5 Ways to Calm Yourself Down When Dysregulated
Book Recommendation: The Body Keeps The Score; by Bessel Van Der Folk
When we are triggered or dysregulated, we often default into our defense mechanism on how to calm down. For some people this is fight, flight, freeze or fawn. When our nervous system is dysregulated, it is really really hard to manage our emotions and try to get back to neutral.
When we are dysregulated and triggered, our nervous system is on high alert and we often speed up. That means our heart rate, our thoughts our sense of urgency, all of it.
These are a few signs you might be dysregulated that you didn’t know:
Everything feels urgent
You wake up feeling anxious or stressed
Low energy
Sleep is disturbed
You can’t concentrate
You react intensely to triggers to and blow up or shut down
You feel out of control
So we recognize we are dysregulated, what do we do?
Shake it out – Imagine a wet dog and how they have to shake every single part of their body to try and get the water off. Do this to your own body 5 times. Then notice how you feel. When we use somatic movements, we help get our body back to equilibrium.
5,4,3,2,1 – Use the 5 senses if you are in a high state of dysregulation. Name 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can feel, 2 things you can hear, and 1 thing you can taste. This brings up back to present and stops the anxious or overwhelming thoughts that are reinforcing the dysregulation.
Use Temperature- Use cold to activate the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system. This will help induce feelings of calm and relaxation because your vagus nerve is triggered with cold water. So splash cold water on your face, chug cold ice water, put ice packs on your wrists and back of the neck, or ideally dunk your head in a bucket/sink of very cold water.
Use touch- Ask someone who you are comfortable with to squeeze you in a hug. You can also use a weighted blanket if you don’t want to be touched, but have a squeezing sensation or the weight can help calm our nervous system and is kind of like an adult swaddle. Humans crave physical touch and it can help make us feel safe to calm down.
Get outside- As humans we are automatically grounded in nature. So get outside, go for a mindful walk or run. Go dip your toes in the sand or water, even just stepping into the top step of the pool or walking barefoot on your grass. Having sunshine, wind and the natural smells of the outdoors helps our nervous system come back down.
Getting dysregulated at times happens for all of us!! We are human, so give yourself grace and remember that there are ways we can help ourselves through this. Getting support from someone who you trust or feel comfortable with is huge as well.
Thanks for checking out the blog, any comments feel free to write them here! Keep a look out for next month’s post!
