TIPS FOR
SETTLING THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, SELF CARE & RESILIENCE

-Remember to Hydrate
-Take A Deep Breath
-Name What is Present
-Remember the Humanity of All
-Seek Empathy
-Offer Empathy
-Notice Sources of Support
-Give Yourself a Hug
-Practice Grounding Skills
-Get To Know Your Nervous System
-Honor Your Nervous System
-If A Grounding Tool Isn't Working, Let It Go
-Seek Support
-Only Use Resources That Work For You
-Honor Your Choice
-Honor Your Capacity
-Undo Perfectionism

-Don't Go It Alone
-Actively Ground Into the Present
-Take A Break
-Remember To Laugh
-When Overwhelmed, Have A Plan
-Take Space
-Practice Grounding Before Stressful Situations
- Grounding That Works for Others Doesn’t Have to Work For You
-Normalize Your Nervous System Responses
-Love Yourself

-Work On Self Acceptance
-Create A Safety Statement To Ground Yourself
-Use Humor
-Use A Grounding Quote
-Breathe Into Your Belly
- Breathe In For 2 Seconds, Breath Out for 4 Seconds
-Brush Your Left Hand Down the Length Of Your Right Arm- Then Switch
-Name Qualities of the Most Relaxed Place In Your Body
-Picture Grounding People In Your Life
-Picture Grounding Places
-Name Qualities Your Senses Notice Outside Yourself
-Imagine A Favorite Food, Pet or Season
-Drink Cool Water
-Ground Your Soles Of Your Feet Into the Earth
-Recite A Prayer or Poem
-Carry A Touchstone Object
-Stretch Your Body
-Bilateral Stimulation (Alternate Tapping Opposite Sides of Knees or Collarbone)
-Hum or Sing
-Breathe In Compassion, Breathe Out Compassion
- Build A Support Pod
- Have Something Light and Fun To Land On
- Get Into Nature To Decompress
- Listen To The Sound Of A Bell Or Gong That Soothes You
- Bounce Or throw A Ball While Focusing On Your Breath
- Feel Into Your Body And Release A Sound That Matches That Feeling
- Tap, Pat, and/or Squeeze Your Body To Locate Yourself
- Parasympathetic Nervous System Stimulation: Stand Feet Forward... Twist Your Head To The Right, Then Let Your Hips Follow... Repeat To the Left.. Then Look Up (Slack Jawed)...Then Let Your Head Hang... Then Back To Center

“The original wound of this land is the violence of colonization and genocide; the belief that you can own land and disappear all life that gets in the way of taking the resources from that land you feel entitled to claim. This is a European Christian wound, one that is a response to England’s own colonization as land ownership on that island happened first in response to the Norman conquest of 1066…at the time of the Norman Conquest, between one-tenth and one-fifth of Britons were enslaved. This is the cycle of violence: those harmed by violence who, rather than reaching wide to heal, take on, as Audre Lorde put it, the master’s tools, and become the ones who harm.” - Susan Raffo, ‘liberated to the bone’