Foods high in vitamin D. Vitamin D is critical to regulating our nervous system, boosting our mood, and helping set our circadian clock so that we have more energy during the day and can sleep better at night. Most of us don’t get enough vitamin D, even if we spend plenty of time in the sun, which helps our body manufacture the nutrient. But our skin can’t make enough D if we live at latitudes above the 37th parallel, which includes most of the contiguous United States, even in summer.26 This is why we need to consume foods high in D, including fatty fish, egg yolks, cheese, mushrooms, and low-sugar foods fortified with D. You can also take a vitamin D supplement; ask your medical practitioner for dosage recommendations.
Antioxidant-rich plants. Fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and other plant-based foods high in antioxidants provide us energy and protect our nervous system, according to research.27
FOODS TO MINIMIZE
Note: Limiting or restricting food of any kind may not be appropriate for anyone with current or past disordered eating issues. If this is you, you may want to skip this section.
Sugar. Sugar is one of the most inflammatory substances we can consume, if not the most inflammatory ingredient in our food supply today. Having too much glucose in the body stresses our cells, dysregulates our nervous system, and disrupts our microbiome. Over time, the more you limit your intake of sugar, the less you’ll crave it. Added sugars are common in processed and convenience foods, so consuming mostly whole foods in their simplest form will help you minimize your sugar intake without having to read labels closely.
Gluten. Though clinical studies have not conclusively linked gluten to inflammation for those who don’t have celiac disease (an immune reaction to gluten that affects only 1 percent of the population), a diet high in the protein, which is found in wheat and other grains, can cause unhealthy microbes to flourish in the gut and can even contribute to intestinal permeability, harming the health of our gut-brain axis.28
Processed foods. Processed foods cause inflammation and prioritizing whole foods over processed items, whenever accessible, is the simplest way to eat to help your nervous system regulate, increasing you stress resilience.
Alcohol. Even if you don’t consume alcohol in excess, a steady drip of booze into your bloodstream, whether it’s via a glass of wine every night or a big evening out once or twice a week, can depress your nervous system, impairing your ability to think about the long-term consequences of your actions and loosening your inhibitions. Because of its effect on the functioning of our prefrontal cortex, alcohol use can lead to emotional instability and volatility, negatively impacting our relationships.
In addition to prioritizing the foods you eat, changing how or where you eat can also benefit your nervous system. Far too many of us eat on the go or while rushing through work, watching or reading stressful or upsetting news, talking to a partner or child, or cruising social media. In these moments, our choices may be activating our body’s stress response, taking us out of the “rest and digest” state we need for proper nourishment. By changing how we eat and creating as calm an environment as possible, we can increase the likelihood that our body will absorb the nutrients it needs.
SLEEP WELLNESS
We need at least seven hours of nightly sleep on a consistent basis to be able to maintain a healthy parasympathetic state and connect with others. Prioritizing our sleep can significantly benefit our relationships, especially if we’re chronically sleep deprived, which many of us are. If we don’t have enough energetic resources, we’re more likely to be agitated, irritated, impatient, and easily reactive around others. And yet, most of us don’t prioritize sleep, instead putting our work, social outings, digital habits, and favorite TV shows before our bedtime. For those who experienced abuse or other trauma especially during nighttime, sleep itself may feel unsafe, resulting in difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep due to nightmares. As I did, its helpful to establish a regular nightly routine to help calm your body and activate your parasympathetic “rest and digest” system before bed. Here are some helpful tips to create a soothing bedtime ritual:
Go outside first thing in the morning, even if it’s cloudy, to expose yourself to natural light. Natural light in the morning can help regulate our circadian clock, our body’s twenty-four-hour internal cycle, to help us fall asleep at night and wake up more rested in the morning.
Avoid activating social media and stressful or upsetting news at least an hour before bed, as both can excite and stress our brain. You could even try leaving your phone in another room to avoid being stimulated before you sleep (and looking at it if you wake up during the night).
Practice deep belly breathing for several minutes while lying or sitting in bed.
Practice gentle yoga before getting into bed. Yin yoga, which is slower paced than regular yoga, can be especially helpful.
Turn off your phone and all other Wifi or bluetooth devices. Most of our new technology gives off electric and magnetic fields, or EMFs, emitting a low level of radiation. Over time, consistent exposure to this invisible energy can begin to impact the functioning of nervous system and our nightly sleep.
Meditate for several minutes before bed or in bed especially if you find yourself worrying about what happened today or what will happen tomorrow.
As you see, many of the things that will benefit our sleep are actions we can take throughout our day to set our body up for rest at night.
PHYSICAL MOVEMENT
Physical activity allows us to harness our energy and move it through our body, reducing our feelings of anxiety, stress, and even depression while regulating our nervous system. Regular movement can help release painful emotions and stored trauma, rebuild muscles, and rewire neural circuits in new ways.
Gentle exercise like yin yoga, stretching, and walking can help calm our nervous system when we’re in fight-or-flight mode. Vigorous exercise, on the other hand, can stimulate our sympathetic nervous system when we’re in a freeze or shutdown state. As anyone who’s experienced a good, sweaty workout may already know, physical activity releases endorphins, chemicals that help our nervous system cope with pain and stress.
The way you move your body doesn’t have to resemble any type of traditional “exercise.” Even the gentlest forms of movement and stretching provide benefits. And doing something you enjoy, whether it’s dancing in your living room, playing a fitness-based video game, or running around the yard with your dog or children, will make you more likely to move.
Personally, I like to stretch for fifteen to thirty minutes daily, sometimes by taking a YouTube yoga class (Yoga with Adriene and Travis Eliot’s yin practices are my go-tos). I try to get in a long walk and a more vigorous workout every few days and make a point to carve out small moments for more playful activity like dancing to a favorite song or hitting a tennis ball against my garage door.
You can even start to use exercise in an intentional way to calm your nervous system, specifically choosing your movement based on the stress response you’re experiencing.
For fight, flight, or fawn, you want to activate your parasympathetic nervous system. The best way to do so is with gentle movement like stretching, walking, yin yoga, tai chi, or qigong. You don’t need to practice for hours; start with ten minutes of any movement that you can do at home, at work, or anywhere else you feel safe. Find a private, quiet room or go outside if you can’t find a safe space indoors. If you’re new to yin yoga, tai chi, or qigong, you can practice with videos provided by amazing teachers who share their gifts on YouTube for free. Learning a few moves of the one you like best will enable you to practice in the future without having to look at a screen.
For freeze or whenever you feel dissociated or shut down, you want to activate your sympathetic nervous system. The best way to do so is with vigorous or intense movements like sprinting, jumping rope, walking briskly uphill, lifting heavy weights, cycling at high RPMs, or playing tennis or basketball for ten minutes. You can try vigorously shaking your body for five minutes by waving your arms, swinging your legs, and rotating your core at the same time. If vigorous movement isn’t an option or you’re looking for more ideas, try cold therapy, submerging your hands or washing your face in ice-cold water for one to two minutes.
ENERGY WORK AND OTHER TECHNIQUES
All the cells in our body produce energy. When we’re stuck in a stress response, our cellular energy can become frenetic, frazzled, or deficient. Energy practices such as acupuncture, acupressure, and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) tapping can help rebalance unhealthy energy by realigning our body’s meridians, or energy pathways.
Acupuncture practitioners insert thin needles into specific points of the body to redirect stuck energy and stimulate nervous system function. Studies show that acupuncture balances sympathetic and parasympathetic function and reduces chronic stress and anxiety.29
Acupressure uses the same bodily points as acupuncture to align energy and boost nervous system function. But instead of inserting needles, practitioners use their hands, elbows, and even feet to apply pressure that can release you from a stress response.
EFT tapping uses acupuncture points, but you don’t need to see a practitioner to benefit. Instead, you learn how to tap areas of your body to relieve stress.
Other techniques shown to relieve stress responses and regulate the nervous system include:
EMDR therapy, short for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, is a form of therapy in which a trained practitioner leads you through a series of eye movements while you recall memories of traumatic past experiences. The therapy has been shown to help the body and brain heal from trauma while activating the parasympathetic nervous system.30
Bilateral stimulation is a form of therapy that rhythmically stimulates the right and left hemispheres of the brain to help calm the nervous system. EMDR is a type of bilateral stimulation administered by a practitioner, and there are also ways to use touch and sound to achieve similar effects. For more detailed exercises, you can reference my workbook, How to Meet Your Self: The Workbook for Self-Discovery, or look online for resources to guide you.
Tension, Stress and Trauma Release (TRE) is a somatic (body-based) practice that can help release deep-rooted muscular stress, trauma, and other emotions by completing shaking or vibrating exercises. You can find a workshop or TRE practitioner online.
SELF-REGULATION TOOL KIT
Following are some additional self-soothing and self-regulating options to help activate your parasympathetic nervous system and calm your body’s emotional reactions.
Teach your body to surrender or relax into your emotions and physical sensations by breathing deeply into areas of discomfort.
Comfort your body with a soothing touch or a self-hug, which helps release oxytocin, a hormone that increases our sense of connection and helps moderate anxiety.
Use a weighted blanket or gently rock your body to relax your body’s energy.
