CE Insight: Reduce Anxiety & Regulate Your System

Today I want to share useful self-help tool for working with underlying anxiety, nervousness, or discomfort.

I'm a big believer in having a few tools on board to help ride the waves of anxiety or big emotions, allowing yourself to be with them better.

Having these tools can help reduce the feeling of anxiety and helps us build the important foundational tool of learning to self-regulate.

The practice I'm going to share was created by Wayne Cook, an expert on the energy systems of the body and their relationship to health. It is a way of working with the physicality to manipulate the energetic meridians of our body.

It is a practice that also brings in the concept of interoception, which is to notice and bring to awareness our internal experience.

One note before we get to the exercise, sometimes this practice is associated with the concept of a "nervous system reset." When you take a close look at how the nervous system functions, there is no such thing as a "reset."

There is a misunderstanding going around about this concept. Practices like this can help you self-regulate or create more 'vagal tone', i.e. become more calm or settled, but it is not "resetting your nervous system."

The Practice 

This exercise can be used at any point in the day where you might feel a bit overwhelmed, anxious, too high energy, or are just looking to tune into your body.

I want you to quickly have a look at the image below showing how to do the practice, so the written steps make more sense.

The Steps
(If this is a bit confusing, there is a video link below too)

Start by being seated, with your back straight.

1. Cross your left ankle over your right.
2. Extend both arms in front of you, hands back-to-back, thumbs pointing down.
3. Cross right wrist over your left, and interlock your fingers and clasp the hands together.
4. Roll your interlocked hands down and back towards your body.
5. Rest interlocked hands comfortably on your chest around the heart.
6. Rest your tongue softly on the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth.
7. Inhale slowly through your nose and out through your mouth 6 times.

Release and relax for 15 to 30 seconds.

Round 2 - The Opposite

1. Now cross your RIGHT ankle over your LEFT. (Opposite from before).

2. Extend both arms in front of you, hands back-to-back, thumbs pointing down.

3. Cross your LEFT wrist over your right, interlock the fingers and clasp the hands together.
4. Roll your interlocked hands down and back towards your body.
5. Rest interlocked hands comfortably on your chest around your heart.
6. Rest your tongue softly on the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth.
7. Inhale slowly through your nose and out through your mouth 6 times.

Rest and notice how you feel.

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The process of being with your breath, slowly breathing in and out, and also noticing how you feel internally during and after the practice, is where the interoception 'muscle' builds.

Over time, your consciousness and awareness will be more attuned to your internal experience. Helping you stay more connect to a calm and relaxed body.

If the instructions were a tad confusing... here is a quick video demonstration of a single round. She also ends with a final step you can try as well.

Enjoy the practice and see you next week!


I have two courses focused on personal development and wellness:

→ The 5 Days of YOU Challenge: A free course containing the exact set of exercises I used to find ease, get my clarity and creativity back, and help regulate my nervous system. Join 180,000+ challenge takers.

→ Overcoming Bias & Improving Critical Thinking: A course that combines coherent embodiment, mastering self awareness, and critical thinking to help you notice bias in seconds, and think more critically in every area of your life. Join 1,050+ students.