is that it brings your attention out of your thoughts and into the sensations of your body: the warmth and weight of your hands, the movement of your chest and belly and the rhythm of your breath.

As your breathing naturally begins to slow and deepen, it can also support the parasympathetic side of your nervous system, the part involved in rest and recovery. Research on slow breathing has found increases in vagally mediated heart-rate variability, one marker of parasympathetic activity.

In other words, you are giving your mind something steady to notice while giving your body an opportunity to slow down.

This is particularly grounding and centering, and it's also a wonderful practice to teach children how to self-regulate when they're overwhelmed, stressed or overstimulated.

2. Connect With Your Breath

Your breath is another tool that is always available to you. You don't need to breathe in a particular way or follow a complicated technique. Sometimes simply bringing your awareness to your breath is enough to bring you back into the present moment.

Begin by noticing your breathing. Notice the inhale. Notice the exhale. Notice where you feel the breath moving through your body.

Then, if it feels good, experiment with one of these practices.

Try an open-mouth exhale

Take a comfortable breath in through your nose and then exhale through your open mouth. You can let the exhale become an audible sigh.

Sometimes we hold tension without even realizing it. Giving yourself permission to sigh, soften and let some of that energy move can feel incredibly releasing.

Try it a few times and notice what happens in your body.

Add an intention to your breath

You can also pair your breath with an intention.

As you breathe in, think about what you want to invite in:

I'm breathing in light.

I'm breathing in love.

I'm breathing in peace.

Then, as you breathe out, imagine releasing something you are ready to release:

I'm letting go of stress.

I'm letting go of overwhelm.

I'm letting go of the day.

Choose whatever words feel meaningful to you. There is no “right way” to do this! 

Tense, breathe and release

For another variation, bring your shoulders up toward your ears and squeeze them tight. Hold that tension for a moment and notice what it feels like.

Then let everything go with a big sigh.

Allow your shoulders to drop. Move your neck gently. Notice the difference between the tension you were holding and the sensation of releasing it.

You can repeat this a few times or simply do it once when you notice yourself carrying tension in your shoulders, neck or upper body.

Your breath is something you carry with you everywhere. The more often you pause and intentionally connect with it, the more it can become a familiar way of returning to yourself.

Why this works

Your breath is one of the few functions of your nervous system that happens automatically but that you can also consciously influence. Slowing down and intentionally working with your breath can help shift your body out of a stress response and toward a calmer, more settled state.

3. Get Outside and Connect With Nature

Sometimes supporting your nervous system can be as easy as going outside.

Put your phone away and take a break from technology! Feel your feet on the earth. Sit on a rock. Touch a tree. Walk through a park. Feel the sun on your face or listen to the sound of the wind. If you're near water, put your hands or feet in it.

You don't have to go anywhere special. Have your morning cup of coffee outside. Take a few minutes outdoors during your lunch break. Work in your garden or yard. Step outside at the end of the day and look at the moon or the stars.

Actually connect with what's around you. Notice what you see, hear, smell and feel. Notice the life around you: the plants, insects, birds and animals. Feel your place within all of it. You're part of life, too. Let yourself be present.

I grew up on a farm with a lake right in front of our house, in a very high-control environment. Whenever things got hard at home, I would walk down to the lake and sit on a rock by the water until I felt calm enough to go back inside.

My five-year-old self didn't know I was helping my nervous system settle. I only knew that the water soothed me in the way that I needed.

To this day, when I need to come back to my center, clear my mind and find my way back to the deepest part of myself, I crave water. Sometimes what's available is a bath. 🙂 But nothing sets me straight quite like sitting by the water or going for a swim.

What's your natural reset? Where do you go? What part of the natural world helps you find your way back to yourself?

Why this works

Connecting with nature can be deeply grounding. Bringing your awareness to your senses, feeling the earth beneath your feet and noticing what's happening around you can help orient your nervous system to the present moment. Instead of staying caught in your thoughts or stress, you're giving your body information about where you are and what is happening right now.

Time in nature has also been associated with reduced stress and increased parasympathetic activity, the part of the nervous system involved in rest and recovery. You don't need hours in the wilderness to benefit. Even small, intentional moments of connection can become part of how you support yourself.

Experiment with what feels good to you. Maybe it's water, trees, sunlight, fresh air, snow, sand, soil, mountains or wide-open spaces. Find the places and elements that help you feel grounded, present and connected, and make time for them. Make connecting with nature part of your self-care.

Building a Practice That Brings You Back to Yourself

When our nervous system gets overwhelmed, whether from everyday stress, trauma or living within a high-control system or environment, we can become disconnected from our presence, our center and our bodies.

Part of the healing journey is developing tools and practices that help us come back home to ourselves.

When you begin practicing these tools regularly, you're not only supporting your nervous system at that moment. You're developing habits and skills you can reach for when you need them. You're learning how to listen to yourself, respond to what you need and actively participate in your own healing.

Over time, the practice itself can become an anchor. There is power in knowing:

🌟 No matter what is happening around me, I have something I can do to support myself right now.

✦ The Heart of It

You can begin supporting your nervous system every day through small, intentional practices: connecting with your body through touch, bringing awareness to your breath and spending time in nature.

Working with these tools regularly can help you develop a greater sense of self-sufficiency and empowerment. You begin to build a deeper relationship with yourself, learning to recognize what you need and trust yourself to respond. 

The more you practice coming back to yourself, the more you begin to know the way home.

Continue Your Journey

If you're looking for more ways to support your nervous system and build your healing toolbox, consider exploring Reiki.

→ Reiki for Nervous System Regulation

New to the nervous system? Your nervous system is magnificent, and it's constantly working on your behalf. Learn more about how it works, why it responds the way it does and how you can begin working with it.

→ Nervous System 101