A personal guide to tuning in, slowing down, and finding your way back to yourself.
There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to nervous system support.
It’s not about following a strict wellness checklist or chasing perfection — it’s about tuning into your own rhythms, your own seasons, and your own signals.
I’ve learned this the long way.
Over the past decade or more, my lifestyle has gradually evolved into something more intentional, grounded in both inner and outer awareness. From choosing veganism to care for my body from the inside out, to practising yoga for the past 7–8 years (and teaching for the last one), journaling since I could first hold a pen, and using travel and photography as a way to anchor myself in mindful observation… I’ve been building a nervous system-supportive routine piece by piece, without even realising it at first.
Now, as I travel through this adult gap year, moving across countries and cultures, my toolkit has never felt more essential — or more alive.
This is not about doing everything.
It’s about having the right tools and knowing when to reach for them.
It’s about noticing the moment your breath shortens, your thoughts spiral, or your energy crashes — and knowing how to meet yourself with care.
Let this be your invitation to begin listening more closely.
To your body. To your needs. To the small spaces between.
A Toolkit That Moves With You
We often hear about routines as something strict and linear — wake up, meditate, stretch, journal, repeat. But I’ve learned that the nervous system doesn’t respond to rigidity. It responds to safety. It softens when it feels supported, seen, and nourished.
That’s why I no longer treat these practices as daily obligations. I treat them as tools — each with a different purpose — that I can draw from depending on what I need in that moment.
Reflection Prompt: What practices, big or small, already bring you a sense of calm? Can you begin to see those not as habits, but as tools in your nervous system toolkit?
Here’s what mine looks like, shaped by years of experimenting, learning, and most of all, listening.
Yoga: Reconnecting Body and Breath
Yoga has been a part of my life for nearly a decade. It’s the practice I return to again and again, whether I’m grounded or completely unmoored. I’ve spent the 18 months teaching it, but I’ll always be a student first.
Some days, I flow slowly and intentionally, using movement to soften the noise in my mind. Other days, I hold supported postures and simply breathe. Yoga reminds me that I don’t have to push; I can soften. I can trust my body’s wisdom.
Try This: What kind of movement feels most nourishing to you today: strength, stillness, stretch, or rest?
Veganism: Nourishing from the Inside Out
Over 12 years ago, I chose a plant-based lifestyle, not as a diet, but as a deep commitment to my health. And over the years, has evolved to compassion, awareness, and care.
This choice has helped me tune into how my body feels after I eat, what energises me, what grounds me, and how the things I consume affect not just my health, but my clarity, mood, and sense of alignment.
The more I support my body internally, the easier it becomes to manage external stressors.
Reflection Prompt: What foods, routines, or choices help you feel lighter, clearer, or more centred in your body?
Breathwork: Resetting in Real Time
The breath is the one thing that’s always with us, and it’s one of the fastest ways to regulate the nervous system. Over time, I’ve learned how to shift my state with just a few conscious breaths.
-
A long exhale when I feel overwhelmed.
-
Alternate nostril breathing to calm my mind and bring balance between the two hemispheres of my brain.
-
Energising breath in the morning before I reach for coffee.
Breath doesn’t just keep us alive, it brings us back to life.
Try This: Take three slow breaths right now. Inhale through your nose for 4, exhale through your mouth for 6. Notice the shift.
Journaling: Making the Inner World Visible
I’ve been journaling for most of my life; it’s my first language of self-understanding. Writing helps me move thoughts out of my head and onto the page, where they can take shape and soften.
Journaling shows me what’s underneath the surface: the fears, desires, and longings my nervous system might be holding silently.
Prompt for You: Today, try writing on: “What does calm feel like in my body?” or “Where in my day could I create more pause?”
Photography + Travel: Mindfulness in Motion
Photography has become a practice in presence for me, a way to see the world more clearly, and in doing so, see myself. Whether I’m capturing light filtering through trees or a quiet street corner in a new city, I use my camera to slow down and notice.
In travel, I find expansion. However, I also find myself overstimulated by new environments, languages, and sounds. My nervous system asks me to regulate often through stillness, breath, walking, and silent pauses between movement.
The lens teaches me that life is always offering moments of pause — if we choose to look for them.
Try This: What everyday moments — a shadow, a sound, a scent — help you feel connected? Could you document them, even mentally, as acts of mindfulness?
Meditation: Being with What Is
Stillness isn’t always easy. It took me a long time to sit with myself without fidgeting, reaching for my phone, or escaping into thought. However, meditation, even in its gentlest form, offers a profound sense of calm.
Whether it’s five minutes of silence, a guided scan, or simply lying on the floor with one hand on the belly, meditation allows us to be, without needing to change a thing.
Reflection Prompt: What part of your day feels the most chaotic or noisy? Could you begin with one minute of silence there?
Finding Your Own Rhythm
There is no perfect routine. There is only rhythm, your rhythm.
It will change with the seasons, your energy, your environment. And that’s not failure, it’s wisdom.
The key is to know your tools. To notice what brings you back to yourself. To ask questions like:
-
What signals tell me I’m dysregulated?
-
What helps me return to a state of calm?
-
What practices feel like me, and what am I doing out of obligation?
Some days I write. Some days I rest. Some days I dance in my room and others I lay in bed and breathe. The magic isn’t in doing everything — it’s in knowing what’s enough.
An Invitation to Begin
If this resonates with you, I invite you to start slowly.
Build your toolkit one practice at a time. Not to be better. Not to be more productive.
But to feel safe. To feel supported. To feel at home in your own body.
Your nervous system isn’t asking you to do more. It’s asking you to listen more deeply.
Let your life be the cue.
Let your calm be your compass.
And trust that you already have what you need, you just need to remember where to look.
Download the journal prompts that accompany this blog.
