Dr Libby Weaver: Simple Ways To Calm An Overstimulated Nervous System
After the full tempo of December, many people enter the new year feeling overstimulated. It’s a month that asks a lot of us. The constant hum of socialising, the swirl of decision-making, the rich foods, the screens, the noise, the travel, the to-do lists and the emotional load of wanting everything to feel special.
It’s a beautiful time of year – full and joyful – yet it can leave our nervous system humming as if it has forgotten what stillness feels like.
January, in contrast, offers this exquisite invitation to recalibrate. It offers us a natural opening in the rhythm of the year. A pause. A moment to remember ourselves. To rewild your senses.
I’m not a huge fan of resolutions. Partly because I feel like if you want to make a change, there is no better time than immediately and partly because the resolutions people make are usually unsustainable – set aside by February when the pace of life picks up again. But a reset? It’s not a challenge, not another obligation in an already crowded world, but an invitation. A gentle return to what your body knows so deeply, yet what modern life so easily drowns out.
Calming your nervous system
In my clinical experience, one of the most effective ways to soothe a frazzled nervous system isn’t found in grand gestures. It’s found in the simplicity of coming back to your senses.
Your sensory world is one of the most direct pathways into the present moment, and it’s in the present moment that your parasympathetic nervous system – your rest, digest and repair arm – can finally take the reins. When you reconnect with your senses, your mind chatter slows down and your body recognises safety. Muscles unclench. Breathing slows. Stress chemistry begins to shift. Without the mental noise of what we need to do, we remember simply how to be.
Modern life means we spend much of our time indoors. We sit at desks or sink into couches, connected to screens that demand our attention, with rings and pings going off all day that can fire up our nervous system. We even drive ourselves to the gym to lift heavy things in an effort to counterbalance our mostly sedentary lives because science tells us it’s essential to our long-term wellbeing to stay strong.
On the one hand, science and technology have brought us so much. Yet, in the midst of all this progress, it’s worth gently pondering: what have we lost?
We’ve drifted away from the natural cues that once shaped our biology. The arc of the sun across the sky, the textures of the land beneath our feet, the sounds and scents of the outdoors. Even when we do go outside, we are often not truly present. We’re thinking about what’s next, rehashing a conversation from the morning, or ruminating over how we don’t have enough time.
Yet, these quiet moments of true connection in nature can help recalibrate our nervous systems
When we spend hours inside, exposed to artificial light and digital stimulation, cortisol can rise at unhelpful times, our circadian rhythm can blur and our stress responses can become so constant that we forget what true ease feels like. This is why I believe rewilding your senses is so powerful.
Natural remedies
If you can’t already tell, I’m a big fan of nature. Of the sky in particular. No matter what my schedule looks like, I will try my best to step outside and bear witness to the sunset. I can’t always make it happen, but even if it means I’ll be opening my laptop again afterwards, catching the way the sky changes each evening has become such an essential ritual to me that I will do everything I can to include it in my day. It helps connect me to awe and wonder for the world around me, and that helps me to remember that every moment we get to play on this planet is so, so precious.
Perhaps the sky isn’t your thing. Perhaps it’s the crash of the waves hitting the sand and the cerulean blue of the sea that stills your soul. Maybe it’s the hush and whisper of the wind whispering through trees in the rainforest or the bush. Or it could be the earthy scent that rises after the rain, or the rhythmic chorus of bird sounds at first light or insects at dusk. It might even be something as simple as watching a bird fluff up its feathers and take a sunbath on your balcony in the morning or the cool solidity of rock beneath your palm.
Whatever form it takes, there is usually a part of the natural world that speaks directly to your nervous system, bypassing thought and landing somewhere deeper.
These are not small moments. They are tiny recalibrations. Quiet reminders that your senses are still alive, still receptive, still capable of drawing you back into the present where your body can finally soften.
And so, if there’s one thing you do for your health this month, let it be going outside and finding the part of the natural world that speaks to you. Let it be rewilding your senses and allowing your body to land you back in the present moment, where you can truly connect with the mind-blowing magnificence of the world around you.
Dr Libby Weaver PhD is a nutritional biochemist, 13 times best-selling author and international keynote speaker. For more on balancing your hormones, visit Drlibby.com
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