3 Tips to Calm Your Nervous System Today
3 Tips to Calm Your Nervous System Today
Mindbody Wellness Clarity Tips
Dear Awesome Woman,
With the fast pace of life around us and the ever-changing dramatic news, our nervous systems may be revved up a bit more than is healthy (is this an understatement?!). We may find ourselves feeling anxious, unsettled, unrested and on edge.
It’s a great practice to bring in a few somatic releases throughout your day that engage your parasympathetic nervous system, therefore bringing peace to your system. Even though the news and pressure of community and society may feel alarming, the truth is that if in your immediate environment, there is no lion chasing you, then you have the opportunity to be more present and calm in your life and interactions. The benefits to your body and mind cannot be overstated.
Here are 3 tips to calming that nervous system of yours:
1. Admit What You’re Feeling to Yourself
When you’re feeling nervous, one mindbody technique to feeling calmer and more grounded is just to rest your hand on the area that feels jumpy or tight and say out loud, “I’m feeling nervous.” Instead of trying to brush aside the feeling or think your way out of it, honest compassion will do a lot to reset your nervous system.
We can learn from horses regarding this. When a person walks into a closed pen with a horse and pretends to be happy when in fact they are afraid or nervous, the horse won’t feel safe with them—the horse as a sentient being feels the incongruence in the person’s body. But if the person gets honest with themselves and admits that they are nervous or fearful, then their blood pressure drops, and there is a physiological state of calm in their body to the point that the horse senses congruence and feels safe with them. The horse may even feel safe enough that it can approach that person, feeling energetically safe to be in close vicinity to them.
Your body is like a horse—when it’s nervous, get congruent with it—be honest and admit with kindness to yourself how you’re feeling. If you’re nervous, admit that you are nervous. If you’re sad, admit that you are sad. If you’re agitated or frustrated, then admit that.
That dropping inward with honesty and compassion, that giving of space to your very human self, settles the nervous system and can make you feel safe in your being. Others around you will feel that energetic honesty and congruency as well. You’ll be more approachable as a partner, friend, parent, co-worker, and/or boss.
2. Sprinkle in Conscious Breathing Throughout Your day with Long Exhales and Holds
Long exhales really speak to your nervous system, communicating the message that you are not being chased by a lion. If you were, G-d forbid, then you’d be running with fast, quick breaths and exerting a ton of energy.
With my clients, I’ll have them breathe slowly out and then hold while I count to four. I’ll encourage them to bring this practice in throughout their day especially when they feel anxious.
Even if you don’t hold the breath, that very conscious, slow breath out will help activate the parasympathetic nervous system—a state of peace—for your body. It is one of rest and digest and you will have more presence of mind to interact calmly with yourself and others.
3. Get Bigger with Your Energy
People have all sorts of ways of releasing nervous energy. One of the best ways is through exercise. That running, or brisk movement allows us to get bigger with our energy rather than stifling it. A mini trampoline can also be fun and at the same time help get that energy out.
The ROAR! Process is also another way to calm the nervous system. I developed it as a somatic release technique and it works wonders in releasing tension and stress. Again, the key is to stop suppressing emotions which are “energies in motion” —actual physical sensations in the body—and start processing and releasing them in productive ways.
When nervous energy runs amok in our systems, we can choose productive ways to handle it without spilling it over onto those we love or even strangers. Trying to keep in energy is like a pressure cooker trying to keep in the steam. It doesn’t work after a while and the physical manifestations of this trapped energy can have terrible consequences for the body. If we don’t release the steam consciously in small doses and in productive ways then not only may health be compromised, but important relationships may be ruined as well. This is unpleasant and unfair to everyone.
So, I invite you to try any and all of these suggestions to calm your nervous system. When we have greater peace within, we have greater peace without. And our world certainly needs that.
Need a helping hand? Schedule your 20-minute free Clarity Call today. As a Somatic Healer, Relationship Expert, and Clarity Coach, I help empower women to trust themselves through the wisdom of their bodies and intuition. Stress and pain relief, trauma processing, marriage magic, dating help, career shifts, Narcissist/Borderline-relationship detoxing, and goal setting can all be accomplished through Mindbody Soul sessions (by phone). Each session creates quantum energetic shifts for healing, insight, and transformation. You have so much wisdom and it’s all within you!
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If you’re dating, there are beautiful resources for you as well (and they include the red flags to look out for to avoid the narcissists!).
Free yourself from the harmful effects of built-up resentment, stress, trauma, anxiety, grief, and disempowerment. Emotions can flow with greater ease through using the ROAR! Process, an effective somatic release technique that results in a healthier you. This process is great for releasing stuck energy for both adults and children alike.
Sharing a few testimonials from clients whose lives have been transformed and you can check out more @ Client Love:
“The healing work that I experienced with Miriam’s somatic therapy gave me confidence. Miriam offers generous time to support a process that shifted my energy. When I think of describing Miriam several words come to mind, here are a few: kind, funny, real, insightful, and empowering. I appreciated her language, attentiveness, and ability to create space to understand the process. Many thanks to Miriam Racquel and consider working with her, I’m glad I did.” – R.K, New York
My husband received this from a client of our Couple’s Intimacy Program:
“OMG….. just want you to know that I had the best session ever today with your wife. I was able to release the heavy load that I felt on my shoulders. I’m now feeling light as a feather. Getting a massage this evening. I can’t thank you and her enough.” – L.L, Texas
