Regulating Your Nervous System After Burnout or Trauma

Alanah
April 7, 2025

Regulating Your Nervous System After Burnout or Trauma

Regulating your nervous system after burnout or trauma isn’t about slapping on a face mask and pretending you’re not two sips away from a breakdown. It’s about crawling back to your body after life, stress, and possibly a narcissist or three, have completely fried your internal wiring.

You know the feeling, when your hands are shaking, your brain’s buffering, and some well-meaning person says “just breathe.” Cute. Let’s toss that in the bin and start from scratch.

This is the stuff that actually works, written by someone who’s been through the meat grinder and came out still swearing but standing.

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What is your nervous system and why is it sabotaging your entire existence?

Your nervous system isn’t out to get you. It’s just trying to protect you… badly. Think of it as a poorly trained bodyguard who mistakes emails for death threats and sees burnout as an incoming tiger attack.

There are two main systems playing tug of war in your body:

Sympathetic nervous system
Fight, flight, freeze, fawn. The high-alert system. It gets you out of danger but will also gladly ruin your afternoon because someone used the wrong tone in a text.
Parasympathetic nervous system
Rest, digest, recover. This is the one you want in charge when you’re not being chased or emotionally blackmailed.

When trauma or chronic stress shows up, your nervous system stops regulating like it used to. It gets stuck in survival mode, either buzzing with anxiety or flatlining with exhaustion.

Why regulating your nervous system matters after trauma

Because your body has memory. It holds every red flag you ignored, every panic spiral you white-knuckled through, every toxic situation you couldn’t escape fast enough. If you don’t actively work on regulating your nervous system, you stay stuck in that loop, reacting like you’re still in the danger long after it’s over.

Actual tools for regulating your nervous system

Let’s get into it. These are practical, no-BS ways to start regulating your nervous system again. No oracle cards required.

Get into your body

You cannot regulate your nervous system by thinking harder. Trauma isn’t logical. It’s biological.

Walk barefoot on something real
Touch something textured or grounding
Pay attention to what your body’s actually feeling, not what you think it should be

Cold water (without the cult vibes)

You don’t need to Wim Hof your life. Just:

Splash cold water on your face
Stick your hands in ice water for 30 seconds
Take a brisk shower
Or an ice bath. Trust me, that’s the stuff!

It activates the vagus nerve, which is your nervous system’s reset button.

Shake it the hell out

Animals do it. You should too. Trauma leaves tension in your muscles. Let it move.

Shake your arms and legs
Bounce on your heels
Do something that makes your body feel like it’s releasing instead of holding

You’ll look ridiculous. You’ll feel better.

Vagus nerve stimulation for real people

These things help regulate your nervous system by signalling safety to your brain:

Humming (try the eternal om. It’s magic)
Gargling
Singing
Deep belly breathing (not Instagram breathwork; the kind that feels real and grounding)

Eat like someone who isn’t self-destructing

Blood sugar crashes will keep your nervous system in freakout mode.

Eat regularly
Eat protein
Eat food that didn’t come from a fluorescent packet and a desperate impulse

This isn’t about dieting. This is about fuelling the meat-suit so your nervous system can chill.

Orient to the present moment

Your nervous system needs proof you’re safe. Give it that proof.

Name five things you see
Touch something soft or grounding
Say what day it is and where you are

Your nervous system doesn’t know the threat is over until you show it.

Sleep. Seriously.

Regulating your nervous system without sleep is like trying to fix a car with no engine.

Turn off the phone an hour before bed
No caffeine past 2pm
Build a sleep routine like your life depends on it, because it kind of does

Boundaries are nervous system gold

If your life is full of people and situations that drain you, no regulation technique will work.

Say no
Leave the group chat
Cancel plans if your body says “don’t”

Your nervous system is asking for less chaos. Listen.

Move your body how it wants to move

Some people regulate by sitting still. Others need movement. There’s no one right way.

Try walking
Try stretching
Try dancing like you’re exorcising a demon (because you probably are)

Your nervous system will tell you what works. You just have to stop ignoring it.

Make space for your anger

Repressed rage clogs your system.

Scream in the car
Write the letter you’ll never send
Punch a pillow, not a person

Your nervous system wants honesty. Let the anger out safely so it doesn’t rot inside you.

So… regulating your nervous system

Regulating your nervous system isn’t about becoming calm all the time. That’s not the goal. The goal is to not live in survival mode when you’re trying to make breakfast. It’s about finding your baseline again, that place where your body doesn’t think love, work, or laundry is a threat.

You’re not overreacting. You’re just dysregulated. And you can fix that; slowly, imperfectly, one moment at a time.

Come back to yourself. Your body’s been waiting.

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