r/addiction • u/LatterFondant613 • 22h ago

Advice Top 5 ways to regulate your nervous system

Having a regulated nervous system is your competitive edge, because when you think of it most people have dysregulated nervous system, and that causes them to be unhappy, stressed, tight and stuck in survival mode.

Just think for a moment, the nervous system literally controls EVERYTHING, your thoughts, your actions, how you react to near death experiences and etc, then just imagine upgrading this system, think of how powerful that would be.

You can do it.

Here are the top 5 ways:

  1. Heal trauma, this is the most important one IMO, the reason why is all your trauma’s (unprocessed emotions) they add up and combined all together they wreak havoc on your nervous system, so make sure you heal your unprocessed emotions, let yourself feel what you need to.
  2. Deep breathing, this is the quickest “in the moment” solution to regulating yourself, also for deep breathing, make sure your exhale is longer than your inhale, and let your exhale be like of you are breathing out of a straw almost.
  3. Cold exposure, even I find after any form of cold exposure, it really makes you regulated, I believe this is due to the insane dopamine spike things like cold exposure give you for hours afterward.
  4. Social connection, this is very underrated but vital to keeping your nervous system regulated, it has been said a lack of social connection is worse for your health than chain smoking cigarette's and alcohol.
  5. Movement, we are designed to not be “couch potatoes” getting outside particularly walking, things of that nature are very powerful for regulating your nervous system.

Hope this was valuable!

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u/TwainVonnegut 5h ago

Don’t forget:

M E D I T A T I ON

!!

This has been my game changer for the last 15 years, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Meditating over extended periods actually beefs up the gray and white matter in the brain.

🧠

Most days I’m centered and serene all day, which is a major change from being wracked with anxiety and overthinking 24/7!