How to Calm an Overstimulated Nervous System

 

Stress is what you feel when your body demands an immediate physiological adaptation to survive. The motivator hormones cause a very specific feeling with the purpose of motivating you into action. The survival response in a human is the same as in an animal, but we have the added ability to generate stressful events in our mind. In this instance, the body releases hormones as if the events were real. Or in the case of a lessor threat – such as a threat to your ego – as if it were a threat to your life.

 

Your body moves into a state of stress, primed for action to keep you alive, and you do nothing. Depending on your imagination, this sustained psychological stress can last for weeks, months, or even years. You can enter this state of stress by thinking about work pressures, financial difficulties, relationship issues, or persistent health concerns. This impacts the body and can lead to nervous system dysregulation.

 

 

 

The Short-Term Benefits and Long-Term Risks of Stress

 

The stress response has a beneficial effect, particularly in the short term. The process involves the redirection of your energy from storage and to your muscles so you can fight immediate danger. It aids redistribution of oxygen and nutrients to the parts of your body that need it, and it changes your behaviour beneficially. It also helps in future encounters by recording the stressful circumstance and the responses that kept you alive. Therefore, mild stress can improve fitness. On the contrary, strong stress, even in miniature form, such as intense exercise or repeatedly enduring exposure to stressors, can lead to a maladaptive stress response. This is chronic stress, which causes harmful physiological effects.

 

 

How Your Body Tries to Keep You Safe

 

The brain’s purpose is to keep you alive and make meaning of being alive. It evolved to survive – and it does so by keeping your body in homeostasis. This is your body’s attempt to maintain internal stability, for example maintaining a steady level of blood sugar or maintaining your temperature at 37°C. This is a natural process that evolved to the natural environment.

 

The behavioural strategy requires continuously updating a set of specific “shopping lists” that document the growing need for each key component (warmth, food, salt, water). Your brain uses the carrot and stick metaphor to drive you towards meeting your need. The stick corresponds to the sense of anxiety, and the carrot to the sense of pleasure. This design ensures the brain doesn’t forget the anxieties (threats) and keeps the pleasures brief to keep the brain alert to the next threat.

 

What Happens in the Body During Anxiety

 

The stress response has two components. One that acts quickly, which the sympathetic nervous system takes charge of, and a slower response controlled by the HPA axis. In a stressful moment – whether real or imagined – the sympathetic nervous system triggers a release of adrenaline, noradrenaline, and dopamine. The slower acting secondary part of the stress response begins in the hypothalamus, which secretes corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH). This triggers the release of ACTH – corticotropin – from the pituitary gland, which triggers the release of glucocorticoids – cortisol – from the adrenal cortex. Cortisol increases your blood pressure and suppresses your immune system, keeping your body in a hyper-alert state.

 

These hormones affect you physically, such as constricting your blood vessels and increasing your heart rate. This is why you may fear a heart attack during severe anxiety. At the same time as the hormone release, your thinking brain – the prefrontal cortex – begins to switch off. This prevents you from functioning in a normal way. You may find it difficult to complete tasks you usually find simple, like getting out of bed or getting dressed. Self-reflection and positive thinking become particularly challenging.

 

Why Your Brain Can’t Tell the Difference Between Real and Imagined Threats

 

The primitive part of your brain is in charge, and it does not consider conscious thought. When you experience a threat to your life (real or perceived), your brain responds quickly and efficiently to save your life. The human brain cannot differentiate between real and imaginary threats. When you witness or imagine a traumatic event, whether through direct experience, storytelling, or watching TV, your brain reacts as though you’re there.

 

If it perceives the event as life-threatening, it will file it as such. Anytime you encounter something linked to that experience, whether real or imagined, the amygdala in your brain will trigger a survival response to protect you.

 

 

The Mismatch: Ancestral Systems in a Modern World

 

This stress response turns on regardless of the stressor. It evolved to protect you from predators and anything else that threatens survival: starvation, exposure to extreme climates, rough terrain, injury, infection, or even exclusion from the tribe.

 

In a world where movement is optional, nourishment is processed, you get minimal sleep, purpose feels vague, and connection is fractured, our ancient systems keep firing. Constant adaptation has negative effects on your body. You have a functioning hunter-gatherer brain trying to do its job in an environment designed for robots.

 

How Hypnotherapy Can Help

 

Hypnotherapy offers a powerful way to move your body out of the stress response and back into balance. When you use hypnosis, your brain waves slow down – closer to the levels experienced in sleep – and your body moves into a calmer state. In this state, your thinking brain functions more clearly, and what once felt overwhelming can feel manageable. You can identify triggers, reframe previous experiences, and anchor calm responses so that stress no longer dictates your reactions. Even without formal hypnotherapy, self-hypnosis at home can help your nervous system relearn how to live without feeling constantly on alert.

 

The power of hypnotherapy is its ability to reduce stress and help you regain control. Whether you’re managing a deadline, performance anxiety, or long-term internal tension, hypnotherapy helps you take back the reins. It offers personalised techniques to meet your needs. For those who can’t access in-person support, daily use of audio recordings can make a significant difference. With practice, hypnosis becomes a familiar place to return to – a tool to help you navigate life’s challenges with greater clarity and calm.

 

 

How to Calm an Overstimulated Nervous System and Overcome Anxiety

 

Anxiety is a feature of a highly adapted system responding to an overstimulating world. While the causes may be complex, your body often needs something simple, repeatable, and embodied to begin to settle.

 

Here are five evidence-informed exercises to regulate your nervous system and restore your sense of internal safety.

 

1. Box Breathing (to engage your parasympathetic nervous system)

This breath work technique reduces sympathetic arousal and lowers cortisol.

Try this:

• Inhale through your nose for a count of 4
• Hold your breath for 4
• Exhale slowly through your mouth for 4
• Hold again for 4
• Repeat for 3–5 minutes

This helps shift your body from fight-or-flight into rest-and-digest mode.

 

2. Orienting (to remind your brain you’re not in danger)

A gentle somatic practice to settle the amygdala by using the environment.

Try this:

• Turn your head slowly and look around the room or space you’re in.
• Let your gaze rest on anything that feels pleasant or neutral – light on a wall, a leaf, a colour.
• Say silently: “I am here. This is now.”
• Repeat for 2–3 minutes.

Your survival brain often needs visual proof that you’re safe before it lets go.

 

3. Movement with Completion (to discharge adrenaline)

Your ancestors ran or fought when anxious – now we freeze in front of emails.

Try this:

• Shake your arms and legs as if you’re shaking off water.
• Do 30 seconds of marching in place or gentle star jumps.
• Finish by placing a hand over your heart and taking a deep breath.

Even 60 seconds of purposeful movement can complete an otherwise “stuck” stress response.

 

4. Rewild Your Attention (to calm an overstimulated nervous system)

Your brain evolved to focus on wind, warmth, and faces.

Try this:

• Take 10 minutes in nature. If you can’t get outside, look out the window at something natural.
• Notice three sensory things: what you see, hear, and feel.
• Breathe slowly, and imagine you’re syncing with the rhythm of the earth beneath you.

Nature recalibrates your internal clock. It’s a biological need.

 

5. Safe Visualisation (using your imagination as medicine)

Because your brain responds to imagined safety the same way it responds to imagined danger.

Try this:

• Close your eyes and imagine a place where you feel completely safe.
• It could be real or imagined – a forest, a childhood memory, even a fictional place.
• Use all your senses. What does it smell like? How does the air feel?
• Spend 5–10 minutes there, breathing slowly.

This practice builds new neural pathways that associate your internal state with calm instead of threat.

 

Take Away

Your brain works well – as per the textbook! Your nervous system evolved to survive in a completely different environment to the one you put it into each day. These exercises won’t “fix” anxiety, but they will help you understand how to calm an overstimulated nervous system. 

 

 

 

 

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My journey over 16 years has taught me that true knowledge isn’t about the letters after my name or the timeline of my academic pursuits. It’s about the stories shared, the moments of vulnerability, and the human connection that transforms both you and me. It’s holding space, listening intently, and noticing the patterns within your words and emotions.

Together, we can navigate the complexities of life, embracing both the shadow and the light. So, if you’re seeking more than just a quick fix, and ready to make lasting changes, you’re in the right place. Let’s embark on this journey together. To read more about hypnotherapy for stress relief click and read more about my approach here.