Breathe Your Way to Calm: Nervous System Regulation Techniques

Today I wanted to explore specific breathing techniques you can easily use at home to help regulate your nervous system, or calm your emotions. These are all safe to do at home and can be used preventatively, so support your whole system, or when you’re dealing with a stressful situation.

Regulating the nervous system is key to managing anxiety, trauma responses, and overall mental wellbeing. Focusing on the breath is one of the most accessible and effective tools for calming the nervous system.

Here are some gentle yet powerful breathing techniques you can practice to support your mind-body healing journey.

1. Diaphragmatic Breathing (Belly Breathing)

This technique engages the diaphragm, allowing for deeper oxygen exchange and a calming effect on the nervous system. It’s particularly helpful for people who breathe high up in their chest, as often that means you’re not using the whole lung to breathe which is inefficient and can lead to shallower, faster breaths.

This technique needs you to have a nice relaxed tummy, so try not to hold it in.

• Find a comfortable seated position and try to sit up straight but without tension in your body or shoulders. Having your back supported can be helpful.

• Place one hand on your chest and the other on your tummy, near your belly button

• Breathe in slowly through your nose, trying to let your belly rise while your chest remains still

• Exhale slowly through your mouth, feeling your belly fall

• Repeat for 1-5 minutes, focusing on the rhythm and depth of your breath

2. Box Breathing (Square Breathing)

Used often in mindful practices, box breathing is beneficial for balance and focus because it regulates the nervous system by bringing in a steady rhythm of inhaling, holding, exhaling, and pausing.

This controlled breathing technique helps reduce stress and anxiety by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, bringing the mind into the present moment. When we are calm and centred, our pre-frontal cortex can engage which enhances concentration and gives us space to consider our situation which helps to manage our emotions.

• Inhale slowly through your nose for a count of 4

• Hold your breath for a count of 4

• Exhale gently through your mouth for a count of 4

• Hold the empty breath for a count of 4

• Repeat for several cycles, adjusting the count if it feels too challenging

3. 4-7-8 Breathing

This technique encourages relaxation by activating the parasympathetic nervous system. The longer exhale encourages the heart rate to slow and can be especially helpful at bedtime or during intense stress.

I use it as part of my bedtime relaxation technique every night and it is very effective.

• Breathe in quietly through your nose for 4 seconds

• Hold your breath for 7 seconds

• Exhale completely through your mouth for 8 seconds, making a soft whooshing sound. Or you can just exhale through the nose

• Repeat this cycle 4 times to start, increasing over time as you get more familiar with the technique

4. Resonance Breathing

This technique aims to create a steady, calming rhythm to affect heart rate variability and promote nervous system balance. Heart rate variability (HRV) refers to the variation in the time intervals between consecutive heartbeats. The heart is meant to shift its rhythm in response to stressors. We need more oxygen around the body when we have to be active, and so the heart rate will need to increase to get more blood flowing around the body.

HRV is important because it tells us how adaptable our autonomic nervous system is. A higher variability generally means a healthy, flexible nervous system capable of effective stress regulation. While lower variability can indicate chronic stress, anxiety, or trauma.

• Breathe in for 5-6 seconds

• Breathe out for 5-6 seconds

• Keep your inhalations and exhalations the same length

• Continue breathing at this pace for 2-8 minutes, starting lower and building up over time

Why These Techniques Help
Our nervous system responds directly to how we breathe. Shallow, rapid breaths can activate the sympathetic nervous system—the ‘fight or flight’ response. Deep, slow, and controlled breathing stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which encourages relaxation and restoration. When we are centred into our parasympathetic nervous system, our ventral vagal state, we can access all centres of the brain, our muscles are relaxed, our digestive system works effectively, and our system is working in a state of homeostasis.

Over time, practising these breathing techniques regularly trains your nervous system to stay calmer and more regulated, helping to ease signs of anxiety and trauma or help you cope better at times of stress.

Begin with small steps. Choose one technique that feels most comfortable and practice it ideally every day, or at least a few times a week. As you build greater awareness and control over your breath, you’ll find your mind and body working more harmoniously, supporting healing from the inside out.

If you want to work one to one with me then drop me an email or book a free consultation using the button below.