I have been paying more attention recently to how my body reacts to stress. Not the dramatic kind of stress where everything is falling apart, but the normal, everyday pressure that builds from work, responsibilities, expectations, and the general pace of modern life. It is the kind of stress you can push through without noticing how much it affects your body.
What I have realised is that the nervous system plays a much bigger role in these moments than I ever understood. When the nervous system is tense, small situations feel heavier than they need to be. When the nervous system is calm, the exact same situations feel manageable. The difference is not about mental strength. It is about what state your body is in.
Over the past year I have taken time to experiment with different ways of settling my nervous system when stress rises. These are five practices that consistently help me return to a steadier baseline. None of them are complicated, yet each one has changed how I respond when life feels too fast or too demanding.
1. Breathwork: Using the Exhale to Settle Your System
Breathing is usually the first thing that shifts when stress arrives. It becomes faster, shallower, and tighter without you realising it. One of the easiest ways to calm the nervous system is to make the exhale longer than the inhale. A simple pattern is four seconds in and six seconds out. I use it whenever I notice tension building or when my mind feels crowded.
A longer exhale signals safety to the body. Your heart rate slows, your muscles loosen, and your internal state becomes more grounded. It is a small adjustment that has a noticeable effect, especially when stress begins to rise.
If you want to see how breathwork helped me in a real high-pressure situation, this article walks through it:
What My First Judo Class Taught Me About Staying Calm Under Pressure
2. High Intensity Movement: Releasing Excess Energy Before You Try to Calm Down
Sometimes slow breathing is difficult because the nervous system is already too activated. You feel restless, wired, or full of nervous tension. In these moments, trying to calm down directly can feel almost impossible.
Short bursts of high intensity movement can help release that excess energy. It might be twenty seconds of sprinting, a quick round of burpees, or a fast set on the skipping rope. It is not a workout. It is simply a way to let the body complete the stress response. Once some of that energy is out, the calmer practices become far more effective.
I have noticed that when I discharge the physical tension first, breathwork and meditation work much faster afterward.
3. Meditation: Creating Space Between the Feeling and the Reaction
Meditation has taught me how much of stress is simply a lack of space between what I feel and how I react. I do short sessions most days, usually five minutes or less. I sit quietly and notice what is happening in my body without trying to fix anything.
What this does is build awareness of early signals. I can sense the beginning of jaw tension or chest tightness before it becomes something larger. That awareness gives me a chance to redirect my response. Meditation is less about becoming calm and more about noticing what is happening inside you before it spills outward.
Meditation also pairs well with a simple morning routine built for emotional steadiness:
A Three Step Morning Routine for Mental Resilience and Emotional Stability
4. Nature Walking: Resetting Your System by Changing the Environment
When I feel overstimulated, walking outside almost always helps. It does not need to be a long walk. Ten or twenty minutes is enough. Being around trees, open space, or natural light seems to shift my internal state in a way that feels very different from staying indoors.
Nature has a rhythm that gently slows the nervous system. Visual patterns are softer, sounds are more predictable, and the overall environment is less demanding. I try to keep my phone in my pocket and just pay attention to the movement of walking. My breathing usually settles on its own, and the mind becomes clearer without much effort.
5. Journaling: Organising the Mind So the Body Can Follow
Journaling has been surprisingly helpful for calming the nervous system because it brings clarity to what is actually happening. A psychologist taught me a simple framework that I still use:
What is the situation that triggered me
Write it down as plainly as possible without adding personal interpretation.
What is my emotional brain telling me
Notice the thought pattern or emotional reaction that came up.
What would my rational brain say
Look at the evidence and consider alternative explanations. Think about how you would view the same situation if someone else described it to you.
Separating the emotional response from the interpretation makes everything feel more manageable. Once thoughts are clearer, the body often relaxes naturally. Sometimes I write this down, other times I talk it out loud, and sometimes I journal into ChatGPT when I need help sorting through it. The point is to untangle the knot rather than just sit in it.
A Simple Way to Think About These Tools
After using these practices for a while, I have found they all fall into three categories.
Downshifting: breathwork, meditation, nature walking
Discharging: short bursts of physical intensity
Decoding: journaling and reflection
Each category helps in a different way. Some settle the nervous system, some release tension, and some create clarity. Choosing the right one for the situation can make stress easier to handle.
If you want a simple daily practice that combines several of these ideas, this has become part of my routine:
Why Cold Showers Have Helped Me Build Mental Resilience