5 Minute Meditations to Reset Your Nervous System

The foundation of deep emotional healing is being able to reset your nervous system to a calm state at will. This takes determination and practice, but the more you interrupt fight, flight, freeze and fawn patterns, the more you will know that you have the power to regulate your nervous system.

You might be spending too much time in a state of nervous system activation. You might even feel locked into a state of fear, characterized by fight, flight, freeze or fawn responses. If you are in a "sympathetic lock," you can learn how to interrupt this habitual state many times a day until your body begins to crave the feeling of parasympathetic calm.

First, you can learn to recognize when you are not feeling safe by the following signs:

FIGHT RESPONSE

• Feeling your hands shape into fists with a desire to punch

• Angry crying

• Flexed/tight jaw, grinding your teeth

• Fight in your eyes, glaring, edgy anger in your voice

• Desire to stomp and kick with your legs and feet

• Feelings of anger and rage

• Knotted stomach/nausea, burning stomach

• Metaphors like bombs, volcanoes erupting, can come to mind

• Angry, defensive thoughts like, "I have to be on guard, I have to prepare for danger."

FLIGHT RESPONSE

• Restless legs, feet /numbness in legs

• Anxious shallow breathing

• Quickly darting eyes, scanning for danger

• Restless leg and foot movements, such as tapping your toes

• Fidgetiness, a feeling of being tense and trapped

• A sense of overdoing in life, racing from one activity to the next

• Pursuing too many activities or interests all at once and not being able to focus on one thing at a time

• Excessive urge to exercise

• Overworking well past feeling tired

• Fearful thoughts, such as "Something bad is about to happen."

FREEZE RESPONSE

• Feeling stuck in some part of the body

• Feeling cold/frozen, numb, pale skin

• Sense of stiffness, heaviness

• Holding breath/restricted breathing

• Sense of dread with heart pounding or decreased heart rate to try to be invisible

• Orientation to threat, shutting down and disappearing

• Hopeless and depressing thoughts, such as "There's no point in trying" or "I am completely alone."

FAWN RESPONSE

• Feeling overly concerned about what others think or feel

• Pleasing, appeasing and complimenting others to keep the peace

• Trying to make other people comfortable at the expense of honest communication

• Lack of healthy boundaries with others who are exhibiting unhealthy behaviours

• Codependently supporting people who are making harmful and destructive choices.

• Hypervigilantly scanning people's faces to sense their reactions and moods

• Not speaking your mind or sharing your differing opinions

The next time you feel anxiously activated or emotionally overwhelmed, ask yourself: What is one small thing I can do right now to shift my nervous system to a calm state? If you want support to interrupt your nervous system's fear patterns, here are several free meditations that take less than five minutes.

To reset your nervous system, you can listen to these meditations on your computer or download them to your free Insight Timer app on your phone. I have also created a 5 Minute Nervous System Reset meditation especially for you HERE.

Reset Your Nervous System with Five-Minute Meditations

3 Minute All You Need to Be is Here: A simple presence practice, allowing you to arrive in the present moment.

5 Minute Brain Recharge: Simple breathing and gratitude practice. Uplift your mood by practicing your "Best Self" energy.

5 Minute Crystal Bowl Meditation: Use relaxing crystal bowl sounds to calm down and retune your energy back to calm.

5 Minute Rain Meditation: This guided meditation is great for beginners. Soften your body into rain sounds. Breathe in the rain and breathe out calm.

5 Minutes to Soothe Anxiety: A quick and easy breathing meditation using sighing to reset yourself back to calm.

5 Minute Tapping Practice: The practice includes some EFT tapping where you gently tap your body, working with the body's energetic meridian lines to help you relax on a deep level.

5 Minute "I Am Enough" Meditation: Sense into your original soul self and remember who you are in this meditation.

Self-Compassion Break: A short meditation to help you tend to yourself in the midst of stress or difficulty

5 Minute Letting Go Meditation: If you are upset with yourself or another, use this meditation to let go and accept what is showing up in your life right now.

5 Minute Get Centered and Soothed: Soothe yourself and learn how to ground yourself in your present moment environment.

5 Minute Emergency Calm for Anxiety and Fear: Be coached through a breathing exercise if you are having a panic attack.

5 Minute Panic Attack Stop: Get back into the rhythm of breathing in the right way and get yourself back feeling calm once again.

10 Minute Safe Place Imagery: Take a little longer to imagine your safe place, then explore it with all of your senses, before feeling a deep sense of calm, safety, and peacefulness in your body.

I have created a five-minute nervous system reset meditation for you, available HERE.

With love,

Shelley