Reset & Regulate

Practice Companion

Simple practices to help you reconnect with your body, steady your nervous system, and meet life with more presence, compassion, and agency.

This guide brings together many of the practices we explored throughout the Reset & Regulate series.

Rather than organizing them by day, these tools are gathered here so you can return to the ones that feel most supportive whenever you need them.

At their heart, these practices are about reconnecting with the intelligence of your body.

Many of us have learned to live primarily in our thoughts while our nervous systems quietly carry the weight of stress, old experiences, and the constant pace of life. Over time, this can leave us feeling reactive, overwhelmed, or disconnected from our natural steadiness.

These practices offer simple ways to come back to yourself.

By bringing attention to the body, the breath, and the deeper rhythms of your nervous system, you begin to create more space between what happens and how you respond.

And in that space, choice becomes possible.

This is where compassion, grit, and agency come together.

Compassion allows us to meet ourselves exactly where we are, without judgment for the ways our bodies have learned to survive.

Grit is the willingness to stay present and continue practicing, even when things feel unfamiliar or uncomfortable.

Agency reminds us that while we cannot control everything life brings, we can develop greater choice in how we meet those experiences.

These practices are not about fixing yourself or becoming someone different.

They are about remembering that you are capable, adaptable, and far more resourced than you may have been taught to believe.

With time and steady practice, a deeper sense of clarity, resilience, and self-trust begins to grow.

How to Practice

The practices in this guide are designed to be simple and repeatable.

As a general guideline, explore each practice for three to five minutes. This is often enough time for the nervous system to begin shifting states.

At the same time, allow your body to guide you. Some days a shorter practice may feel right, and other days you may want to stay longer.

After completing any exercise, take a pause for integration.

Allow yourself a moment of stillness before moving on.

Notice what has shifted in your body.

Rather than immediately returning to thinking or doing, take a few moments to savor the new sensory experience the practice created.

These pauses help the nervous system register the experience and support the formation of new patterns of regulation.

Returning to the Body

Many people have learned to orient toward safety primarily through the external world — through thinking, planning, monitoring others, or managing their environment.

For some, reconnecting with the body may initially feel unfamiliar.

Simple physical practices help reintroduce the body as a place of grounding, support, and awareness.

One of the most powerful ways to support nervous system regulation is to allow the body to remember how to rest into its natural structure.

Rather than relying on muscular tension to hold ourselves together, we can begin to settle into the deeper support of the skeletal system.

The following practices help reawaken awareness of the body and invite the system to shift from effort toward support.

Bone Tapping

Bone tapping stimulates circulation, wakes up sensory awareness, and encourages movement through the skeletal and lymphatic systems.

Using loose fists or fingertips, gently tap along the bones of the body.

Areas to include:

• arms
• shoulders
• chest
• ribcage
• hips
• legs

Move slowly and allow your awareness to follow the tapping.

This practice can help interrupt cycles of mental overactivity and bring attention back into the body.

Smoothing Caress

After tapping, pause and allow the body to settle.

Using slow, gentle strokes of the hands, smooth along the surface of the skin.

You might move along:

• the arms
• the chest
• the abdomen
• the legs

Let the touch be slow and reassuring, allowing the nervous system to shift from stimulation toward regulation.

This simple gesture reinforces a sense of self-contact, safety, and containment.

Shaking

Shaking is a natural way for the body to discharge excess activation.

Stand with your feet grounded and begin gently shaking the body.

Allow the movement to travel through:

• arms
• shoulders
• torso
• hips
• legs
• jaw

Let the movement be loose and playful rather than controlled.

Continue for one to five minutes.

Shaking helps release accumulated tension and can help reset the nervous system when stress or activation builds.

You may find it especially helpful after intense emotional experiences or stressful moments.

During particularly demanding or complex days, returning to this practice several times throughout the day can help the body discharge tension and restore a sense of balance.

Supporting the Lymphatic System

The lymphatic system plays an important role in immune function, detoxification, and overall physiological balance.

Unlike the circulatory system, lymph does not have its own pump. It moves through movement, breath, and gentle stimulation.

Supporting lymphatic flow can help the body process stress more effectively.

Lymphatic Flush

Begin by stimulating the lymphatic termini near the collarbones, starting on the left side.

Then move through the following sequence:

• collarbones
• underarms
• ribcage
• solar plexus (gentle J-shaped pressure)
• kidney tapping along the back body
• groin
• backs of the knees
• ankles
• feet

Then move back up the body:

• jaw
• front and back of the ears
• behind the hairline
• top of the head

Finish by returning again to the termini at the collarbones.

Breath Practices

The breath is one of the simplest and most powerful ways we can support the nervous system.

When we feel stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, the breath often becomes shallow or restricted without us even noticing. This is part of the body’s natural survival response.

By gently bringing awareness back to the breath, we can begin to signal safety to the nervous system and create more space inside the body.

Sometimes this means slowing the breath. Other times it means expanding areas of the body that feel tight or compressed.

Small shifts in breathing can help the body settle, soften muscular holding, and allow sensation and emotion to move more freely.

The following breath practices are simple ways to reconnect with the natural rhythm of your breath and support regulation in the body.

Box Breath

Inhale for four counts
Pause for four counts
Exhale for four counts
Pause for four counts

Repeat for several cycles.

Expansion Breath

Bring awareness to a place in the body that feels tight or constricted.

As you inhale, gently amplify awareness of the sensation.

As you exhale, imagine the sensation spreading outward in every direction, creating more space around it.

From an energetic perspective, anxiety can be understood as compressed fear that has not yet found space to move.

This breath practice helps the body expand the space around that compression.

Pelvic Diaphragm Breathing

As you exhale, imagine the pelvic diaphragm softening into a gentle bowl shape.

Allow the body to relax downward and trust the strength and support of your body.

Ribcage Breathing

Inhale and allow the sides of the ribcage to expand outward.

Exhale normally and allow the ribs to soften.

Creating Safety in the Body

There are times when the nervous system needs a little extra support to settle.

When we feel overwhelmed, anxious, or activated, the body can lose its sense of internal safety. In those moments, simple gestures of contact, warmth, movement, and sound can help the system remember that it is supported.

Gentle touch, slow movement, and soothing sound communicate directly with the nervous system. These signals can soften muscular tension, deepen the breath, and invite the body to shift toward regulation.

As you explore these practices, move slowly and stay connected to your own experience. Let your body guide the pace, and take time to notice any shifts that arise.

Small spiraling, circling, rocking, or swaying movements can be especially supportive while doing these exercises. The body often settles more easily when movement is soft, rhythmic, and circular.

You may also add vagal toning to any of these practices. This can be done by making a gentle closed-mouth “mmm” sound, humming softly, or allowing a low supportive tone or quiet moan to arise naturally.

These sounds help stimulate the vagus nerve and encourage the body to settle more deeply into regulation.

Butterfly Hug

Place your hands across your chest with your thumbs crossed so that your hands form the shape of butterfly wings.

Rest the hands just below the collarbones.

Begin gently patting the chest in a slow, rhythmic way. You may alternate the hands or tap both hands at the same time.

Allow the tapping to gradually move around the chest area, exploring where the body feels most receptive.

You might also allow the body to sway, rock, or make small circular movements while tapping.

Adding a soft closed-mouth “mmm” sound or gentle humming can deepen the calming effect of the practice.

Safety Hug

Place one hand underneath the opposite underarm and wrap the other arm across the body, gently holding yourself.

Allow the body to soften inward into a comfortable shape of support.

From here you might gently rock back and forth, spiral through the torso, or move in slow circles.

You can also add vagal toning by humming softly, making a closed-mouth “mmm” sound, or allowing a low supportive tone to arise as you move.

Move slowly and allow the body to find its own rhythm of rocking or circling.

Chest Soothing

Begin by rubbing your hands together until they feel warm.

Then place your hands on the chest and slowly rub or stroke the area in a soothing way, similar to how you might comfort a child.

Let the touch be slow and reassuring.

You may also allow gentle spiraling or rocking movements through the body while you do this.

Adding a soft hum or low supportive sound can help deepen the settling response and stimulate the vagus nerve.

Warmth, movement, and sound together can help soften muscular tension and invite the nervous system toward regulation.

Energy Body Regulation

Working with the energy system can support containment, organization, and healthy energetic boundaries.

Energy is the fundamental building block of all experience. When we shift the way energy moves through the body, our physical and emotional experience can begin to shift as well.

Practices that work with the astral chakras and subtle energy system help create pathways for emotional charge to move rather than remain held in the body.

By learning to work with these subtle structures, we can give unintegrated emotions a place to go, allowing them to metabolize and move through the system.

Over time, this helps the body process emotional experiences more completely. Rather than continually reacting to old, unintegrated charges, we gain greater capacity to meet what is happening in the present moment.

This process supports greater clarity, emotional resilience, and a deeper sense of personal agency.

Grounding Cord

Connect to the first astral chakra.

For women, this point is located between the ovaries.
For men, it is located at the tip of the tailbone.

Imagine the chakra spinning downward and opening slightly.

Create a green ball of light in the pelvic bowl and allow it to drop downward toward the center of the earth.

Allow energetic tendrils from the reproductive organs and sciatic nerves to connect into the grounding cord.

This practice helps create a sense of containment, safety, and energetic boundaries.

Golden Orb Stabilization

Imagine a sphere of golden light resting above the crown of your head.

Allow this light to help organize and stabilize the upper energy centers, supporting clarity and self-containment bringing you back to present time.

Setting the Astral Aura

Imagine a small mechanism about three feet above your head.

When activated, it releases liquid golden light that coats the entire auric field.

The aura extends roughly three feet in every direction around the body.

This golden layer creates differentiation between your energy and the surrounding environment and supports a sense of organization and energetic boundaries.

Real-Time Anxiety Regulation

Sometimes anxiety arises in moments when we still need to remain present and composed — during a difficult conversation, while speaking in front of a group, or in situations that require us to stay steady even though the nervous system has become activated.

In these moments, simple tools can help support the body while you move through the experience.

Examples include:

• dropping a grounding cord
• expanding peripheral vision
• lengthening the exhale
• squeezing and releasing the palms
• creating saliva and swallowing

These small actions stimulate the vagus nerve and help signal safety to the nervous system.

Whenever possible, once the stressful moment has passed, take a few minutes to let the body discharge the activationthat was created.

Animals naturally do this after moments of stress — they shake, tremble, or move their bodies to release the surge of adrenaline and cortisol that helped them respond to the situation.

We are animals, too, and our nervous systems also benefit from movement.

If you can, excuse yourself and find a private space for a few moments and shake it out.

Let the whole body move:

• shake the hands and wrists
• shake the arms and shoulders
• bounce or stomp the feet
• allow the torso and hips to move
• gently shake the head if it feels natural

Let the movement be loose and expressive rather than controlled. Follow the rhythm that your body wants to find.

This kind of movement helps the body metabolize the stress response and allows the nervous system to return more easily to a state of safety and balance.

Even a few minutes of shaking can make a meaningful difference in how the body settles after stress.

Glimmer Awareness

Where attention goes, life force follows.

One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves is learning to notice and celebrate the moments that are going well in our lives.

Many of us have been conditioned to focus on what is wrong, what needs fixing, or how we should be improving. While that orientation can sometimes be useful, it can also train the nervous system to constantly scan for problems or threats.

Glimmer awareness gently shifts this pattern.

A glimmer is the opposite of a trigger. It is a small moment when something feels nourishing, meaningful, supportive, or simply good

Some examples are:

• the taste of a delicious meal
• the refreshment of a glass of water
• warmth from sunlight
• a moment of connection with another person
• recognizing that you handled something well
• a breath of relief or ease

This practice is rooted in principles from polyvagal theory, which shows us that the nervous system learns through experience.

When we pause and bring our attention to moments of safety, connection, or appreciation, we help the nervous system recognize and strengthen those pathways.

The key is not only to notice the glimmer, but to let it land in the body.

When you identify a glimmer, pause for a moment and allow yourself to feel it fully. Let the sensation spread through your body — perhaps softening the chest, warming the belly, or creating a sense of ease.

Stay with the experience for 20–30 seconds, allowing the body to register it.

Over time, this practice gently retrains the nervous system to orient toward what is supportive and life-giving, rather than automatically focusing on what is wrong.

In this way, we begin to cultivate a deeper sense of resilience, appreciation, and trust in ourselves and in our lives.

Staying With Yourself

The work of regulation and embodiment is not about becoming perfect or never feeling stress, anxiety, or discomfort.

It is about learning how to stay with yourself as life unfolds.

Each time you return to the body, take a conscious breath, notice a glimmer, or support your nervous system through movement or touch, you are strengthening the pathways that allow you to meet life with greater steadiness.

These practices help the body metabolize experience so that you are responding to what is happening now, rather than being carried by old patterns or unintegrated emotional charge.

This is where compassion, grit, and agency come together.

Compassion helps you meet yourself with kindness.

Grit helps you stay present when things feel difficult.

Agency reminds you that you always have choices in how you care for yourself and how you move forward.

Over time, these small acts of attention and presence become a profound form of self-trust.

And from that place, life can be met with greater clarity, resilience, and freedom.