Nervous System Regulation: 14 Practical Exercises to STIMULATE
These tools and techniques will help bring you out of a depressed, shut down state.
Use these when:
You feel depressed and down
Your body is slow and sluggish
You feel unmotivated and meh
Your mind is negative and brooding
These tools are split into small groups:
Breathwork, voice, body, meditation, life & nutrition, people & nature.
BREATHWORK
1. Breath of Fire
Rapid, rhythmic, continuous breathing
to enliven and engage
How It Works:
A classic exercise from Kundalini Yoga (see no. 27) to stimulate the nervous system. Great as a warm up for other techniques or exercises and to deal with cravings and anxiety.
How To Do It:
Sit up tall
Start panting like a dog: forced exhale, passive inhale
Notice how your belly pulls in on each exhale
When ready close your mouth and do the same through your nose
Breathe rapidly and sharply, pulling in the belly on the exhale and letting the inhale flow out passively
Breathe in one fluid movement with no pause, roughly one in-out cycle per second
Keep the rest of your body relaxed (face, arms etc.).
Continue for 1-3 minutes (with practice you can continue up to 30 mins)
Notice how you feel afterwards
Helpful Resources:
2. Yogic Coffee Exercise
A 30-second breathing exercise to
perk you up, without any caffeine!
How To Do It:
Stand up, close your eyes and rest your arms at your sides
Take a few deep breathes to ground yourself
Inhale quickly and sharply and stretch your hands up above your head
Exhale quickly and sharply and bring your arms down quickly, clenching your fists and bringing the elbows into the ribcage (fists should end up around shoulder level)
Keep inhaling and exhaling quickly and sharply, raising your hands and bring them down each time
Continue for 30 seconds to a few minutes
Notice how you feel before and after the exercise!
Check out a great video tutorial here from this dude on Meetup.
Helpful Resources:
3. Victorious Breath /
Ujjayi Pranayama
Controlling the pace of your breath
to ground and energise
How It Works:
This breath practice is widely used in yoga. It can be used on its own, incorporated into yoga postures or brought into daily life.
This practice makes a sound that is similar to the waves of the ocean and is grounding and energising.
How To Do It:
Practice first with your mouth open to get the hang of it
Constrict the back of your throat as if you were about to fog up a mirror
Inhale and exhale with this constriction, trying to ‘fog’ up an imaginary mirror in front of you - you should hear an ocean-like sound
When you are comfortable, close your mouth and do the same through your nose
Gently place the tongue on the roof of the mouth
Take long, controlled breaths, maintaining the constriction in the throat
Focus on the silent gap between the breaths to stay present
Helpful Resources:
VOICE
4. Singing
The world’s most accessible stress relief
How It Works:
Singing, either individually in groups, lowers stress, anxiety and depression. Even just listening to singing helps.
One of the reasons is that singing is a kind of exercise that releases endorphins and the way we must control our breathing to sing is a kind of breathwork.
The key is that it has to be just for fun in a setting that doesn’t induce any anxiety.
Helpful Resources:
5. Laughing
Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, tip your teacher overboard and listen to her scream, hey!
How To Do It:
Just laugh! Laugh like you’re 6-years-old and your teacher just farted
Your body doesn’t care if there’s a reason that you’re laughing or not.
Helpful Resources:
BODY
6. Kundalini Yoga
Using voice and vibrations to reduce stress and anxiety
How To Do It:
Find a comfortable spot, sitting or lying.
Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths
Put your fingers in your ears!
Start humming: either spontaneously or a favourite tune
Keep your focus on the sound of humming and bring your attention back if you get distracted
Hum for 10-15 minutes
Helpful Resources:
7. Danciiiiing
Creativity, rhythm and whole body
movement combine to uplift and let go
How It Works:
I often plug in my bluetooth headphones, stick on my jam, and just move however my body wants to. You can trust the intelligence of the body. Let it move!
Old and new movement patterns can stir up repressed emotions and help them move through.
There are a few cool dancing groups where you can just jam however you like.
Dancing Groups:
Helpful Resources:
8. High-Intensity
Interval Training (HIIT)
Short periods of very intense exercise
with intervals of recovery
How It Works:
Go all-out, then recover, go all-out, recover and repeat!
It’s quite intense and probably not for newcomers to exercise. It works, though!
High-intensity exercise is associated with fewer symptoms of hyperarousal and protects from PTSD-induced cognitive impairment.
How To Do It:
I’ll use the example of sprinting. Be sure to warm up first and make sure your form is on point.
Warm up first!
Sprint at max pace for 15 seconds
Jog for 45 seconds to recover
Repeat 8/10 times
Warm down
Helpful Resources:
MEDITATION
9. Chanting
Chanting reduces depressive symptoms and
increases positive mood and attention
How It Works:
Chanting ‘Om’ for 10 minutes “improved attention, contributed towards a positive mood and increased feelings of social cohesion”.
How To Do It:
Pick a chant
Learn it
Chant it:
Sit comfortably and take a few deep breaths
Chant out loud! Or chant silently! Or in between
Keep chanting!
Chant while walking or working or cooking or whatever
Pay attention to the chant (see below)
Notice how you feel before and after the chanting
Paying attention: Spiritual teacher Gary Weber advises on how to pay attention to your chant: “[Sense] where it came from, where it went to, the space it occupied and was surrounded by, and what remained after it ended. Feeling the energy change in body-mind during and after the chant.”
Some Cool Spiritual Chants:
Nirvana Shatakam (no. 64)
Helpful Resources:
For fun, here’s a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk beatboxing and looping the Heart Sutra
10. Visualisation for Energy
Use the power of your mind to generate
energy and let go of tiredness
How It Works:
You’re sitting at home, feeling supremely meh. Suddenly, that person you like texts asking to hang out: bam! Energy out of nowhere.
Why? Your mind changed. And you can learn to harness this energy yourself!
How To Do It:
Note: You need to tweak any visualisation to suit what works for you. Experiment!
Sit or stand comfortably
Focus your attention on your solar plexus
On the inhale imagine drawing in energy to that point from all around you, starting near your body, expanding out slowly to encompass your surroundings, then the Earth, and even beyond
On the exhale, breathe out into the space around you without pushing anything away
On the next inhale, continue drawing in the energy more and more
Use face/body movements to assist if it feels right (i.e. drawing in with hands, pursing lips etc.)
Allow yourself to really FEEL the energy and noticing how your body changes
Add whatever support you need: maybe a friend or family member supporting you, a beloved pet, a celestial being, a tree...whatever you want! Feel their love, energy and support flooding over you.
Continue as long or short as you like
Helpful Resources:
LIFESTYLE & NUTRITION
11. Anti-Inflammatory Diet
Counteract low mood, depression
and other ‘slow’ states
How It Works:
This stuff makes a massive difference. Go raw if you can. You get more of the goods!
Remember: what you don’t eat is as (if not more) important than what you do eat.
If you struggle to give up a particular food that’s possibly because it’s medicating some painful emotional wound. That’s OK! But you will need to heal those wounds before letting the food go (send me an email if you want some tips).
Foods To Go For:
Fatty fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel etc.)
Berries
Broccoli
Avocados
Green tea
Peppers
Mushrooms
Tomatoes
Turmeric
Nuts/seeds
Beans
Foods To Avoid:
Junk food
Refined carbs
Fried food
Processed food (including meat)
Soda, energy drinks etc.
Excessive salt
Helpful Resources:
NutritionFacts.org: epic science-backed diet information
12. Ditch (Toxic) Social Media
Avoid the self-comparison that induces
depression and anxiety
How It Works:
Social media causes loneliness and depression.
In the words of one study: “the less people used social media, the less depressed and lonely they felt.”
The reason social media has this effect is that social media sparks comparisons of ourselves with others who we see living ‘perfect’ lives on social media. The resultant emotions of envy and FOMO can, in the long term, when repeated through daily social media use, turn into a state of depression.
(Sometimes social media can be helpful. There are useful pages/profiles where you can learn a lot of things. The key is to avoid anything that triggers the self-comparison.)
Ideas For Quitting/Cutting Down On Social Media
Turn off push notifications
Uninstall apps from your phone
Find new and better distractions
When you feel yourself starting to crave social media use some of the tools from this toolkit to ground yourself and release the craving!
Helpful Resources:
PEOPLE & NUTRITION
13. Co-Regulation with Pets!
A form of co-regulation but with more fluff
How It Works:
Hold, touch and play with pets! If your dog (say) feels safe, relaxed and connected, he/she can help you to regulate your own nervous system.
Apparently this only works with mammals, though.
Turtles and crocodiles etc. don’t have a nervous system built for social engagement so they kinda suck at helping you co-regulate.
Appropriate Mammals:
I found this epic quote from the creator of Polyvagal Theory, Stephen Porges: “The metaphor I’d love to use is that we need to feel safe in the arms of another appropriate mammal. Remember, some people co-regulate more effectively with their pets than with their spouses”.
Here’s the killer question: what is an appropriate mammal? Here’s my best guess.
Appropriate mammals: dogs, horses, cats, ferrets
Inappropriate mammals: blue whales, moles, bats, yaks
Not sure: bears, wolves, spouses, raccoons
Helpful Resources:
Appropriate mammal?
14. Play / Creativity
Create a sense of fun and flow in the present moment
How It Works:
Playing and being creative is a human need. It’s not optional!
A ‘play deficit’ can cause depression and anxiety, increase the risk of addiction, slow brain development, limit impulse and anger management and generally hinder self-regulation, in adults as much as children.
Lots of play increases brain activity, reduces stress and opens our minds.
Playing hide-and-seek, making music, joking about, writing poetry, gardening, going on a road trip…there are infinite ways to play.
"Stay close to anything that makes you glad that you're alive” - Hafiz
How To Do It:
Dr. Stuart Brown describes 8 play personalities that can help you to identify the activities that will bring joy to your life:
The Joker: jokes and comedy
The Kinesthete: sports, outdoors activities, playing in groups
The Explorer: doing new things, learning and researching
The Competitor: setting goals, playing and watching sports
The Director: organising a party or event, leading social events
The Collector: collect items or experiences, show them to people
The Artist/Creator: create music and art and share them with others to enjoy
The Storyteller: tell, write or perform stories
Helpful Resources:
Get The Full Nervous System Regulation MEGA-TOOLKIT
115 Super-Practical Tools, Techniques, Skills and Practices
115 Super-Practical Tools, Techniques, Skills and Practices
The tools in the article above are just one chapter of my full Nervous System Regulation MEGA-TOOLKIT.
This toolkit contains 115 tools that, along with a sprinkling of self-compassion, can help you to:
Calm anxious and fearful states 😨
Engage and uplift depressed states 🔥
Connect to your mind, body and spirit 🌳
Release emotional wounds 💨
Uncover the root of painful emotions 🔎
Gain greater emotional self-understanding 👋
Live in greater freedom and authenticity 🙏
Develop self-trust, self-acceptance and self-love ❤️
