Nervous System Reset – A Meditation For Re-Centering

When life feels loud, fast, or overwhelming, the nervous system can slip into survival mode without us realizing it.
This guided meditation offers a gentle reset, inviting the body to soften, the breath to slow, and awareness to return to a steady center.
Through grounding breath and calming imagery, this practice supports releasing tension, settling the mind, and restoring a sense of inner balance.
There is nothing to fix and nothing to force—only a quiet space to pause, rest, and come home to yourself.
Suitable for moments of stress, overstimulation, anxiety, or whenever a peaceful reset is needed.
Music by ⁠Petrushkasound⁠ from ⁠Pixabay

Transcript

Welcome to Whispers of the Heart,

Guided Meditations.

I'm your host and guide,

Noriko Tanigawa.

Today's practice is here for the moments when your inner world feels tight,

Overstimulated,

Or a stretched thing.

When your mind is racing,

Your breath has shortened,

And you can feel your system quietly asking for relief.

This is Nervous System Reset,

A meditation for recentering.

In this session,

We'll soften the body,

Slow the breath,

And ease the mind back into a space of steadiness.

There's nothing to fix,

Nothing to force,

Just a gentle invitation to come home to yourself.

As you listen,

I'll guide you through visualization and mindful breathing designed to calm the body's stress response and reconnect you to your natural sense of balance.

Let this be your pause,

Your exhale,

Your quiet doorway back to center.

Take a deep breath with me,

Slowly in,

And gently out.

Let's begin.

Find a comfortable seat or lie down.

Allow your body to melt onto the floor.

And just take a deep breath three times.

Take a deep breath in,

And breath out.

Let's take another deep breath in,

And breath out.

And one last time,

Let's take a deep breath in,

And breath out.

In this moment,

I want you to just allow the breath to get back to normal.

And just feel out what you're feeling right now.

What's the first word that comes to mind?

Is it stressed?

Exhausted?

I'm done.

Whatever it is,

Let your mind speak.

Let your body express its exhaustion and tiredness.

Whatever you're feeling,

Just let it be.

And I want you to just allow the breath to come in and out.

Naturally,

When your body needs more oxygen,

Let the breath come in and let the breath come out whenever your body is ready to release.

And you might notice that your breath is a lot shallower than you thought,

And that's okay.

The body is doing its thing,

Trying to heal you the best it can.

I want you to just tune into your body now.

I want you to scan your body from head to toe,

And see where you feel the tension or heaviness.

You might feel it on your forehead or your temple,

And you might feel it in your throat or your heart,

In your stomach.

Wherever it is,

Just take a note of where you feel heavy or tense.

And I want you to pick one place where you feel the heaviest or most tense.

We're going to breathe into that area for three times,

And when I say breathe into it,

There's nothing more than just bringing your attention to the area.

So as you breathe in,

Think of bringing much-needed oxygen to that area,

And when you breathe out,

Think of just releasing.

So let's take a deep breath in,

And I want you to hold it for five seconds,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One,

And release.

Let's do it one more time.

Take a deep breath in,

And this time I want you to tense your body,

And let's hold the breath for five seconds,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One,

And release.

Ah.

Let's go one more time.

Take a deep breath in,

Tense your body,

Hold your breath for five seconds,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One,

And release.

Ah.

Allow the area of your tension or heaviness to just melt onto the floor.

Allow the gravity to just hold you for a moment.

Now you might have some emotions coming up,

Maybe stress,

Frustration,

Confusion,

Feeling lost,

Just tired and exhausted.

I want you to just hold the space for your feelings.

Imagine you're this big,

Big container,

And you're just watching your feelings inside it.

You might feel the sensation of that emotional energy moving through your body,

But now you're just an observer.

I want you to imagine zooming out on that picture a little bit,

And imagine yourself as this big,

Big,

One of those 80s disco balls that is totally covered with mirrors that reflects all over the place,

And I want you to think of you as a whole,

As that disco ball,

And in relation to you,

All that you are,

All the experiences that you ever experienced from the past,

From all the way from your birth to now,

All the emotions that you have felt,

And now you're looking at this disco ball.

And the part that stresses you or creates some anxiety in you right now is probably just a one tiny speck of that mirror out of the million pieces of mirror that makes up you as a whole.

And everything else is shimmering,

Reflecting light,

And doing everything that it needs to do.

And if you realize how small that one tiny mirror that's making you stressed and anxious,

You might realize how much emotional energy you pour into that one tiny section.

Let's shift your focus for now,

And we need to look at sparkly,

Shining part of your disco ball.

What's really working out for you now?

What brought you joy today?

What small thing that puts a smile on your face?

What made you realize that you are loved,

No matter how hectic your life might be?

What made you feel supported?

And if you can't think of anything,

Let's start with your breath and your heartbeat.

No matter what is happening to your life right now,

They are with you,

Unceasingly supporting you,

Literally giving you life.

And those two alone give you reasons for you to be here now.

And let's look back to that one mirror that's bothering you in this moment.

I want you to focus on how you feel instead of focusing on a situation or circumstances.

So if it's some situation that is stressing you out,

I want you to focus on that feeling that you feel from that situation,

Not what is wrong with the situation or circumstances,

But you can focus on the feelings of overwhelm.

The feelings of exhaustion and just being worn out.

Because when we are stressed,

We spend too much time trying to fix something we cannot fix.

Because we think fixing things will make us feel better.

And whatever it is that you're trying to keep it together or hold on to it so that it won't come apart,

It is what it is for a reason.

So how long are you going to punish yourself?

Trying to be that person keeping something that maybe it meant to be let go or broken.

Let's take a deep breath in and breath out.

Throughout this practice,

Whenever you feel just a little bit too overwhelmed,

I want you to just take a deep breath in and out.

I know it's sometimes hard,

Especially if you are put in a position to keep something together or being responsible for something.

But in this moment,

There's nothing that needs to be done.

This is time for you,

Your beautiful,

Restorative and deep restful moment.

So let's just rest,

Not needing to fix anything or change anything.

How about we just let it be?

Whatever the crazy chaos or craziness that's going on,

What if we just say,

Okay,

That's fine,

It's okay,

I don't need to fix anything.

I can just sit there or lie down here and rest.

I refuse to solve things now.

I don't need to be the one to solve.

How about we just be?

How about we just be and breathe?

How about we give ourselves permission to rest?

When you are stressed,

That means that your nervous system is on a fight or fright mode,

Meaning that you feel threatened,

You don't feel safe.

And most of the time,

In a modern day,

The things that stress us aren't something that's really life-threatening.

It probably threatens your identity or how you might look to other people.

So in this moment,

How about we just say,

You know what?

I don't care how I look to other people.

I don't care what kind of identity I am or I am not.

How about I just be this human,

Taking a breath,

Having a chill moment,

Just breathing.

And every one of us has permission to do so.

There's no reason to let our stress run our day.

It's our life.

It's not our stress's life,

Is it?

It's okay.

Let's be here.

Watch our breath come in and out.

And for those of you who might be stressed over some major life's decision to make,

Know that it's only you and other people who are judging if your decision is right.

Whatever the decision you make in life,

However big or small,

Know that there is no right or wrong decision.

From the universe's perspective,

It's just another choice you choose to make.

And whichever path you choose,

Everything leads to you understanding,

Uncovering,

And learning a little bit more about unconditional love.

So,

If you look at your big life's decision,

Whichever it goes as your path to unconditional love,

It makes it a little bit less scary to think about how you're going to make those decisions.

And it really doesn't matter what anybody else think or judge you for that decision.

You just need to know everything leads to love,

One way or more the other.

So,

If you know that everything leads to love,

Everything leads to unconditional love,

You can think of every choice you make in life as if you're about to open a gift and you're about to open it.

Imagine how excited you will be.

And because these are gifts,

We must open it to see what's inside.

Many times we just experience life without opening our gifts.

We don't stop and take enough time to open the gifts.

What if everything we do in a day contains secret gifts and you can only see the gifts by opening it?

So,

Be the brave one to open the gifts in each and every moment.

Dare to slow down because that will make everything you do in your life more meaningful and poignant.

So,

Even when you're stressed and feeling a little bit uptight,

Tired,

Exhausted,

What if those feelings also contain beautiful gifts inside?

So,

Imagine that you're on one of your favorite gift-giving holidays and you have this big,

Beautifully wrapped gift right in front of you.

This is the gift of the moment of now.

And I want you to take a moment to untie the ribbon and open that box.

What gift do you see?

And whatever that gift is,

I want you to hold it in your hands and bring it to your heart.

This is the gift of the moment.

Let's take a deep breath in and out to seal in this gift to every cell of our being.

Take a deep breath in and breath out.

And I want you to feel the sensation that you feel in your body right now.

You might feel light.

You might feel buzzing sensations along your spines or maybe on your hands and feet.

You might feel like you're floating on the crowds.

Whatever it is,

Allow yourself to feel this lightness.

And I want you to feel held.

By this unconditional loving force of the universe,

You are loved.

No matter what anybody says and no matter what you believe,

You are loved.

Now let's gently bring all this love and feeling of lightness back into our hearts.

Into our physical realm.

Wiggle our toes and fingers.

Rotate your ankles and wrists.

Shake your head yes and no.

And whenever you're ready,

Slowly open your eyes.

Welcome back.

I hope this has helped you take a little respite from your busy day.

Feel free to come back to this practice as often as you would like.

The sense of peace,

Ease and safety that you are seeking in this very busy,

Stressful time.

It's all within you.

You just need to wake up.

And in order to wake up those safety,

Ease and peace,

You need to just stop and rest.

Sounds a little counterintuitive,

But it's so true.

Thank you for taking care of yourself today and being on this healing journey together.

And as always,

I love you all and I'm sending you all my love and support.

Thank you again for listening and I'll see you in the next meditation.