Somatic Skills for Emotional Regulation: 5 Simple Practices to Calm Your Nervous System
The Body Keeps the Score (and the Wisdom)
You’ve probably had this experience: your chest tightens in the middle of a hard conversation, your stomach drops when you open an email, or your jaw clenches at the end of a stressful day.
Long before your brain forms words about what’s happening, your body speaks first.
Our nervous system doesn’t just hold stress — it broadcasts it and it flows throughout the rest of your body. And when left unaddressed, it can loop us into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses that feel automatic and overwhelming. This is why “just think calm thoughts” rarely works. Regulation isn’t only a mindset. It’s a body-set.
That’s where somatic skills come in: practical, body-based tools that help us shift from overwhelm back into balance.
What Are Somatic Skills (and Why Should You Care)?
“Somatic” simply means “of the body.” Somatic skills are small practices that help you:
Notice what’s happening in your body in the present moment
Interrupt automatic stress patterns and behaviors
Return to a calmer, more grounded state, where you’re able to make choices from a place of clarity and not reactivity
These aren’t woo-woo techniques. They’re backed by neuroscience. When you hum, stretch, or orient to your surroundings, you’re literally sending cues of safety to your nervous system. Over time, these practices build resilience — your ability to bend without breaking when life gets intense.
Why Regulating Your Nervous System Changes Everything
Your nervous system is like a compass, always scanning for safety. When it senses threat — even if that “threat” is hard conversation, a tense meeting or a buzzing phone — it can pull you into:
Fight/Flight: urgency, racing thoughts, irritability.
Freeze: zoning out, feeling numb, stuck energy.
Fawn: people-pleasing, over-giving, abandoning your own needs.
These states are not “bad.” They’re survival strategies. Strategies that likely worked for you at some moment in your life. But when we live there all the time, life feels like walking through a storm with no umbrella. Somatic skills are like learning to pause under a tree, breathe, and remember that the storm always passes.
5 Somatic Skills You Can Try Right Now
1. Orienting: Find Safety in the Room
Turn your head slowly and look around the space you’re in. Name five things you see. Let your eyes land on something neutral or pleasant — a plant, a piece of art, the sky or tree out the window. This reminds your body: I am here. I am safe enough in this moment.
2. Grounding Through Your Senses
Press your feet firmly and root into the floor or whatever is supporting you. Notice the texture beneath you. Pick up an object near you and describe it to yourself in detail — color, weight, texture. Engaging your senses brings you back into the present.
3. Breath with Touch
Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly. Inhale slowly, noticing which hand rises. Exhale twice as long. The touch adds a layer of comfort and reminds your system you’re supported.
4. The Power of Vibration
Hum, sing, or gently chant. This activates the vagus nerve, which tells your nervous system: all is well. Even two minutes of humming can shift you out of hyperarousal.
5. Shake It Out
Animals instinctively shake after a threat to discharge stress. Try standing up and gently shaking your arms, legs, or whole body for 30 seconds. It may feel silly — and that’s the point. It resets tension and often leaves you laughing.
Making Somatic Skills Part of Everyday Life
The most effective regulation practices are short and frequent. Instead of waiting until you’re completely overwhelmed, try weaving them in daily:
Before opening your inbox or looking at your phone first thing in the morning.
After a difficult conversation.
As part of your bedtime routine.
Between therapy sessions, to integrate insights.
Think of them as “micro-moments” of safety. Over time, these small pauses re-train your nervous system to trust that you can move through stress without drowning in it.
When to Seek Extra Support
Sometimes somatic skills are enough. Sometimes you need a guide. If you notice that your nervous system feels stuck — in high alert or deep shutdown — working with a a therapist can provide the safety and structure needed for deeper healing.
Final Thoughts: Your Body Is Not the Enemy
Emotional regulation isn’t about “fixing” yourself. It’s about listening differently and seeing if there is a message in there for you. Your body is not betraying you when your heart races or your chest tightens — it’s protecting you. With somatic skills, you can learn to thank your body for trying to keep you safe, and then guide it gently back toward balance.
Try one of these practices today. Notice how you feel afterward. And if you’d like support weaving them into your life, I offer both individual and group therapy in New York (in-person in the Hudson Valley, Rhinebeck, and virtual). You can learn more about working together here.
