Three Ways to Regulate Your Nervous System Instantaneously
- Brainz Magazine
- Sep 29
- 13 min read
Written by Johnna Key, Spiritual Guide & Teacher
Johnna Key is known for her calming and serene voice when guiding meditations. She is the author of the newly published book, Making Space to Breathe, and YouTube channel, Journeys with Johnna.
When one is on a journey to heal and calm the nervous system, it can take some time. There are often phases where you might ebb and flow through the responses of the sympathetic nervous system as it scans for dangers in the environment. This physical healing for the body is tri-fold, it is not only valuable to the physical health of the body, but also to the mental and spiritual health.
In my nearly twenty years of being on a mind, body, and spirit healing journey, it began physically for me, as it does for many others. It is common to seek a physical healing experience when faced with major health concerns brought on by a lifestyle that is not nourishing or by the aging process.
Now, all these years later, having explored many mind-body-spirit healing modalities, focusing on mental and spiritual health is one of the most important things we can do as a society. The physical healing naturally follows in tandem when the mind and spirit are working in unison. At the end of the day, a valuable lesson we could all embrace is this, Your health is your wealth, mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, all the components that make up the human experience.
The vast majority of us are operating from a deregulated nervous system, meaning you oscillate between fight or flight and sometimes ebb and flow through freeze or fawn. You can see this dysregulation in all of us once you become aware of the signs or symptoms. Part of practicing self-awareness and mindfulness is learning to recognise what your nervous system signals are and how you can help regulate yourself.
Another part of mindfulness practice, when becoming aware of the processes of your nervous system, is to extend more grace to yourself and to others.
The mind, body, and spirit trilogy of the self is often going in three different directions, leaving us to move through deregulated states more often than is ideally needed or required.
Spiritually, your inner voice is attempting to get you to follow your intuition. Physically, you are bound by societal standards for jobs and careers, to pay to live. Mentally, you may be spinning off into many stories or overthinking thoughts. None of these areas are talking to or listening to one another, resulting in a world of people running on fumes and reacting impulsively.
I do not know about you, but when I look out into the world, or even at myself some days, and see the dysregulation and feel the anxiety or fear from others, I can wholeheartedly say, I do not believe we were meant to live like this on this planet. We were meant for more harmony. The challenge is to move through the dysregulation to find that harmony, but we have to put in the work to get there.
So let us dive in and take a look at some signs of deregulation. Perhaps this can help you identify where you are in this particular moment, reading the article, versus how you felt this morning or how you may feel later today.
Your sympathetic nervous system is part of the autonomic nervous system, which signals the body to prepare for stress or danger.
Beginning with the two most common nervous system dysregulations, fight or flight, what are the details or subtle symptoms to be aware of?
When the sympathetic nervous system is in fight or flight mode, the individual often feels an uncontrollable urge to react, lash out, or respond dramatically. Because this behaviour is not a favourite response for most, here are some subtle symptoms that show the body is storing what it does not need.
How this shows up in the mental space:
One might notice sudden mood swings
Hypervigilance or scanning for potential dangers
Difficulty concentrating on tasks or conversations
Feeling on edge
How this shows up in the body:
Difficulty sleeping or fatigue
Chronic muscle tension
Changes in breathing
Digestive issues
A rapid heart rate
How fight or flight shows up spiritually:
Closed-mindedness or fear of what is not understood
Blocking out perspectives that threaten the individual’s way of being
An unwillingness or resistance to learn or grow
Avoiding responsibility
Ghosting others
The term “fight or flight” was coined in the 1920s by psychologist Walter Cannon, who noticed the chain of events happening within the body to prepare it for the correct response when danger arises. This response developed within our systems during the hunter-gatherer days of our ancestors, when we lived outdoors with nature and needed to be vigilant about what nature was doing, such as knowing when to leave a flash flood area or how to run from or fight a large animal trying to attack.
As a society, while our external world has changed greatly from the days of our ancestors, the DNA within the body has not evolved all that much. The sympathetic nervous system is still in fight or flight mode, preparing for danger. Only now, the danger is crazy drivers on the road, a boss who cannot control their emotions, children and adults not getting adequate sleep, or the newly dreaded, no wifi. I have seen people lose their composure when they cannot connect to their devices right away. It is not because they are “crazy,” but because they are dysregulated and unaware.
Fight or flight are very good responses to have within the nervous system. They will always tell you when there is danger and how you can respond. But they can also lead you astray if you are not staying aware of yourself. We need these responses for survival, but we do not need to live within them daily.
The intention with nervous system healing is to cultivate the awareness and discernment to know what stage you are in and what you need to regulate. It is also about the discernment to know if the danger warning is one of validity to listen to or one of fear, circulating a story in the mind.
Recently, my fight or flight response was activated by what I thought was someone breaking into a friend’s home I was staying in. Within a matter of seconds, I was out of the chair, running across the room, preparing myself to fight off an intruder and also run out the back door. When I realised the home was not being invaded, but rather a friend of the homeowner, though a stranger to me, was coming by unannounced and letting themselves in, I was able to see with my eyes and ears that I was not being robbed. Still, it took me another 24 hours to get my nervous system regulated from this brief experience that lasted barely five minutes.
During the following day, I used several modalities to let my body know it was not under attack. If I were not already working on my nervous system hygiene daily, I would have reacted so differently to that scenario. Additionally, I would have needed days or weeks to collect myself instead of a single day’s rest.
Post-2020, I see more and more people living within freeze and fawn dysregulation in their nervous system. Understandably so, when billions of people were hyper-confined and controlled, it elicited some level of fearful freeze, too afraid to move or make a decision, and fawn, minimising the danger. During the forced lockdowns, I did not leave the house for as long as one month that first year, with a friend all but dragging me down the steps and into the street for fresh air. With the sun on my face, I began to overcome the fear that the experience had instilled in me.
Freeze dysregulation within the nervous system is exactly as it sounds, the mind and body simply pause right where they are, unmotivated to take action. Freeze or functional freeze can be hard to spot because you are typically still living life regularly, going to work, exercising, meeting with friends, and so on.
How this shows up in the mental space:
Experiencing chronic fatigue
Unable to make decisions
Feeling disconnected or uninterested
Feeling like everything is “too much to handle”
Overthinking or overplanning
Food tasting bland or being unable to remember one’s food at meal times
How this shows up in the physical:
Feeling disconnected from the body
Feeling on edge or experiencing low-grade anxiety
Rigid or tense muscles
Actions an individual tends to take when moving through freeze:
Procrastination
Mindless scrolling or binge-watching TV
Avoidance of responsibilities, friends, tasks, or activities once loved
How it shows up in the spiritual:
Resistance or unwillingness to grow, learn, or evolve
This is a great response in the body to have when one is walking in the woods and encounters a bear, you are told to freeze and let the danger pass. It can, however, be detrimental when you live your average lifestyle and are frozen within the life you once loved.
Fawn dysregulation within the system is when one uses pleasing or appeasing to minimise or diffuse the threat of danger. This reaction in the nervous system often stems from codependency and people-pleasing, driven by fear of not being accepted or the powerless feeling of being unable to control one’s environment.
How it shows up in the mental space:
Submissiveness
Lack of boundaries
Sacrificing oneself for connection
People-pleasing or agreeing with others to “keep the peace”
How this shows up in the physical:
Anxiety
Restlessness
Exhaustion or depletion
Dissociation from oneself
Fawning happens when fight or flight and freeze are activated within the mind and body at the same time, creating the perfect storm of anxiety and depression, rage and uncontrollable laughter, being okay one minute and breaking down the next.
All of these responses in the body and brain are correct. There is nothing wrong or right about the nervous system, it is a part of us, a part we deserve to get to know.
I want to share knowledge about the nervous system, or in Yoga, the seven main chakra centers, because it is so valuable to know more about how you operate and why you do the things you do. We have been programmed by society to believe that our emotions, responses, reactions, or desires are dangerous. I am not speaking about those responses that are, in fact, truly dangerous. I am referring to the everyday reactions to everyday experiences.
We have been programmed for far too long to push away messages from the mind, body, and spirit that are there for a reason. One of those reasons is simply to communicate with and know oneself.
This knowledge of the nervous system can be a game-changer for us as a collective. It debunks the fearful programming we have been fed or the ever-popular, “This is just the way I am.” Well, sorry, not sorry, but no, you were not meant to live in anxiety or fear.
Healing, awakening, and becoming a better version of yourself are all phases of life that can disrupt a system that has been sitting in one way for a long time. I have seen and experienced major dysregulation when leaving one way of being and moving into a whole new lifestyle. This is why having tools at your disposal and using those tools to help regulate the body and mind are where we will make big shifts in society.
Now that you have a little more knowledge of the nervous system layers, I would love to share with you three tools to use to regulate your nervous system instantly.
I give these tools not as a way for you to bypass the message or ignore yourself, but as more knowledge that you have the power to listen to and heal your body.
Method one: Connect to your breath
Whether you can find a quiet place or not, you can easily calm yourself by connecting to your breath, even in the supermarket check-out line.
If you cannot find a quiet place to close your eyes, then look ahead to find a point that will not move. The immobility of the object will also signify security and presence in the brain.
Place your hands on your stomach, chest, or along the side of the body.
Inhale deeply through your nose. Exhale a long, slow breath from the nose or mouth.
As you breathe, feel your breath move through the body. Notice it enters the nostrils, moves through the chest, and into the abdomen if you can. Notice the breath slowly move through the body as it makes its exit.
Your breath is the essence of you. Connect to this essence in any heightened emotional state. Feel yourself magically and swiftly calm the body and mind, giving space to the intuition (the spirit) to tell you what you need from here.
Method two: Get into nature
We are hearing this more and more, and I am so excited for us to relearn how important it is to connect with nature. Go outside if you can, if not, touch or sit next to some houseplants.
As soon as you can go into nature, go! Take off your shoes, sit somewhere quietly, and practice the breathing from above. Watch and feel yourself shift within seconds.
Lay in the sun or sit under the moon, wiggle your toes or hands in the grass, and let nature soothe you.
Nature is our natural way of being, we all used to live as one with nature. Some of us have been living separately from it for longer than others, but it is still in our DNA that we are a part of nature. We need her the way she needs us.
Method three: Yoga nidra meditations
Meditation changes your vibration, it raises it to strong and healthy levels for yourself and those around you. This style of meditation causes you to slow down, be present, and connect to the self. It provides a safe space for the mind and body to heal and reconnect with one another and the spirit, uniting that trilogy within us for the strength we need in the coming years.
Carve out thirty minutes to one hour to practice this meditation. Lie down, get comfortable, feel warm and cocooned in your space, and let yourself drift off into the deep trance of this meditation to awaken renewed and refreshed.
You can find these on my YouTube channel, Journeys with Johnna.
Bonus! Method four: Stop scrolling
For the love of all that is holy, stop scrolling mindlessly. This is designed to get you addicted. Post shut-ins and all the scrolling we did during our forced time at home have given people the attention span of a flea, with thumbs itching to get back to moving again.
Next time you want to scroll, do this instead:
Put your phone in another room or in a drawer
Place your thumbs on the inside, pressing against the palms
Close your fingers around the thumb to make a fist
Open and close your fist in a clenching motion
There are pressure points in the hands. Making a fist and adding the clenching or opening and closing of the fingers activates the parasympathetic nervous system to calm the mind. Over time, this will retrain your brain to seek truly calming activities, because scrolling will never be it.
We will each continue to ebb and flow through the stages of the nervous system, and life will happen in ways that can throw us off for a bit. Using these tools, and many others, when deregulation happens, you can give yourself what you need to heal and thrive.
These tools are meant to give you a safe space to process the emotions arising in the moment that cause deregulation. Once processed fully, that is when complete regulation begins to happen.
When I first began this work on myself, it was following my divorce, which I go into more deeply in my book Making Space to Breathe. My nervous system was in fawn for many years, flowing between fight and flight or freeze. A trigger could hit me in the supermarket line, where I was wedged between people and carts of food. I could not leave the situation to walk away, so I would need to regulate myself in the moment, that is when deep breathing would come in.
I would breathe deeply to calm myself while in line so I could complete the task at hand. Once in the car, I would move through another layer of regulating so I could drive home. Once home, I would make time to process the emotions or the trigger so it could move out of the body and mind.
Keep in mind that your nervous system is here to support you and help you, to send signals and messages of urgency or calm. It is up to us to use the privileges awarded to us in 2025, knowledge.
Our ancestors, guardians, and even as recently as five years ago, no one was talking about the nervous system in the mainstream. No one had full knowledge of what we now know and are still learning about the mind, body, and spirit connection to the nervous system.
Empower yourself with a deeper knowledge of your nervous system and what you need to regulate. Feel stronger, more confident, more rested, and more joyful in the days ahead. You deserve the regulation. You deserve the peace. You deserve the unity of the inner trilogy. We all deserve this regulation.
Spiritually speaking, moments of dysregulation, or months or years of it, are there to show you where your attention is needed. They point out dis-ease, imbalances, addictions, strengths, and areas of harmony and balance. They show you where you are so that you can decide where you want to be and how you can choose to get there.
Working on balancing the nervous system is like peeling the layers of an onion, some sting more than others, and when the layers are complete and put to good use, they burst with life. Take it slow. Life is not a race, we all have the same ending. Enjoy your journey with a balanced mind, body, and spirit.
I remind myself sometimes that the nervous system is a reflection of life. If I want to do more or do less, I need to adjust my nervous system accordingly.
This goes for all directions in life. If you want a new job or career, the nervous system needs to shift to accommodate the new energy. Will it be more fast-paced, or will it slow down? If you want a relationship after being single, the nervous system needs to shift to let someone in, communicate, compromise, and give and receive healthily. If you want to go skydiving for your 50th birthday, your nervous system needs to shift to overcome the fear of jumping.
In a world that desperately needs to shift for the benefit of all, that shift only begins with the individuals who inhabit this earth. If we shift the system of the self toward more mindfulness and awareness in a healthy capacity, then we have the power to shift the system around us, too.
After reading this, I hope you have a better idea of where your nervous system is right now. I pray these tools, combined with your favourites, will help you in those moments of expansion and growth.
Join me on my YouTube channel or for a live event to practice Yoga Nidra with me. I know it will help you in the powerful way it has helped me and many practitioners.
Read more from Johnna Key
Johnna Key, Spiritual Guide & Teacher
Johnna Key is a certified Yoga, Meditation guide, & Spiritual Teacher, leading others to calibrate their nervous system and ease overwhelm within the mind. Derived from her experience in the Western medicine system as a child and divorce from a narcissistic relationship as an adult, Johnna has learned and implemented tools to heal the mind, body, & spirit from traumatic experiences to exit karmic loops and generational patterns. Her passion is teaching others to find self-acceptance for their experiences and the emotions or perspectives that can surface. It's her passion to help others calm a busy mind, ease the tension in the body, and learn to meditate to find joy and self-worth in the journey we call life.
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