Three Tips to Regulate your Nervous System

Do you listen to your body and can you notice when your nervous system isn’t regulated? Kat shares her top three tips to regulate the nervous system.

“This Autumn I’m taking my self-care seriously, because these are seriously tough times. Perhaps are for you too? The one thing that I’ve learned that I need to prioritise is taking care of my nervous system. I’m learning to listen to my nervous system first of all, so that I know when my body is reactive. I’ve realised it is just so vital to learn to regulate your nervous system. I become sensitive to when my breath becomes shallower, my heart starts racing, I feel a wrenching feeling in my gut. Familiar feelings for when I’m feeling uncomfortable, anxious or triggered.

When I learn to listen to my body, and my body is feeling dysregulated, I know that there are tools for me to bring my body (and mind!) back into a state of balance. Only when I’m back in a state of balance will I be able to respond appropriately to the challenges life’s bringing me.

Today I’m sharing with you three tools that I’ve found have really helped me to regulate my nervous system, and I hope they will be support for you too.

Three Tools to Regulate the Nervous system:

Breathwork

Integrating Breathwork as part of my daily routine. I know. This is something that we all say we should do. And to be honest, it’s so easy, it’s easy to not do it. But I’ve got a really lovely routine for doing my morning breathwork classes, and for me, forming that daily habit has been an utter game-changer.

I get my hot drink in the morning first thing, and do something that I just LOVE to do. Especially as the mornings are dark and chillier. I go back to bed. With my coffee and my MFML classes on my phone. I pick one breathwork class per week, so it’s super-easy for me to find and actually do. Honestly, doing this, for the last month or so, really has changed absolutely everything for me.

My favourite finds this last month have been:

• Naomi’s Immunity and Migraines class. And yes, it has actually prevented my normally regular-as-clockwork pre-menstrual migraines. It’s absolutely amazing.
• Mimi’s Qigong Breathing
• Of course, Dan’s breathwork course.

Rest

I’m starting to learn how to take rest seriously.

I’ll often take a yoga nidra break at about 4pm when my energy is starting to get a little lower. These little breaks keep me creative, keep me on track, and keep me able to continue to function throughout my cycle.

I’ve learned that being able to take rest is absolutely crucial, and that just 20 minutes of yoga nidra leaves me absolutely refreshed for the rest of the day. It’s a game-changing practice.

Nature

Once I have my hands on my well-tended soil, on the earth, my nervous system immediately seems to ‘drop’ into something that feels so regulated. It’s so calming to just potter round the garden, and because I’m lucky enough to have space for a veg patch, there is nothing more grounding and calming than literally earthing myself by picking and tending to my own veg and herb garden. It’s so beautiful to be able to pick the leaves for a salad, or to add the thyme to the dish I’m cooking. It feels to me like it puts everything in perspective. I feel I can breathe deeper. I have the earth beneath my feet, in my hands and I can feel that I too, belong to the earth. Even if you don’t have a garden, I really recommend growing herbs on a window-sill, and I’ve recently learnt lettuce ends, spring onions and other salad greens can regrow in glasses of water! For me, this connection to nature in any way regulates me and takes me back to a feeling of being ‘home’ in myself. 

Look after your nervous system’s and take care.

Kat x

Written by Kat Farrants, founder of Movement for Modern Life.