Aware And Prepared

14 Simple Ways to Calm Your Nervous System When Stressed (Perfect for the Holiday Season)

• Mandi Pratt • Season 3 • Episode 34

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Hear 14 simple, practical ways to calm your nervous system when you feel stuck in fight-or-flight like during the holidays! These are the same tools Mandi learned while healing from years of hypervigilance and complex trauma. These are research-backed gentle practices that help your body relearn what safety feels like.

You’ll hear easy, accessible strategies you can use anywhere: at home, in your car, or during stressful moments, to reset your stress response, lower anxiety, and return to calm. This episode is especially supportive during the holidays, when emotions run high and your nervous system may need extra care.

These practices aren’t about avoiding what’s hard. They’re about reminding your body that, in this moment, you can feel safe and that peace is something you can return to again and again.


RESOURCES

N.O.W by Solu Tone Therapy System


Grab the Calm Checklist pretty printable here on Mandi's website.


Connect with Mandi:


The primary purpose of the Women Aware and Prepared Podcast is to educate and inform. This podcast series does not constitute advice or services. Please use common sense for your own situation.

 Hey, brave one. Welcome to the Aware and Prepared Podcast. I'm your host, Mandy Pratt, trauma-informed, resilient speaker, domestic violence, victim advocate, and narcissistic abuse survivor. Here we keep it real with true crime stories and real world strategies to prevent emotional and physical harm. My guests and I share a mix of insight and survivor grit, all to help you feel safer, trust yourself more deeply, and live with greater peace and power.

Let's trade fear for freedom and step into the peace that you deserve.

Hey there. Welcome back to the Aware and Prepared Podcast. I'm Mandy, your host. With the holidays coming up, it's easy to talk about staying safe out in the world, crowded parking lots, busy stores, lots of noise and pressure. But today we're focusing on a different kind of safety, the kind that start.

Inside your body. This episode is all about how to calm your nervous system when stress or anxiety try to take over. These are the same practical things I had to learn for myself when my body was stuck in that constant fight or flight hypervigilant mode after having. Survived narcissistic abuse for over a decade.

So here's the truth. Your body can't tell the difference between emotional, chaos and physical danger. But the good news, you can teach it what safety feels like. Again. So in this throwback episode, I'm sharing simple ways to signal peace to your body, reset your stress response, and bring yourself back to a place of calm no matter what's happening around you.

Let's take a deep breath and dive in. I just wanted to review today because I think this is so important, the 14 calming ideas that I use, that I've learned over the years because I was stuck in fight or flight, and I did create a pretty printable download for those of you who want it. So if you have not received my email with that, just let me know by either sending me a message through Instagram.

At Women Aware and Prepared, or through my website at Women Aware and prepared.com, those will be in the show notes for you to make it super easy. So you just click on the episode and scroll down and you'll see the links to each of those. All right, ready for the list? Here we go. Number one, pet your dog or cat slowly and savor the moment.

Number two, listen to gentle music. Maybe nature sounds like birds singing. Number three, wrap yourself in a soft blanket. Number four, take mindful sips of your tea or coffee or mindful bites as you begin eating. Number five, calm your breathing. You can use box breathing, or you can count and double the exhale then when you inhale, but maybe three counts in.

And six counts out. Number six, sensory walks. So we note three things. We see three things. We hear three things we feel. Number seven, calming, essential oils diffused. Or maybe you put them on your wrist.

And now a quick add. Did you know through my company, women Aware and Prepared, I share keynotes and workshops focused on prevention and healing, helping people live safer with more peace. I've been invited to speak at university's school counselor conferences, the Institute on Violence. The recent trauma crisis centers, social work conferences, junior high and high schools, women's gatherings, employee resource groups, and many more.

My talks focus on following and acting on our intuition, setting healthy boundaries, and using self-defense as a tool for empowerment. Sharing. Also my complex PTSD survivor journey sharing how I healed from that. So helping victims and survivors gain their power back with actionable strategies and real resources.

If your organization is looking for a speaker who brings both inspiration and transformation, visit aware and prepared life. Or message me on Instagram or LinkedIn, you'll find the links in the show notes. Let's live safer with more peace for brighter futures. Remember, these practices aren't about ignoring what's hard.

They're about reminding your body that you're safe in this moment. The more often you practice, the easier it becomes for your mind and body to return to peace. Number eight, taking a cation a day away with no distractions. Or if you can't do that at least half a day or maybe even an hour. Number nine is using a heat wrap.

I find that heat really calms my nervous system and helps my tense muscles. Number 10 is reading verses or affirmations. Maybe you write one out and you keep it in front of you. 11 is humming music that is scientifically shown to lower your sympathetic response and up your parasympathetic response so it lowers stress.

Number 12, the now tone therapy system by Solu. I shared with you that I'm not the best at stopping to meditate, but these are actually something you hold in your hands. It's a wake up aid, so when you wake up, you listen to this three minute meditation with these two little speakers, you hold in your hand and it sets you off on the right foot, and it only takes about three minutes.

Again, I'll drop that into the show notes for you. Number 13 is a once a month massage consistently. That really helps calm my nervous system and my tense muscles. And lastly is thinking of three things you're grateful for and really savoring those moments. I don't get to write them every single day, but you can maybe even think of them as you're driving.

That helps me calm my nervous system. Maybe not all of these things will work well for you, but there might be a couple in there that do. This is just what works for me. And I'm sure there's some other things that work for you that you've thought of. If you have something else that calms your nervous system that you feel like sharing, and if you're on social media, feel free to put that in your stories and you can tag me.

And I might even share that on my own social media. I love hearing from you guys having a podcast. I feel like I'm always the only one talking, so it's nice to hear back from you guys when you tell me you're listening or you'll send me a message through Instagram. So I hope this was a good review for you.

Thank you so much as always for listening. I really appreciate you and I hope you have a wonderful. Rest of your week. I hope this episode gave you a few gentle reminders and tools you can use any time your body starts to feel on edge, especially during the holidays when stress and emotion can pile up fast.

These calming practices can help you feel more grounded. And in control, not because everything's perfect, but because you know how to find peace inside yourself. You're learning and testing these out, seeing which one helps you the most. If you'd like my free calm checklist, I've given that out in my.

Weekly email newsletter, including all of these tips that you can print out and put on your fridge or put in your car and put at your desk. You can grab that at Aware and prepared life. Slash calm and please share this episode with someone who might need a little piece this season. We're all navigating a lot right now, but together we can create more calm, more awareness, and more healing.

You are capable, you are strong, and you are safe in this moment. Thanks for tuning into the Aware and Prepared Podcast. Curious how tuned in your intuition really is. Take the free quiz at Aware and Prepared Life and get your score. See how sharp your inner guide is. You are worthy of a safe and peaceful life.

Talk with you next week and please share this episode with someone who came to mind while you were listening. Click on the top right menu in your podcast app. It might just be what they needed today.