13 Easy Nervous System Tune-Up Techniques

 Photo credit: Trudy Arsensault, Women's Empowerment Summer Workshop 2024

1)   Orienting: Slowly scan and orient the environment to YOU. In the past, we oriented ourselves to the environment due to learned hypervigilance. This orientation practice centers us in our environment and inside our bodies. It affirms for our nervous systems that we are safe.

2)   Take control of your mind: When worrying about or 'predicting' negative future outcomes, ask yourself: "Is this all true?" or “Do I have any evidence for these catastrophizing/ruminating thoughts?” Remember the future is not Now and is therefore a fantasy in your imagination. What do you WANT things to look like? Imagine that instead.

3)   Finger Squeezes. Slow, one at a time with opposite hand.

4)   Wiggle fingers and toes.

5)   Wash your hands. If possible, take a shower or bath. Add Epsom salt to your bath; if you don’t have Epsom, any kind of salt will benefit.

6)   Drink a glass of water. Speak blessings over your water before you drink it: “I infuse this water with love, health, and peace. And so it is.” Choose what benefits. You might say “prosperity, abundance, and success,” or “healing, self-compassion, and wholeness.” Stay present with the blessings you choose when drinking the water. Close your eyes and feel the water as it enters your mouth and the rest of your body.

7)   Check in with all your 5 senses. What do you smell? See? Hear? Touch? Taste? Let your senses affirm for you that nothing dangerous is occurring in your environment; you are safe.

8)   Body Scan during Finger Squeezing. Bring your awareness to your toes and scan your body from toes to top of your head with intention and awareness. Be present with anything you notice that holds tension or is uncomfortable. Send love with your mind to those places on your body, gently tap with your fingers, and when you breathe, visualize your breath moving into that place in your body to get the energy moving. End by breathing into and tapping on your heart center.

9)   Slow, deep breaths. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. Try to make your exhales longer than your inhales, and exhales should be through pursed lips and audible. It’s your exhale that instructs your nervous system to enter a parasympathetic, or “rest and digest”, state, like a sigh or a yawn does. Sometimes we are unconsciously holding our breath and not even aware of it. Studies show that intentional breath helps tone the vagus nerve and informs communication between the heart, gut, and brain.

10)         EFT/tapping. Ask Michelle to learn this simple technique.

11)         Body Pillow when sleeping or resting. And/or make a nurture nest with pillows on hand. Add self-loving inner dialogue to nurture both the adult you and the preverbal younger you.

12)         Drumming and/or Tuning forks. Ask Michelle for recommendations.

13)         Vagus Nerve stimulation via outer ear acupressure: slow gentle circles with your finger. This reduces the fight or flight response. Check out techniques and/or research this online.