Ever feel like your mind won’t stop racing? Like no matter how much you practice mindfulness, brain training, or deep breathing, you’re stuck in a relentless cycle of overthinking and stress? It’s frustrating—and it might make you wonder if these techniques even work.
For some, brain training alone is enough to calm the nervous system and bring it back into balance. But what if it’s not working for you? What if no matter how hard you try, your nervous system remains stuck in high alert?
Here’s the thing: brain training does work, and it’s a vital part of the recovery journey. But if other factors are overstimulating your nervous system, you’re going to struggle. That’s why calming an overactive nervous system often requires a multifaceted approach. It’s not just about retraining your thoughts—it’s also about addressing the external and physical triggers that keep your system overstimulated.
Why Your Mind Stays Stuck in Overdrive
It’s not just your thoughts causing chaos. When the nervous system becomes overstimulated, it operates as though you’re in constant danger. This shifts your brain into survival mode, keeping it hyper-vigilant.
Even if you’re diligently practicing brain training techniques to calm your thoughts, those efforts can feel like they’re not working if the nervous system keeps being triggered by other factors. Think of it like trying to put out a fire while pouring gasoline on it—you’re fighting a losing battle until you remove the fuel.
Why Brain Training Works—But Feels Impossible
Brain training is a proven way to regulate the nervous system. Techniques like mindfulness, calming thoughts, and retraining emotional patterns all help reduce stress signals. But here’s the catch:
If external triggers—like diet, environment, or physical stress—are constantly activating your nervous system, it’s like your brain is being flooded with mixed signals. On one hand, you’re trying to calm it down, but on the other, stressors are telling it to stay on high alert.
Here’s an example:
You might be doing mindfulness exercises to reduce stress, but if your nervous system is being triggered by something like inflammation from your diet, it’s sending signals to your brain that something’s wrong. These stress signals can override your brain training efforts, making it feel like you’re stuck in a cycle of racing thoughts and tension.
You might be thinking, Well, there’s nothing wrong with my diet; I’ve never had a problem before! But now that your nervous system has become hypersensitive, foods that weren’t a problem before can cause stress to your system. Just like you may have been able to exercise without issue in the past but can’t now, certain foods can become triggers for your hypersensitive nervous system.
A diet that supports the nervous system is essential for giving yourself the best chance of recovery. By reducing stress signals from diet and inflammation, you create a stable foundation for brain training techniques to work effectively.
What’s Keeping Your Nervous System Stuck?
Your nervous system doesn’t act alone. It reacts to everything from what you eat to where you live, to how you move and think. Identifying these triggers is key to breaking the cycle and getting brain training to work effectively.
Common Nervous System Triggers
Diet and Inflammation Foods high in sugar, caffeine, or processed ingredients can spike inflammation, which sends stress signals through the gut-brain axis. If your gut is out of balance, it amplifies these signals, keeping your nervous system stuck in high alert.
Personal Note: For me, fixing my diet was a game-changer. Switching to a diet that supported nervous system healing helped both my brain and body. By focusing on gut health, lowering blood sugars, and reducing inflammation, I not only supported my gut microbiome but also enhanced neurotransmitter function. This shift made brain training far more effective and brought noticeable improvements to both my mental and physical well-being.
Physical Stressors Even minor physical activities, like a short walk or light chores, can feel overwhelming when your nervous system is hypersensitive. It might misinterpret normal exertion as a threat, leaving you fatigued and reactive.
Personal Note: For a long time, even minor physical tasks would exacerbate my nervous system, leaving me feeling drained and overstimulated. I kept trying to push through with exercise or chores, thinking it would help me “push past” my symptoms. Instead, it just made things worse. Managing this and allowing myself the rest I needed was so important. Once I stopped overexerting, my nervous system started to calm, and I noticed a huge difference in how effective brain training became.
Environmental Factors Things like damp, mould, noise pollution, or bright lights can overstimulate the nervous system. These external stressors can keep your brain and body on edge.
Mental Overload Racing thoughts and an anxious mind can reinforce the cycle. Even though brain training is designed to help, it’s harder to calm your mind if your nervous system is being triggered from multiple angles.
Personal Note: After fixing my diet and managing my physical activity, I noticed some changes—my muscle stiffness and pain began to ease, I got a little more sleep, and my body felt less tense. But my thoughts would still often race out of control, and I had real difficulty not engaging with them. It was like I was adding fuel to the fire, getting sucked into my head with thoughts going round and round—and they were always negative. This is where brain training came in. Managing my diet and physical stress helped reduce the load on my nervous system, but it wasn’t enough on its own—I had to address the mental overload, too. Once the stress from my diet and activity lessened, I started responding better to brain training exercises.
Yes, it’s incredibly hard, and sometimes it feels like if it’s not one thing, it’s another. For those of us dealing with severe nervous system dysregulation, healing requires a multifaceted approach. Brain training is key, but true progress comes when the nervous system is no longer being constantly overwhelmed.
Breaking the Cycle
To calm your mind and get brain training to work, you need to address the root causes that are overstimulating your nervous system. Brain training is a vital part of recovery, but it’s most effective when external triggers are also managed.
Here’s how to start:
Fix Your Foundations: Address factors like diet, environment, and physical activity. For example, reducing inflammatory foods or improving your living environment can make a big difference.
Support Brain Training: Once you’ve removed external triggers, techniques like mindfulness, guided meditations, and retraining thought patterns become much more effective.
Embrace Holistic Recovery: Remember, the nervous system is influenced by many factors. Tackling the issue requires a comprehensive approach.
Why Your Brain Stays on High Alert
When your nervous system is stuck in survival mode, it creates a feedback loop:
Stress signals from the nervous system activate the brain.
The brain interprets these signals as proof of danger.
This reinforces physical and mental symptoms, keeping the cycle alive.
The good news? You can break the loop. Once you address the external triggers, brain training stops feeling like a struggle and starts working the way it’s supposed to—calming your mind and resetting your nervous system.
Creating a Positive Feedback Loop for Nervous System Healing
Just as negative feedback loops can keep your nervous system stuck in a hyper-alert state, a positive feedback loop can work the other way, promoting calm and balance. The key is to make small, intentional changes that send soothing signals to your body and brain, creating a ripple effect of improvement.
Here’s how a positive feedback loop might look:
Gentle Calming Activities You start with activities that don’t overstimulate the nervous system, like mindfulness, yoga, or light stretching. These send signals to your brain that it’s safe to relax, reducing the fight-or-flight response.
Supportive Diet Eating a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods and nutrients that support the gut microbiome enhances the gut-brain connection. For instance, foods high in probiotics (like yogurt or kimchi) and fibre-rich prebiotics send calming signals via the vagus nerve, helping to regulate your nervous system further.
Slowing Thoughts As your nervous system calms, your brain receives fewer "threat" signals. Intrusive thoughts and overthinking begin to slow down, making room for clarity and peace of mind.
Brain-Training Exercises With fewer intrusive thoughts, brain-training exercises like affirmations, visualization, or gratitude journaling become more effective. These reinforce a sense of safety and positivity, creating even more calm within the nervous system.
A Balanced Body Supports a Balanced Mind With a calmer mind, your body remains in a relaxed state. Improved digestion, better sleep, and lower cortisol levels feed back into the nervous system, further enhancing the positive cycle.
Final Thoughts
Brain training is a vital part of recovery, but it can feel ineffective if your nervous system is constantly being triggered by external factors. Creating a calm, supportive environment is essential for healing.
For me, the turning point came when I took control of my diet and managed my physical activity to avoid overstimulation. Reducing inflammation and stabilising blood sugar had a profound impact, while supporting neurotransmitter balance with nutrient-rich foods helped calm my nervous system. Incorporating ketones as a cleaner energy source improved mental clarity. Equally important was allowing myself to rest. Once I addressed these triggers, my nervous system began to calm, and brain training started to yield results.
This process didn’t happen overnight—it’s a long and drawn-out journey filled with ups and downs. Once I had a plan in place, I learned that the key to progress was consistency: stick with your diet, commit to brain retraining exercises every day, and manage your physical activity wisely. It’s tempting to tackle all those chores on a day when you’re feeling up to it, but overdoing it often leads to a crash, triggering the nervous system and setting progress back. Instead, focus on pacing yourself and celebrating the small wins—whether it’s managing to cook a meal, take a short walk, or simply having a day with fewer symptoms.
Each of these victories matters. They’re not just fleeting moments; they’re the building blocks of your recovery. At times, progress may feel invisible, but week by week, month by month, it all adds up. Healing is not linear, and the slow pace can be frustrating, but over time, you’ll look back and realize just how far you’ve come—not just physically, but emotionally and mentally as well.
Recovery is a journey that requires patience and persistence. By addressing the root causes of nervous system dysfunction and creating a supportive environment for healing, progress becomes not only possible but sustainable.
References
Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation. Norton & Company.
Porges' work on the polyvagal theory explains how the autonomic nervous system responds to stress and why we can get "stuck" in states of hypervigilance.
Stevens, B. R. (2018). Gut-Brain Connection: How Diet, Inflammation, and the Microbiome Influence Mental Health. Frontiers in Neuroscience.
This paper reviews how gut health and inflammation influence mental well-being, emphasizing the link between diet, inflammation, and nervous system regulation.
Van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking.
Van der Kolk's book explores how trauma and stress affect the nervous system, and why a multifaceted approach is essential for healing.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990). Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. Delta.
Kabat-Zinn’s work on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) underscores the importance of addressing the mind-body connection to reduce mental overload and physical tension.
Bermudez, J. (2019). Mindful Eating and the Gut-Brain Axis: How Our Diet Affects Mental Health. Current Psychology, 38(4), 940–946.
This article discusses the impact of mindful eating and how certain foods can either stabilize or trigger the nervous system.
McEwen, B. S., & Karatsoreos, I. N. (2015). The Effects of Stress and Stress on the Brain. In Stress: Concepts, Cognition, Emotion, and Behaviour (pp. 301-313). Elsevier.
McEwen’s work outlines how chronic stress affects the brain, and how the body’s physiological responses can perpetuate stress cycles.
Siegel, D. J. (2010). The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being. W. W. Norton & Company.
Siegel’s work explores the relationship between mental overload, brain function, and how mindful awareness can help regulate both.
Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. Basic Books.
This reference discusses how trauma and environmental stressors, such as toxic environments, impact the nervous system and contribute to mental overload.
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