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Say This When You're Overwhelmed | Nervous System Hack

The Holistic Psychologist

34,968 views

Use this emotional regulation technique to signal safety to your nervous system. Learn how one simple phrase helps you calm down.

Dr. Nicole LaPera shares a practical method for nervous system regulation that you can use anywhere. By repeating the phrase I am safe enough right now, you can actively communicate safety to your body and shift your physiological state. This approach is essential for anyone practicing reparenting or seeking tools to manage daily stress.

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This video explains the connection between your thoughts and physical reactions. You will learn why this specific phrasing matters for inner child healing and how to integrate it into your routine when you feel overwhelmed. Using emotional regulation consistently helps build new neural pathways that support long-term mental wellness.

Subscribe for weekly emotional regulation breakdowns, and comment below with a situation where you need to feel safer.

What you'll learn:
• Why your nervous system reacts to old stress patterns as if they're happening right now
• The exact phrase to use to help your body register safety in real time
• How to move from a survival response into genuine self-regulation
• A simple body check-in you can do anywhere, in seconds
• How to shift out of "relaxed vigilance" and create real calm around you

Keypoints:

0:08 – What your nervous system is actually reacting to
1:05 – The real source of your anxiety (it's not what you think)
1:17 – How to help your body feel safe again
1:25 – Where stress actually gets stored
3:00 – Are you stuck in a survival response right now?
3:40 – The shift from reacting to regulating
4:52 – A 10-second check-in that changes everything
5:51 – The simple shift that resets your state
7:05 – Why you're always a little "on" (relaxed vigilance)
8:47 – A conscious check-in you can use today
10:40 – How to actually create calm around you
11:19 – One question to sit with after this video

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#theholisticpsychologist #nervoussystem #nervoussystemregulation #nervoussystemhealing #anxietyrelief

20 Comments

@TheHolisticPsychologist Creator 2 months ago Pinned

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@johannesreber1733 2 months ago (edited)

It’s important to stop the nervous system to take on jobs that are never its job to begin with: Regulating other people’s minds, emotions, perceptions.
As soon as you end this job, 80% of the exhaustion falls away. This is a conscious decision every time. “This is out of my control, not my responsibility” and let it move through you. Don’t let your nervous system assign you a job: you have to regulate this.

@johannesreber1733 2 months ago

I appreciate that the videos are more solution-oriented now. We have enough knowledge, now it’s about embodiment.

@user-nat90 2 months ago

Please make these solution oriented videos please ...We need more of these ❤

@mehrnazmemar1832 2 months ago

My sign of overwhelm is crying!

@HumanBehaviorInsight 1 month ago

The key insight: anxiety begins in the body, not the mind. What gives this technique power is timing — interrupting the stress loop before it spirals into rumination creates a window of agency. Counterintuitively, slowing feels wrong when wired to speed up. Self-regulation isn't eliminating stress; it's building capacity to return to baseline faster.

@zyrinaz 1 month ago

Telling me tofocus on the positive makes me angry, just like telling me to calm down makes extra angry

@TheRawDose 2 months ago

Key Points to Remember After You Watch The Video. (Thank Me Later):
1. Anxiety is not just in your head; it is actually a physical feeling in your body that affects how you breathe and move (0:47-0:51).

2. Stress happens when your body thinks it is in danger because of small things like busy work or difficult texts, which the doctor calls micro threats (1:47-2:11).

3. Many people live in a state of low stress all day without realizing it, which makes them feel tired and exhausted by nighttime (2:58-3:16).

4. Instead of trying to escape stress at the end of the day, you should learn how to calm your body down while the stress is happening (3:34-4:12).

5. You need to start checking in with your body throughout the day by asking if your muscles are tight or if you are holding your breath (4:45-5:03).

6. You can help your body feel safe by doing simple things like taking slow breaths, relaxing your jaw, or feeling your feet on the floor (5:23-5:47).

7. Telling yourself the phrase I am safe enough right now is a powerful way to remind your nervous system that you are not in real danger (5:48-5:53).

8. Healing happens when you practice these small steps every single day, which helps you build a new, calmer way of living (6:16-6:51).

I hope I can get to 1 million subscribers soon. 💪💪💪

@onthatilesekano864 2 months ago

My sign that I’m stressed is I wake up and immediately my heart is already beating fast and I feel anxious.

@jacksavage279 2 months ago

This is gold Dr.

@allisoncloudvoiceover8497 2 months ago

Thank you for this practice. It is so timely. Living with chronic stress has become normal to me and I must heal this. Thank you, thank you thank you.

@Motheringthemother 1 month ago

Yes to this! I have currently a badly sensitised nervous system and am learning to just sit with it and accept it and float with it. It is super tough but it works.
We're so spammed with nervous system regulation tools and barely anyone talks about the difference of disregulation and sensitisation that it took me some time to find the answer in this "simple" routine

@rrusso8648 1 month ago

LOVE your videos and all the helpful information!!
The one thing I noticed when I'm stressed is the compulsive urge to turn on Netflix, or work in my garden, or paint....anything to distract me.

@barrymcalister5133 1 month ago

Thank you for all of your help. After a physically strenuous day yesterday, plus a cranio-sacral/reiki session, I fell asleep at 7:30 pm. Woke up tired and did not immediately start with keeping my small promises. (a.m. sun, tongue scraping, FSJ).

micro stressors

I am FSJ the Addiction Course from the SHC and see my daily improvements + rewiring through the empowerment pause. No Etoh for 29 days now.

Breathwork + yoga help.

Have several alarms set for a conscious check in.

I am so grateful for your help.

@bobGmitter 1 month ago

Teh physiological sigh has made a huge change in my anxiety.

@debidonovan2385 1 month ago

Thanks 🙏 I needed to hear this today!

@rulingsaturn 1 month ago

Hi Doc! I must establish SAFETY first, I then FEEL my FEET on the ground before I can move into the check in list. Thank you for allowing me to share.

@Intentionalconsciousnessevol 1 month ago

Love you so much. God bless. Thank you

@pathogenesis-6.10.21 2 months ago

The binaural beats/frequency stuff really chills me out. It’s a meditative field frequency thing.

A developed functioning nervous system goes into shock attempting to compensate and acclimate to malicious and toxic behavior.
All the alerts, beeps; background noises can disrupt our bio-equilibrium thingee.

Best. 🤙

@therootedrhythmmedia 2 months ago

The phrasing here is doing more work than it looks like, and it is worth naming why. The nervous system does not process propositions, so a sentence on its own does not change autonomic state. What changes it is what saying the sentence makes you do: you have to pause, take a breath to carry it, and push it out on a slow exhale through a loaded larynx, and all three of those load the vagal brake directly. That is also why saying it fast in your head does almost nothing while saying it out loud, slowly, lands. The words give the body permission to do the physiology, and the physiology is what the body reads. When you use a phrase like this, do you say it out loud or keep it internal?