De-Stress Your Nervous System (Guided Somatic Meditation)
A Somatic Way to De-Stress Your Nervous System
A gentle exploration of stress, safety, and the healing power of self-havening
There are seasons in life when stress settles into the body in ways we cannot think ourselves out of. The shoulders tighten. The breath shortens. The mind begins to race. And the more we try to push through it, the more overwhelmed we feel.
If this sounds familiar, you are not alone.
Many of us have been taught to manage stress through our minds, even though stress is something the nervous system carries and stores in the body. When your system has been activated for too long, it needs something different. It needs a way to settle that feels kind and accessible.
This is where somatic practices can help. Today’s de-stress guided meditation offers a gentle pathway back into your body so you can soothe what feels tight, soften what feels clenched, and reconnect with a sense of inner steadiness.
Before we begin, let’s take a moment to explore why somatic tools are so effective when you want to de-stress your nervous system.
Why “De-Stressing” Needs to Be a Body-Based Process
Stress does not live in your thoughts. Stress lives in the body.
Your nervous system is constantly scanning for cues of safety or danger. When it senses pressure, urgency, conflict, or emotional overload, it shifts into a protective state. You may feel this as tension in your jaw, difficulty concentrating, irritability, or a sense that everything is “too much.”
Trying to calm yourself through thinking alone can feel like trying to quiet a storm by telling the wind to stop. The mind is simply not the part of you that is carrying the stress.
To truly de-stress your nervous system, you need practices that send gentle signals of safety through your body.
Signals your brain can actually hear.
Signals your body can actually respond to.
Somatic practices meet you in the places where stress is held. They invite the muscles to release, the breath to deepen, and the mind to soften. They reconnect you with your inner world in a way that feels possible and compassionate.
Here’s a revised version that is warm, conversational, accurate, and grounded in the actual mechanisms of Havening Touch. I’ve removed anything that felt speculative, clarified the neuroscience, and kept the tone aligned with your deeply compassionate, somatically informed voice.
How Self-Havening Helps You De-Stress
Self-havening is a gentle, neuroscience-backed technique that uses specific patterns of touch to calm the nervous system. The touch itself might seem simple, but the way the brain responds is surprisingly powerful. When you use slow, soothing stroking on the arms, face, or hands, you activate the same sensory pathways that register comfort, warmth, and safety.
From a neuroscience perspective, here’s what we know is happening:
• The gentle, rhythmic touch stimulates sensory nerves in the skin that signal safety to the brain.
• These signals help reduce activity in the amygdala, the part of the brain that reacts to stress and scans for threat.
• As the amygdala quiets, the body shifts out of high alert and begins to move toward a more regulated state.
• At the same time, the brain starts producing delta waves, which are associated with calm, restoration, and emotional soothing.
All of this happens from something as simple as a slow, steady touch. People often describe feeling clearer, more grounded, and more emotionally available after even a few minutes of self-havening. It is a way of offering your body the signals it has been craving, especially in moments when your system feels overwhelmed or stretched too thin.
The beauty of self-havening is its simplicity. It meets you right where you are, helps your body exhale, and gives your nervous system a chance to settle so you can come back to yourself with more ease.
A Somatic Meditation to De-Stress Your Nervous System
Today’s episode offers a guided somatic meditation to help you de-stress your nervous system using self-havening. The practice is simple, but the impact can be profound. When you send your system cues of safety, deep parts of your brain begin to relax. Your thoughts become clearer. Your emotions feel more workable. The subtle tension you have been carrying starts to soften.
This meditation is especially helpful during busy or tender seasons of life. Times when your days are full, when you are carrying more than you let on, or when your system has been stretched too thin. In those moments, a few minutes of somatic presence can make the difference between feeling pushed past your limits and feeling supported inside your own body.
If you have been longing for a practice that helps you slow down, come home to yourself, and bring a sense of peace where there has been strain, this de-stress guided meditation is for you.
Try this Guided Somatic Meditation to De-Stress Your Nervous System now!
Episode timing:
00:00 - A Somatic Way to De-Stress Your Nervous System
03:59 - Guided Somatic Meditation to De-Stress Your Nervous System
28:33 - Conclusion
Related: somatic meditations to regulate your nervous system
Learn more about Havening Techniques and the science behind them
Havening Techniques® is a registered trademark of Ronald Ruden, 15 East 91st Street, New York. www.havening.org
If this kind of effective, body-based healing speaks to you, I’d love to invite you into Somatic Healing Hub - my membership community where we practice this work together.
With live classes, workshops, and coaching you’ll:
Create a steady rhythm of nervous system regulation, so you can feel calmer, clearer, and more grounded in daily life
Gently process the emotions held in your body, instead of getting stuck in reactivity, overwhelm, or shutdown
Break free from chronic stress patterns by addressing what’s underneath - not just managing the surface
Reclaim your attention from spiraling thoughts or anxiety, and reconnect with what your body is truly asking for
Feel supported and not alone, inside a community that honors your sensitivity and your pace
BONUS: You’ll also get AD-FREE ACCESS to my entire podcast library! (Somatic Healing Meditations)
How did that Guided Somatic Meditation to De-Stress Your Nervous System feel to you?
What shifted within you? And how much did your stress decrease?
Please let me know in the comments!
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Thanks so much for joining me today!
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Enjoy more like this: Havening Exercises, Regulation Exercises, Deep Relaxation Meditations
About me
Hey, I’m Karena!
I’m a somatic emotional healing coach here to help you quickly identify and heal the subconscious blocks, old emotional wounds and self-sabotaging core beliefs that are holding you back!
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