4 Exercises to Help Your Nervous System
Do you feel dysregulated?
Below you’ll find practical and easy-to-use tools to regulate your nervous system, reduce anxiety, and regain calm. The added benefit is that these brief techniques can be practiced at home, school, the grocery store, or in any place you feel safe enough to use them, because they’re quick and discrete.
Breathing Techniques for Anxiety and Worry
The Bee Breath
Helps With: Calms the parasympathetic nervous system, reduces anxiety, and improves concentration.
Instructions:
If you feel safe to, close your eyes
Inhale deeply through your nose
As you exhale, make a prolonged humming sound, like a bee (mmmm), keeping your mouth closed
Repeat at least 3 times, or until you feel calmer
Benefits: Decreases heart rate, regulates breathing, and reduces racing thoughts
Box Breathing
Helps With: Regulates breathing, improves emotional stability, and reduces reactivity
Instructions:
If you feel safe, close your eyes
Imagine a square and mentally follow its sides with your breath
Inhale for 4 seconds (move your mental gaze from the top left corner to the top right)
Hold for 4 seconds (top right side of the square to bottom right side)
Exhale for 4 seconds (bottom right side to bottom left side)
Hold for 4 seconds (bottom left side to top left side)
Repeat at least 3-4 times and feel free to adjust the seconds if holding your breath for 4 seconds is too long for you
Benefits: Facilitates self-control, reduces physiological arousal, and is useful before public speaking or facing stressful situations.
Techniques for Tension, Impulsivity, and Anger
Cloud Breath
What it helps with: Releases body tension, reduces anger and impulsivity.
Instructions:
Take a deep breath through your nose
Form an "O" with your lips as getting ready to blow out a candle
Exhale all the air at once, as if blowing away a cloud
Repeat 3–5 times
Benefits: Releases accumulated energy, facilitates muscle relaxation, and helps prevent impulsive reactions
Somatic Release
What it helps with: Reconnects you with bodily sensations, dissipates chronic tension, and reduces physical anxiety
Instructions:
If you feel safe, close your eyes
Sit with your feet flat on the ground and your back straight. You can also lay flat on the ground
Start with a body scan from head to toe
Observe the crown of your head and scalp notice any tension or discomfort
Unclench your jaw and relax your mouth
Slowly move your neck in gentle circles
Release and shake your shoulders
Gently rotate your arms and shake your hands
Move your back with gentle twists
Briefly tense your thighs and then relax them
Loosen your knees, rotate your ankles, and shake your feet
Practice deep breathing between each segment
Repeat as needed
Benefits: Reduces muscle pain from stress, improves body awareness, and decreases emotional reactivity.
Safety and Usage Tips
These tools are meant to be supplemental to therapy, not a solution for everything! Please practice these techniques in a safe environment, and never feel the need to push yourself beyond your emotional capacity. If at any point you feel more uncomfortable or unsafe, stop the practice. At Herr-Era, we’d be happy to help you understand these better and teach you how to use mindfulness and somatic tools to help your nervous system and emotional regulation!
Similarly, if you have any medical conditions, consult a professional before performing intense breathing techniques. You can also tailor these tools to work best for you and your health needs.
They work best when they’re practiced often, so integrating mindfulness and grounding into your daily routine - like 5 minutes in the morning or 5 minutes before bed - can make a massive difference! If they’re only brought out during a crisis, our body often doesn’t know how to respond, so it’s best to actually practice!
Finally, keep a journal about how these tools feel and when you’re using them! Knowing when they’re most necessary to you and how your body is responding can be very powerful information for you and your therapist.
Therapy Can Help!
At Herr-Era, we’re passionate about helping teens, college students, young adults, and their families feel better. If you’re looking to learn more about self-regulation and mindfulness tools, schedule a free consultation today!