If your chest is tight and your mind is racing, you aren't broken—your nervous system is simply overworked. In this episode, clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic Martin Hewlett guides you through a 10-minute nervous system reset. Using the clinically effective 4-2-6 breathing technique and a guided visualization of golden light, we reduce the "voltage" of anxiety to return your body to its natural baseline.
The script
Transcribed from the audio, so the odd word may be off. Tap any line while it plays to keep the words in step with Martin's voice.
If you've searched for a nervous system reset today, if your chest is tight, if your mind is racing or you just feel like something is wrong inside your own body, then I want you to stop for a moment. Take one breath because what you're feeling right now, it's not a sign that you're broken. It's a sign that your nervous system has been working too hard for too long and that is something I can help you with right now in the next 10 minutes. Hi, this is Calming Anxiety I'm Martin Hewlett, I'm a clinical hypnotherapist and former frontline paramedic.
Every single day thousands of people find this podcast searching for a way to turn down the volume on anxiety and panic and every single day, this is where I meet them. Today we're going to do something very specific. We're going to perform a nervous system reset, a clinically grounded 10 minute process that speaks directly to your biology. Just through thoughts, so let's begin.
Find your quiet place now, somewhere comfy where you won't be disturbed, you can sit or lie down whatever feels right here and if it's safe to do so, let your eyes close softly, let your jaw unclench. Help your shoulders down from your ears, soften your brow. You don't need to do anything except follow my voice. We'll begin though with the breath, always the fastest, most clinically effective way to send a safety signal right to the very core of your brain.
This is our beautiful 426 breath. The one that activates the vagus nerve, it's the longest nerve in your body. The one that runs from your brain slam, all the way down into your chest and gut. This nerve is your body's own off switch for panic and we're going to use it now.
Your breathing slowly through your nose. For a count of four, you'll hold gently at the top, being mindful of the tranquility and then you breathe out slowly through your mouth for a full count of six. Ready with me my friend? In 2 3 4, hold 2, relax 2 3 4 5 6.
That extended out breath, that's the signal. It tells your brain there is no emergency here. Your heart rate begins to settle, your chest begins to soften. Again, ready?
Breathe in 2 3 4 4 2 and out 2 3 4 5 6.
And one more time, inhale 2 3 4, hold 2, release 2 3 4 5 6.
Beautiful. Let your breath now find its own natural rhythm. You've begun the reset. And now within the power of your imagination, I want you to think of your nervous system as a power grid, a vast intricate network of signals running throughout your body.
And right now, there are too many signals firing at once. There is too much electricity in the lines. That's what anxiety feels like. That is what panic is.
And what we're about to do is not fight those signals, which is going to reduce the voltage, gently and safely until the system begins to return to baseline. Bring your awareness to the very crown of your head. Imagine now a warm, golden light, like the first light of a quiet morning, beginning to form just above you. With every out breath, that light moves down through your forehead, softening any furrows there, through your eyes, releasing any tension behind them, down through your jaw, your throat, your shoulders.
Feel the weight of your shoulders drop, not because I told you to relax, but because your body is remembering what safety feels like. That golden light continues down into your chest. This is often where anxiety lies. That light locked feeling just beneath the sternum, I want you to breathe directly into that space now, softening it from the inside.
You are not in danger. Your body is simply in a patented learnt to run and patons can be changed. The light now moving down through your belly, your lower back, your hips, down through your legs, your knees, your ankles, and out through the soles of your feet. And with it goes every thread of tension your body has been holding.
Notice now how the surface beneath you feels. The solid, reliable support beneath your back and beneath your feet. You are held, you are grounded, you are saved. And in this state, this quiet, open state, your nervous system can now do something extraordinary.
It can reset completely, all by itself. All you have to do is stay here with me. Breathe in gently now and as you breathe out, receive these words into every cell of your body. My nervous system is safe and I am giving it permission to rest.
I am not my anxiety, I am the calm beneath it.
Every breath I take is resetting my body from the inside out.
My body knows how to heal. My mind is learning how to let it.
Let these words settle. You don't need to believe them perfectly right now. You only need to let them sink in. That is enough.
My nervous system is safe and I am giving it permission to rest.
I am not my anxiety, I am the calm beneath it.
And as you find your moment of calm deep within, take within these three daily caring tips. One, the two minute exhale room. When anxiety spikes today, wherever you are, just extend your breath. Breathe in for four, breathe out for eight.
Do it for two minutes. That's your nervous system reset in the real world. No app needed, no quiet room required. Two, name what you are feeling.
It shows that simply naming an emotion, saying it to yourself, this is anxiety or this is a panic attack, reduces its intensity in the brain. You are not dramatising it, you are disarming it, try it and three, one safe anchor.
Choose one physical object in your environment that you can touch or hold when anxiety arrives. A smooth stone, a bracelet, even the edge of a chair. Your nervous system learns safety through the body. Give it something solid to come back to.
Now bring your awareness back to the room around you. Wiggle your fingers and toes. Take a deep breath in and then let it out with a sigh and then stretch the muscles in your arms and legs. Just give in your nervous system something it may not have had in a very long time.
Ten minutes of genuine rest. That matters, you matter. I'll be back tomorrow with another ten minutes just for you. And if you would like to go deeper my friend, if you want the full clinical hypnotherapy program that works with your nervous system at a deeper level, visit calminganxiety.fm.
My anxiety circuit breaker is five sessions, it's only sixty seven dollars and it works.
Until tomorrow take care of yourself. You are doing better than you think. I'm Martin, this is calming anxiety and then everything we all do, be kind.