Holiday stress is real, and it can put your nervous system on overdrive. If you’re craving a sense of calm after the holidays, use these habits for a full nervous system reset.
The holidays are full of good things — wrapping gifts, cooking from scratch, decorating the house, and keeping kids fed and entertained while they’re home from school. But the stretch between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is busy in a different way.
Full days, little downtime, and nonstop motion can leave your body craving a moment of calm. This is especially true for people who already struggle with nervous system dysregulation. If you want to feel calmer going into the new year, here are ten easy ways to reset your nervous system (and the science behind why we do it).
Signs Your Nervous System Needs a Little TLC
Any looming danger to our physical bodies, like chronic illness, long-term anxiety, fasting, chemical stressors, and isolation, can trigger the nervous system — even if they don’t trigger the brain. So, if you think to yourself, “I don’t feel stressed,” that’s not always a good argument.
Instead, take a look at these symptoms of nervous system dysfunction. If these sound like you, there may be some primal stressors in your environment that you haven’t considered.
Here are some common symptoms of nervous system dysregulation:
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Muscle tension
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Trouble falling asleep
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Frequent dissociation
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Anxiety attacks
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Trouble shutting off your brain
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Poor memory or brain fog
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Difficulty concentrating on tasks
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Being late to events
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Emotional avoidance
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Noise or light sensitivity
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Digestive issues
Resetting Your Nervous System Is All About Safety Signaling
Sure, there are plenty of fast hacks you can use to calm your body in a stressful moment. Chewing ice, box breathing, or singing are all popular recommendations, and they do work. The problem is, they’re temporary solutions. None of these hacks will undo months (or years) of chronic stress and dysregulation.
Think about it this way: the nervous system is resilient, and it’s built to handle everyday mishaps. That’s its job. So, if you find yourself Googling quick fixes for emotional numbing or chronic anxiety, what you really need is a commitment to slowing down.
That’s easier said than done, right? But there’s science behind it. The goal behind your nervous system hacks is safety signaling. Essentially, we want to move our bodies into parasympathetic mode by shifting outside factors that help us identify primal safety. This looks like prioritizing whole foods, eliminating “predator-like” threats, and immersing ourselves in community.
Feeling the Post-Holiday Chaos? Here Are 10 Ways to Reset Your Nervous System
Pair these nervous system habits with a commitment to slow down and prioritize your primal health.
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Book a massage
Let’s slow down your heart rate and release that post-holiday muscle tension. Massages are a natural way to reduce cortisol levels and trigger feel-good hormones, like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. When you book yours, just make sure it’s with a massage therapist you trust. Ask about the ingredients in their massage oils and aromatherapy products, too.
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Reset community spaces
Especially for women, household clutter can trigger the nervous system. It’s a form of low-grade chronic stress that keeps you on edge in the space that’s supposed to feel safest. Get your family involved and do a full home reset. Put Christmas presents away, toss the crumpled wrapping paper, and clear the counters. Blast some Christmas music and make it a holiday tradition.
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Embrace calming essential oils
Our ancestors knew that herb and plant scents could invoke a sense of calm. Scents are not only attached to our memory, but they also help us process emotions. Our favorite essential oils for stress relief include chamomile, lavender, lemon (great for winter blues), jasmine, and rose.
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Turn off your phone
It’s not just the blue light that produces chronic stress. Social media is designed to keep you scrolling with the same “risk and reward” cycle used at casinos. This flood of dopamine can overwhelm the brain and disrupt its natural stress response. Simply locking your phone in a drawer and building healthy habits around it should reduce a sense of chronic overwhelm.
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Lean into routines
After the holidays, we’re all craving a little routine. It turns out, routine is good for our nervous system, too. It uses patterns that our brains recognize, building a sense of safety in the familiar. Bringing back routine doesn’t mean you have to let go of holiday cheer, either. Just lean into the habits that your body is craving — a gentle workout routine, timely meals, and family time.
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Reconnect with nature
Too much time indoors disconnects us from the primal cues that calm our nervous system. Chirping birds, swaying trees, and wide-open spaces are ways that our body signals safety. Commit to spending just a few minutes outside, perhaps on an afternoon walk, even if it’s cold outside.
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Try somatic movement
If you tend to feel stress in your body (i.e., hip tension or jaw clenching), somatic movement can help you move it out. Somatics use a combination of gentle stretching, body grounding, shaking, and breathwork to restore connection between the brain and body. If it feels weird, that’s totally normal. But animals use shaking movements to handle their stress, too.
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Prioritize meal times and whole foods
It’s the holiday season (aka snacking season). There’s the cheese plate, cinnamon buns, and turkey leftovers hanging out in the fridge — and little routine to keep you eating on a schedule. But regular meal times do signal safety to your body. Eat the turkey, but make a conscious decision to stop snacking and fill your plate at the appropriate time.
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Take a warm bath
Warm water, calming herbal scents, and your bathroom door closed to the Christmas chaos. Sounds like heaven. Your nervous system appreciates a good bath, too. It helps to slow the heart rate, relax tense muscles, and even stimulate the vagus nerve. Pair your bathtime with other nervous system habits, like calming essential oils, face massages, and routine skincare.
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Notice ruminating thoughts (and try to stop them)
Did you know you can actually be addicted to your own stress hormones? This is why regulating your nervous system feels like such a tall order for people who live in chronic stress. The body learns a pattern, and then it feels safe within that pattern. It learns to depend on high levels of cortisol, dopamine, and other chemicals released during stressful events.
Ruminating thoughts may be a sign of stress hormone addiction. It’s your body’s way of mentally holding the pattern, even when you’re physically in a safe space. This can look like a constant to-do list, always being late to events (and stressing about it), or racing thoughts at bedtime. When you notice ruminating thoughts and redirect them, you teach your body how to feel safe again.
Your New Year’s Self-Care Set
Jumpstart your New Year’s skincare routine with our Skincare Starter Set. You’ll reintroduce daily rhythm without making big decisions about which ingredients are “safe enough.” It’s all here for you in one click, no decision fatigue necessary.
Your New Favorite Nervous System Habit