You set an alarm for 6 a.m., mainline your coffee, answer 47 messages before 9 a.m., sit through back-to-back meetings, scroll through dinner and collapse into bed – still wired. You’re exhausted but can’t switch off. Sound familiar? According to statistics, you’re in the majority. A 2024 ISPA Consumer Snapshot Report found that 60% of spagoers want to specifically reduce stress. According to experts, feeling fried sunnyside down isn’t a willpower problem or a sleep hygiene issue, it’s a nervous system problem. Social media agrees: videos on TikTok and Instagram depicting different ways of achieving nervous system regulation have gone viral, racking in hundreds of millions of views.
But experts say the solution isn’t necessarily a meditation app or a digital detox. A growing body of neuroscience suggests that small, consistent practices woven into your day can genuinely reset your body’s stress response, and help reclaim your zest for life. Here’s what you need to know about the buzzy nervous system regulation practices.
Meet the experts: Dr Montsheng Letsoalo is a Trauma Specialist and Social Neuroscientist at the Trauma Neuro Institute of South Africa. Corinne Badenhorst is a Psychiatric Occupational Therapist specialising in creative therapeutic interventions at NeuroSync Academy. Dr Albé Fourie is a Psychologist, specialising in Somatic Experiencing, SOMA, Brainspotting and Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) at WildGeeseFly in KwaZulu-Natal & Gauteng. Jeanae Dumas is the co-founder and sauna master at One Flow Yoga and Wellness Social Club in Cape Town.
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What is the nervous system, actually?
If the movie Inside Out were for doctors, then the command centre would be renamed The Central Nervous System – because that’s what it is: a massive network of nerves and cells that carries signals between your brain and the rest of your body. For the purposes of achieving zen, the MVP is the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which controls important functions like your heartbeat, digestion, and breathing. “It also plays a significant role in how we show up in life – whether we feel open, creative and engaged, or whether we feel overwhelmed and begin to shrink to cope or fit,” says Corinne Badenhorst, a Psychiatric Occupational Therapist specialising in creative therapeutic interventions at NeuroSync Academy.
The ANS has two main modes:
Sympathetic (‘fight or flight’): Your body’s emergency mode. Think: heart rate spikes, muscles tense and digestion pauses. It’s brilliant when you need to swerve your car or sprint for the last seat in a train – but deeply draining when it runs chronically in the background.
Parasympathetic (‘rest and digest’): Your recovery function. Heart rate slows, digestion resumes, your mind clears. This is where healing, hormonal balance and genuine rest can happen.
The problem? Experts maintain that modern life – and our continued desire to tech our way deeper into it – is designed to keep you in the former. Notification pings, looming deadlines, overpacked schedules and constant digital availability mean many people never fully shift into recovery mode. In the long term, white-knuckling your way through this quagmire means “unspent survival energy becomes held in the body, keeping the nervous system on high alert and dysregulated,” explains Dr Albé Fourie, a Psychologist specialising in Somatic Experiencing, SOMA, Brainspotting and Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) at WildGeeseFly.
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How does nervous system regulation work?
Nervous system regulation is the process of helping your body move from a state of threat or survival back into a state of safety and balance. “In modern life, many people live in a chronic state of nervous system activation. Their bodies remain in subtle fight or flight even when there is no immediate danger,” explains trauma specialist and social neuroscientist Dr Montsheng Letsoalo of the Trauma Neuro Institute of South Africa.
Dr Fourie adds that it’s worth understanding what “rest” actually means, from a nervous system standpoint. The system operates in three states: activation (alert, driven, anxious), genuine rest (calm, present, connected), or collapse (numb, shut down, exhausted). Importantly, collapse can feel like rest (like when you’re zoned out on the couch), but it doesn’t leave you feeling restored. True rest, says Dr Fourie, “feels like slower breathing, softening in the body, a sense of feeling supported, and a feeling of being more ‘here.'” The good news: there are practical, evidence-backed tools to help you get there.
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5 Calming Nervous System Practices To Unwind
1. Vagal toning
Time: 5–10 minutes (or throughout the day)
Expert verdict: Solid stuff ✅
Not quite the workout the name suggests, vagal toning refers to practices that stimulate the vagus nerve to improve what’s called “vagal tone”: how well your nervous system can move between activation and recovery.
The vagus nerve is the superhighway of your parasympathetic nervous system: a long, wandering nerve that connects your brain to your heart, lungs, gut, and more. When it’s functioning well, you feel calm, connected and regulated. If it’s underactive, you feel constantly overwrought. “When the vagus nerve is activated, the body shifts toward the parasympathetic state, which supports recovery, digestion, hormonal balance and mental clarity,” explains Badenhorst.
While there are now vagal tone devices to buy, the truth is that it’s not that complicated to do. “Many people start with very intense practices, but the nervous system responds best to gentle and consistent signals of safety,” she says. “Slow breathing, humming, light movement, or simply taking moments throughout the day to slow down can be surprisingly powerful.”
For those with trauma histories, she advises working at a pace that feels genuinely safe, potentially with the support of a trauma-informed practitioner. “Vagal toning should not feel like another performance task,” she adds. “Its purpose is to help the body remember what safety and rest actually feel like.”
Try it: Place one hand on your chest. Inhale slowly for 4 counts, exhale for 6–8 counts. Repeat for 5 minutes. The extended exhale is key – it directly activates the vagus nerve and downshifts your stress response.
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2. Low-stim living
Time: An ongoing lifestyle adjustment
Expert verdict: Solid stuff ✅
Our nervous systems, experts agree, were not built for the volume of stimulation modern life delivers. Even worse, there’s no break from them. Enter: low-stim living, the practice of intentionally reducing unnecessary sensory load. Badenhorst connects this to the epidemic of burnout, brain fog, anxiety and fatigue she sees in her practice. It’s not unique to her practice, either. A Gallup poll found that 36% of South African employees experience daily stress and a massive 82% said they’re disengaged at work.
“Modern life exposes people to a constant stream of sensory input: screens, notifications, noise, information and social demands,” explains Badenhorst. “When the nervous system receives too much stimulation without enough recovery, it can remain in a prolonged sympathetic ‘survival mode’ state – a state where people often feel as if they are simply pushing through the day on autopilot.”
Luckily, you don’t need to Marie Kondo your way into a bush retreat in order to stim lower. Low-stim living can be as simple as eating lunch without a screen, spending time outside in natural light (without distraction!), keeping your environment quieter in the evenings, reducing background noise and multitasking, or setting boundaries around when you’re available on your phone.
Try it: Identify your two biggest sources of unnecessary stimulation. This could be your habit of checking your phone every few minutes, background TV, eating while scrolling. Pick one and remove it for a week. Notice the difference in how your body feels by 9 p.m.
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3. Micro breaks
Time: 30 seconds to 5 minutes, multiple times daily
Expert verdict: Solid stuff ✅
The most underrated nervous system tool might be the one requiring the least time investment: deliberate, brief pauses throughout your day. Not scrolling. Not switching tasks. Actual pauses – stepping outside for a few breaths, stretching, or simply sitting still for 30 seconds.
Badenhorst is so convinced of the power of micro-breaks that she built a practice around them. She describes encouraging executives to place a small rubber duck on their desk as a visual cue to take short nervous system breaks throughout the working day – a reminder that has become a cornerstone of her 21-day nervous system reset programme.
And, science makes a strong case: “Practices that reduce sensory load, introduce gentle movement or support nervous system regulation send signals of safety back to the brain,” she says. “These signals travel through pathways such as the vagus nerve, the body’s primary communication channel between the brain, heart, lungs and digestive system.”
Her most important principle: consistency beats intensity. “The nervous system responds very well to small and frequent inputs. People often believe they need long wellness routines or complicated practices, but simple examples – taking short movement breaks during the day, stepping outside for natural light, practicing slow breathing for a few minutes – accumulate over time and increase the body’s capacity to handle stress.” Dr Fourie echoes this: “Small pauses in a day are more powerful than waiting until one is totally exhausted.”
Try it: Set a recurring alarm three times a day, labelled “pause.” When it goes off, step away from your screen, take five slow breaths, and do one gentle stretch. That’s it. Thirty seconds count.
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4. Somatic therapy
Time: 50–90 minute sessions with a practitioner
Expert verdict: Solid stuff – with caveats ⚠️
Somatic therapy takes a bottom-up approach to stress and trauma: instead of trying to think or talk your way out of how you feel, it works directly with the body and nervous system to complete stress responses that got stuck. Dr Fourie practices several somatic modalities and they all share the same underlying premise: the body has an innate capacity to regulate and heal, if given the right conditions. Her core modalities are Somatic Experiencing (SE), SOMA Embodiment, Brainspotting and Trauma Release Exercises (TRE).
The core tenet, she explains, is that unresolved stress isn’t just a psychological problem, it’s physiological. “When we encounter stress, the body naturally mobilises energy for a fight, flight, or freeze response. In nature, animals discharge this energy once the threat has passed – often through shaking or a deep breath – and then return to a state of rest. Humans, however, tend to override this process. We push through, keeping the nervous system on high alert and dysregulated.”
Different modalities target this in different ways. SE guides you to track subtle physical sensations: tightness in the chest, shallow breathing, and allows the body to complete interrupted stress responses. Brainspotting uses eye position to access non-verbal processing in the brain. TRE activates the body’s natural tremor mechanism to release deep muscular tension. SOMA Embodiment uses touch and movement to restore coherence in the nervous system.
Caveats
The evidence for somatic approaches is growing and Dr Fourie is steadily optimistic about their potential: “Many people today are highly self-aware, yet still feel anxious, wired, or exhausted. Somatic approaches meet clients at the level where these patterns actually live – in the nervous system.”
Her caution is worth heeding, though: these are not DIY practices. TRE in particular “can be powerful and should be approached with care – especially for individuals with a history of trauma. Without proper pacing or support, they can feel overwhelming rather than regulating.” She recommends working with a qualified, trained practitioner and approaching the process slowly. “Less is more. Shifts within the body can arrive quickly and be substantial, but need to be contained, supported and integrated.”
Find a practitioner: Search somaticexperiencingsouthernafrica.com, brainspottingafrica.co.za, treforafrica.com, or somaembodiment.org.
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5. Contrast therapy
Time: 60–90 minutes per session
Expert verdict: Solid stuff ✅
Alternating between heat and cold immersion might sound like a wellness trend for ice-obsessed athletes, but contrast therapy has roots stretching back centuries through Nordic, Japanese, and Eastern European traditions – and the physiological rationale is well-established. Temperature shifts stimulate circulation, reduce inflammation, boost resilience, and elevate mood, all of which directly support nervous system recovery.
In Cape Town, One Flow Yoga and Wellness Social Club in Green Point is at the forefront of making contrast therapy accessible. Co-founder and sauna master Jeanae Dumas frames it not as a trend but as a physiological necessity: “Contrast therapy is not at all a fad. It is an active response to the stress-driven, cortisol-heavy lifestyles that most of us live today. What makes it so powerful is its ability to balance and counterbalance that stress, offering a reset for both body and mind.”
One Flow integrates the practice within social wellness, recognising that human connection is itself a nervous system regulator. Their facilitated Sauna Journeys, led by trained sauna masters, combine breathwork, grounding rituals, curated sound and lighting, and community. “The age-old traditions of this practice are social,” Dumas says. “You do it because it is good for your overall health, but equally important is the very human need to be in community with others.”
Their menu ranges from self-directed Wellzone sessions to the immersive Deep Flow Sauna Journey, designed to take participants beyond the physical into emotional processing.
Try it: Visit oneflow.co.za to book. If you’re new to contrast therapy, start with a guided session rather than going it alone – the facilitation helps you stay regulated through the more challenging moments.
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Ready to regulate?
“Rest is not only about sleep or holidays. The nervous system benefits from regular moments of regulation throughout the day,” says Badenhorst. Far more accessible than silent retreats or psychotherapy, nervous system regulation practices range from what’s available right now (slow breathing, micro-breaks) to the more immersive and practitioner-led (somatic therapy, sauna journeys). All of them work by doing one thing: sending your nervous system repeated, gentle signals that it is safe to come down from high alert.
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