How to Reset a Nervous System Stuck in Chronic Stress

You’ve done it. The massive project is finished, the deadline met, the crisis averted. You should feel relieved, celebratory even. Instead, you feel a profound, humming exhaustion. You’re “on” even when you’re on the couch, your sleep is shallow, and your thoughts are still racing. You feel fried. This state of depletion isn’t a personal failing or a simple need for a good night’s sleep. It’s a sign of physiological dysregulation. After a period of chronic stress, your nervous system’s emergency protocols can get stuck in the ‘on’ position, continuously flooding your body with stress hormones even when the danger has passed.

Many will advise you to meditate, take a vacation, or simply rest. But you may have discovered that these strategies fall short. That’s because they don’t address the root cause: a nervous system that no longer believes it’s safe. This isn’t about willpower; it’s about physiology. Your body is caught in a biochemical feedback loop, and to break it, you need to stop fighting your body and start a different kind of conversation with it—a somatic dialogue.

The key isn’t to force relaxation, but to consciously send your body signals of safety that it can understand. This guide moves beyond the generic advice. We will explore why your body remains on high alert and introduce concrete, body-based (somatic) tools to help you manually downshift your system, release the stored tension, and guide your body back to a state of balance and true recovery.

To navigate your recovery effectively, we will explore the core physiological reasons for your state of exhaustion and provide a clear roadmap of practical, somatic-based techniques. This article breaks down the process into actionable steps, from understanding the hormonal trap to rebuilding your resilience for the long term.

Why Your Body Keeps Producing Cortisol Even When You Relax

That persistent feeling of being “on edge” or unable to truly unwind, even when you have nothing to do, isn’t in your head. It’s in your biochemistry. During a period of chronic stress, like finishing a major project, your body’s Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis works overtime. This system is designed for short-term survival, releasing hormones like cortisol and adrenaline to help you perform under pressure. The problem is, this system doesn’t have a simple “off” switch. Once the project is done, the HPA axis can remain sensitized, continuing to release cortisol as if the threat is still present.

This creates a vicious cycle. High cortisol levels disrupt sleep, digestion, and mood, which your brain interprets as new stressors, signaling the HPA axis to release even more cortisol. Your body is essentially stuck in a survival state, a condition known as sympathetic nervous system dominance. You are trying to relax your mind, but your body is still running from a tiger. The key to breaking this cycle is not to try harder to relax, but to communicate safety to your body on a physiological level. The signals of this “stuckness” are often clear, yet we tend to ignore them.

Common indicators that your nervous system is trapped in this stress loop include a sense of constant restlessness, digestive upset that seems to appear during downtime, and the frustrating experience of being utterly exhausted yet unable to fall into a deep, restorative sleep. Recognizing these as physiological signals, not personal failures, is the first step toward genuine recovery.

How to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve to Calm Anxiety Instantly?

The fastest way to manually apply the brakes to your body’s runaway stress response is by activating the vagus nerve. This nerve is the main highway of your parasympathetic nervous system—the “rest and digest” system that counteracts the “fight or flight” response. Stimulating it sends a direct, powerful signal to your brain that you are safe, which in turn helps lower heart rate, reduce cortisol, and calm anxiety. While deep breathing is a well-known method, more direct, body-based techniques can be profoundly effective.

These somatic practices work because they create physical vibrations or temperature changes that the vagus nerve is uniquely sensitive to. You are not just thinking calming thoughts; you are creating a physical sensation that your brain cannot ignore. One of the most effective and gentle techniques involves using your own voice to create a low-frequency vibration in your chest, where the vagus nerve is highly concentrated.

Beyond vocalization, other physical methods can provide immediate relief. The goal of these techniques is to interrupt the anxiety feedback loop with a novel and powerful physical stimulus. This brings your awareness out of racing thoughts and into the present-moment reality of your body.

• Humming or Gargling: For 30 seconds, either hum a low-toned song or gargle with water. Both actions activate the muscles in the back of the throat, which are directly connected to the vagus nerve.
• Cold Water Immersion: Briefly splashing your face with cold water or holding an ice pack to your neck for 15-30 seconds triggers the “dive reflex,” an instinctual response that immediately slows your heart rate and redirects blood flow, activating the vagus nerve.
• Orienting: Slowly look around the room, letting your head and neck turn naturally. As you scan, identify and silently name five objects that you find neutral or pleasant. This practice tells your primitive brain to assess the environment and conclude that there is no immediate threat.

Passive vs Active Rest: Which Do You Need Right Now?

When you feel “fried,” the instinct is to collapse on the couch and binge-watch a show. This is a form of passive rest, and while it has its place, it often isn’t enough to recover from deep-seated burnout. Chronic stress doesn’t just deplete your physical energy; it drains you on multiple levels—mentally, emotionally, and sensorially. To truly recharge, you need a more holistic approach that incorporates both passive and active rest, which involves engaging in low-effort activities that specifically replenish these different energy stores.

For a high-achiever, the idea of “active rest” might sound like another task on the to-do list, but it’s about shifting the type of stimulus, not the effort. If your mental energy is depleted from constant problem-solving, passive rest like watching TV might not help because it still bombards your brain with information. A better choice might be a form of creative or sensory rest, like listening to instrumental music or walking in nature, which uses different neural pathways and allows the overtaxed ones to recover.

Recognizing what kind of rest you are deficient in is the key to choosing activities that will actually restore you. Feeling irritable and overstimulated points to a sensory rest deficit, while a lack of inspiration and new ideas signals a creative rest deficit. The following table breaks down the different types of rest and how to address them.

This framework, popularized by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, helps reframe rest not as an absence of activity, but as the targeted restoration of specific internal resources. As an analysis of rest deficits shows, misalignment between the type of fatigue and the type of rest is a common reason for failed recovery.

The 7 Types of Rest and Their Recovery Activities

Type of Rest	Deficit Symptoms	Recovery Activities
Physical	Body aches, fatigue	Stretching, massage, sleep
Mental	Concentration issues, forgetfulness	Meditation, short breaks
Sensory	Irritability, overstimulation	Silence, dim lighting
Creative	Creative blocks, uninspired	Nature exposure, art
Emotional	People-pleasing, emotional numbness	Therapy, journaling
Social	Relationship exhaustion	Alone time, boundaries
Spiritual	Lack of purpose, disconnection	Meditation, community

The Danger of “Pushing Through” When You Are Already Empty

In a culture that glorifies hustle, the impulse to “push through” fatigue is often seen as a sign of strength. For a professional who has just completed a demanding project, this instinct can be overwhelming. You might feel the pressure to immediately jump into the next task or maintain your usual high level of productivity. However, when your nervous system is already depleted, pushing through is not just ineffective; it’s dangerous. It’s the physiological equivalent of flooring the accelerator when the gas tank is empty—you’re just burning out the engine.

When you ignore the body’s signals of exhaustion, you force your sympathetic nervous system into a final, desperate surge. This can provide a temporary, stress-hormone-fueled burst of energy, but the cost is immense. It deepens your physiological debt and pushes you closer to a state of complete shutdown. As a somatic therapist, I see this pattern constantly: the final push before a collapse.

Pushing through is the final, desperate surge of the sympathetic system before it exhausts itself and the body defaults into a dorsal vagal ‘freeze’ state to conserve its last resources.

– Dr. Juliana Overbeck, Jazz Psychiatry Clinical Practice

This “freeze” state, also known as a dorsal vagal shutdown, is a primitive survival mechanism. It’s characterized by feelings of numbness, disconnection, and profound exhaustion. Cognitively, it’s devastating for a leader or professional. Your ability to think strategically, innovate, and connect with your team collapses, replaced by a narrow, reactive focus on just getting through the next moment.

Planning Your Return: How to ease Back into Work After Burnout?

Recovering from a state of being “fried” is only half the battle. The other half is ensuring you don’t fall right back into the same patterns upon returning to your demanding role. Easing back into work requires a conscious, structured plan focused on preserving your newly regulated nervous system. The goal is not to match your previous intensity from day one, but to build a sustainable work rhythm that respects your body’s need for balance. This involves establishing firm boundaries, not just with your time, but with your physical and mental space.

One of the most effective strategies is the implementation of “boundary rituals.” These are small, consistent actions performed at the beginning and end of the workday to create a clear psychological and physiological transition between “work mode” and “rest mode.” Without these rituals, the nervous system can remain in a state of low-grade activation, preventing full recovery overnight. A boundary ritual can be as simple as changing clothes, putting your laptop completely out of sight, or taking a ten-minute walk to mark the end of the day.

These rituals are powerful because they are somatic. They are physical acts that signal to your nervous system that the “hunt” (the workday) is over and it is now safe to power down. This helps prevent the slow creep of work into your personal time and mental space, which is a primary driver of recurring burnout. For a high-achiever, this requires a mental shift from viewing rest as “time off” to seeing it as a critical, non-negotiable part of a high-performance work cycle.

The Risk of Ignoring “Functional Freeze” State in Your Body

Perhaps the most misunderstood and insidious state of burnout is the “functional freeze.” This isn’t dramatic collapse; it’s a quiet, internal shutdown. On the outside, you may still be going through the motions—attending meetings, answering emails, managing tasks. But on the inside, you feel numb, disconnected, and hollow. This is a dorsal vagal state, a primitive self-preservation strategy where the nervous system, overwhelmed by chronic “fight or flight,” decides the safest course of action is to shut down and conserve energy. It is far more common than people realize; recent neurophysiology research indicates that as many as 67% of chronic stress sufferers experience symptoms of functional freeze.

In this state, you lose access to your social engagement system. You may find yourself feeling detached from colleagues, family, and even yourself. Joy, creativity, and spontaneity feel distant or impossible. You are operating on pure cognitive fumes, and your capacity for strategic thought and emotional connection is severely compromised. Ignoring this state is incredibly risky because it normalizes disconnection as a baseline, eroding both your professional effectiveness and your personal well-being.

The way out of a freeze state is not to “snap out of it” or force yourself to be more energetic. That only adds more pressure to an already overloaded system. The therapeutic approach is gentle and somatic. It involves carefully and safely re-introducing small amounts of sensation and awareness back into the body, a process known as pendulation. This technique teaches your nervous system that it can touch into the discomfort of the “freeze” and immediately return to a place of safety and resource, gradually building its capacity and tolerance.

The Subtle Signs of Executive Burnout That Leaders Ignore

For high-achieving leaders, the most telling signs of burnout are often not personal feelings of exhaustion, but subtle shifts in their professional behavior and mindset. Because their identity is often deeply intertwined with their performance, they become adept at masking their inner struggles. They may not admit they are “fried,” but their actions—or lack thereof—tell a different story. One of the most common signs is a loss of empathy and a shift from a relational to a transactional leadership style.

A regulated nervous system is the foundation of effective leadership; it allows for patience, strategic thinking, and emotional attunement. When a leader’s system is dysregulated and stuck in survival mode, their capacity for these higher-order skills vanishes. Their focus narrows to threat detection and problem-solving, causing them to view their team’s emotional needs or developmental questions as irritating obstacles rather than core parts of their role.

A previously supportive leader becomes cynical, transactional, and shows low tolerance for their team’s emotions, viewing human issues as frustrating obstacles rather than part of leadership.

– Dr. Emma McAdam, Therapy in a Nutshell Podcast

This behavioral shift is rooted in a physiological inability to access the social engagement system, a function of the ventral vagus nerve. Underneath this cynical exterior is often a performance-based identity crisis. The leader’s self-worth has become so fused with their professional achievements that any sign of fatigue or struggle feels like a catastrophic failure, prompting them to double down on a “tough” exterior as a defense mechanism.

How to Increase Your Heart Rate Variability (HRV) for Better Resilience?

After you’ve begun to stabilize your nervous system, the next phase of recovery is proactively building resilience. One of the most powerful, objective measures of your nervous system’s health and resilience is Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Contrary to what the name might suggest, a healthy, resilient nervous system produces a *higher* HRV. This indicates a greater capacity to adapt to stress, shifting flexibly between activation (“fight or flight”) and recovery (“rest and digest”). A low HRV, on the other hand, is a sign that your system is stuck in stress mode, with little capacity to relax.

HRV measures the tiny, millisecond variations in time between your heartbeats. When you are relaxed and your parasympathetic system is dominant (high vagal tone), your heart rate naturally varies more with your breath—speeding up slightly as you inhale and slowing down as you exhale. When you are stressed, your sympathetic system takes over, and your heart beats more like a metronome, with very little variability. Therefore, the goal is to increase your HRV score as a marker of improved vagal tone and stress resilience. Thankfully, HRV is not a fixed trait; it can be trained. In fact, specific vagal tone research demonstrates a 25-50ms increase in HRV is achievable after just 8 weeks of consistent training.

Tracking your HRV, typically with a wearable device, provides direct biofeedback on your recovery status. It moves nervous system regulation from a vague concept to a measurable daily practice. It tells you when you’re recovered enough to handle a tough workout or a demanding day, and when you need to prioritize rest.

HRV Ranges and Recovery Recommendations

HRV Score (RMSSD)	Nervous System State	Recommended Activities
Below 20ms	High stress/Poor recovery	Rest day, gentle movement only
20-40ms	Moderate stress	Light exercise, stress management
40-60ms	Good balance	Normal training, regular activities
Above 60ms	Excellent recovery	High-intensity work possible

A science-backed protocol for improving HRV involves a few simple, consistent daily practices that directly enhance vagal tone and support your circadian rhythm. These aren’t time-consuming but require consistency to retrain your nervous system over time.

• Practice resonant frequency breathing at 5-7 breaths per minute for 10 minutes daily.
• Get morning sunlight exposure within 30 minutes of waking to anchor your circadian clock.
• Maintain a consistent sleep schedule with 7-9 hours of quality sleep nightly.
• Perform physiological sighs (a double inhale through the nose, followed by a long, full exhale through the mouth) during moments of stress to offload carbon dioxide and calm the system.
• Track your HRV upon waking to gather data and guide your daily activity intensity.

Moving from a “fried” and depleted state to one of resilience is a journey of physiological re-education. It’s about unlearning the habit of pushing through and instead learning to listen to, and collaborate with, your body. The tools and perspectives in this guide are not quick fixes, but the foundational skills for building a nervous system that can handle high performance without sacrificing well-being. By understanding the ‘why’ behind your exhaustion and applying these somatic strategies, you can guide your body out of survival mode and cultivate a lasting state of balance. To begin this process, start by noticing your body’s signals not as an inconvenience, but as valuable data guiding you toward true recovery.