Seven Ways To Calm Your Brain

Stress doesn’t just affect your thoughts—it impacts your entire body, influencing everything from your breathing and sleep to your patience and ability to make decisions. In this episode of Just Call Jenna, Jenna explores seven simple, neuroscience-backed techniques to help calm your nervous system, reduce stress, and restore a sense of balance. From slowing your breath and moving your body to naming your emotions, practicing gratitude, and spending time in nature, these practical strategies demonstrate how small, intentional actions can create meaningful changes in how your brain responds to everyday challenges.

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https://youtu.be/0OQGooFEqp0

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Jenna also highlights the importance of taking mental breaks, connecting with people you trust, and recognizing the difference between what you can control and what you must learn to release. By combining neuroscience with mindfulness and faith, she reminds us that finding peace isn't about eliminating stress entirely, but learning how to respond to it differently. The challenge? Choose just one of these seven techniques and practice it consistently for seven days. Because lasting change doesn't happen overnight—it begins with small, intentional steps that help retrain your brain, strengthen your resilience, and create a calmer, more balanced life.

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Welcome back. Today I'm going to talk about seven ways to calm your brain. This is a little more focused on kind of the way I coach people. If you're interested in that, you can go to my website, justcalljenna.online and there's services under there. I am certified in neuroscience That's kind of how the way the brain works. Again, I nerded out on the brain after healing from a stroke and having a brain injury and learned a whole bunch of things that never thought I'd need to know. And now I do. And that's what I coach people on.

But again, seven ways to calm your brain. real life things you can do. And I'm gonna ask you to kind of pick one and just try it for a week and watch how you're calming your nervous system. Look at how you feel different in a week by just practicing these. So we'll talk about some of them and this is kind of what it would look like if you work with me on coaching, what I'm gonna Get you to do over a three month period and kinda how you can make a difference. But this is how you calm your brain, which is at the core of your nervous system and By calming your nervous system, that's a key factor into eliminating stress. Not just managing it, but eliminating it and getting that space that I always talk about. Again, the whole reason of this podcast.

Thank you to everybody who listens and follows, subscribes and shares. That's helping a girl out and I really appreciate it. But this is what I want to do. This is what I want to do differently than what I did before. I came out here and put myself out there for the reason of helping you. So please take these chances and help yourself. Today focusing on seven ways you can do that. We'll talk through some of those techniques and a little of the science around it to help you understand what's going on.

But really why do you want to do this Because stressing out just doesn't feel good. That's the real reason. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't make you happy. It affects you physically. It affects you mentally. It affects you spiritually.

Let's just stress less and live more. 

That's my whole purpose.

So let me start with a question. Have you ever noticed that stress doesn't just affect your thoughts? You can feel it in your chest. It changes your breathing. It shortens your patience and you get irritable. It will interrupt your sleep. It makes even the smallest decisions or small irritations feel overwhelming. It's where mountains get made out of molehills, right? That's stress It is, you know, catastrophizing things. The truth is, it's not just in your mind. Stress is not just in your mind. It's actually happening all throughout your body. So calming your brain and your nervous system is such a big important thing that you kind of need to do.

But the good news is that your brain is constantly adapting. There is really no such scientific reason that things are fixed. Like you can't teach an old dog new tricks or that's just the way I've always been Only if you're choosing to, your brain is constantly adapting. It means that you can influence your brain and you can control your stress response You actually have control of that stress.

And stress is feeling out of control, but you have control. 

Today I'm sharing the seven simple neuroscience-backed techniques that can help you calm your nervous system. These work because they actually support the way your brain and body are naturally designed. They actually are easier to work with.

So what does a neuroscience mean? It's really just the science of the brain. How does the brain work? So you have a lot more control over your stress than you think you do. Stress immediately puts us in survival mode. It makes us think we're out of control. So let's talk through some of the things that you can do. I'm going to start talking about the seven techniques.

And again, I just want you to pick one and practice it every day for a week and At the end of the week, see if you feel better. Start today with this Tuesday's episode and start practicing one of these seven techniques daily for the next seven days. And then next week See how you feel. You'll probably feel quite a bit different. And right now you might even not have that awareness that you can do it, but let's get into it.

Number one you can do is to slow your breath And that slows your brain. I know that seems weird, but just slow your breath down. When you're stressed out, your breathing naturally becomes fast and shallow. Your brain interprets this as a sign that something is wrong, and it activates your body's stress response. Okay, break that down. But the reverse of that is actually also true that when your brain thinks something's wrong. You know, the reverse is true. When you slow your breathing, Especially making your exhale longer, you actually stimulate the vagus nerve in your body. And that sends a signal to your brain. It tells your brain it's Safe to relax and you can shift out of fight, flight, or freeze into being able to respond appropriately.

So again, when you're shallow breathing, your brain is signaling stress responses But the reverse is true, so that if you just exhale longer, then you actually start to calm things down and you can get better control of your stress response. You can get out of fight, flight, freeze, and into thinking in your logic brain again. So just try breathing in for four and out for six. Repeat this for two minutes You'll hear me say this on many episodes if you've listened to me before, and I hope you do, that just inhale for four, exhale for six If you repeat that for two minutes, you will signal to your nervous system everything's fine. Even if you're in a moment where you can't practice breathing for two minutes. just taking a single breath. If you can get to three, even better.

But that's just the magic number to start exhaling longer. You're forcing your nervous system without even realizing it. You're telling your brain and your subconscious, we're safe. It's okay to relax. So number one, if that's all you practice this week is just slow your breath, which will slow your brain. Slow your breath, slow your brain. That's number one to get ways. to calm your stress, calm your brain down, slow your breath, it will calm your brain.

Number two, move your body. Just moving can actually activate chemicals in your body that Tell you it's safe. Simple things. Stress creates energy in the body. Moving actually helps the brain process that energy. That's something that seems weird and it's kind of counter productive to everything we've been taught in our overproduced society, but stress actually is there's energy in the body that comes from it. Movement actually helps your brain process that energy In the subconscious that you're completely unaware of, but stress gets stuck. Trauma gets stuck in the body. Stress gets stuck. So just move your body.

You don't need an intense workout. I mean, if you want to do that, by all means, go ahead. But you can just Walk around the block, stretch, dance, shake your arms. Just movement. One of my personal favorites to do is to tell Alexa in the house to just play my music and whatever activity I'm in the middle of I just kind of dance around like a crazy person. But that movement, that does it.

So movement, when you move, your brain actually releases chemicals that support your mood and your resilience. It's helping you reduce the physical effects of stress in your body. So just as simple as move. Again, walk, dance, shake your arms, jump up and down. It doesn't need to be an extreme workout. If your stress is that heavy that you need to go do that, by all means. I'm not telling you not to, but I'm saying that don't just sit still and stay stuck.

Your brain needs your body to move to help process that energy. 

So the first two again, slow your breath, slow your brain, move your body. Very simple.

Third one would be to name your field. What do I mean by that? Have you ever felt overwhelmed and you couldn't explain why? You just felt overwhelmed or like, I've had it, I'm over it, you know, the catastrophizing thinking.

You just have to name your emotion. 

Research actually suggests that putting feelings into words can reduce the intensity of those emotions So instead of saying I'm falling apart, say I'm feeling anxious or I'm disappointed, I feel frustrated, I don't like this, this is not what I prefer. Just name it. So labeling your emotions helps The thinking part of your brain, it actually becomes engaged and it makes the emotions feel more manageable. So think about that Just by saying I feel angry, I feel anxious, you're actually getting that thinking logic part of your brain to help become engaged and come back. online and it makes the emotions feel less intense.

Number four is to practice gratitude. What does that mean?

Gratitude is not pretending everything is perfect. It's training your brain to notice what is still good. 

Gratitude is not about perfectionism. It's just about noticing what is still good or learning the gifts in the hard things. I don't know that anybody would think right off the bat to say you're grateful for a stroke. But I actually am because what I learned in my recovery and getting a another chance at life, that gratitude, it doesn't mean that life is perfect. I let go of perfection, but I notice what's still good.

So practicing gratitude, I want you to understand that gratitude is not saying Everything's perfect. It's amazing. No, we're not gonna fake it till we make it. We're just gonna practice noticing what's still good. Even when the majority of life feels overwhelming, painful, exhausting, heavy. Give it whatever name you want. I have been under extreme stress, but I think just noticing that there are still pieces of life that are good, it's kept me going. It's really an important thing.

Our brains actually naturally focus on problems because that's how our human brain has survived for centuries. The same survival system can actually leave us constantly looking for what's wrong So think about that. You're sort of wired, conditioned. I don't know if you want to call it family karma conditioning, whatever, but that's how as humans we've survived for so long. Because by Focusing on problems, the brain's primary goal is to keep you safe by predicting what's next. And so our brains will focus on problems because Finding a solution to the problem keeps you safe. Gratitude is really about looking for the gift in that.

A simple gratitude practice will help you create a more balanced perspective and I don't usually use the word balance. I like to think of it more like routine. Balance feels overwhelming for me because I think of like a Skill, a balance. You may achieve balance, but balance is pretty hard to hold on to for a lifetime. But a routine of more often than not an allowing Space for something to go wrong like my life recently. Gratitude is a practice that's really important. It helps you create that person Perspective of even though things are heavy now and I'm in the middle of the storm and life hit me with a frickin' tornado, that I'm still grateful to be here and to be breathing and that there are still good things in my life so it doesn't consume me and take me down the way the old version of me before I knew about the brain really was.

So one of the ones that I always tell people is each evening just write down three things that you're thankful for. Writing it down actually helps your brain. Now me I have trouble writing because in the stroke I almost lost my left hand. And even in recovery, I have no fine motor skills So writing is really hard. For me, I say it out loud before I go to bed. But three things that you're grateful for, they don't have to be big They can actually be very small. In fact, small is going to feel more comfortable. Like for example, I'm happy for a warm cup of coffee, a smile from a strange for a stranger, or just watching a sunset. Maybe you're grateful that you hit that green light when you were running late. Look for those small things.

If you can, please write them down daily because Writing them kind of does something in your brain that I physically have trouble doing. I have a disability now from healing from the stroke that doesn't allow me to do that. I can't type with two hands, I can't write, I can't cut with a knife because it's dangerous. So everybody's got their own things. So if you can write them down, please do, but at a minimum if you're practicing gratitude, say them out loud every night before bed or and if you can every morning when you wake up. So for me, every night I say three things that I'm grateful for in my day And every morning when I'm in the shower, I say out loud three things that I'm going to be grateful for in my day.

Again, slow your breath and slow your brain. Move your body. Name your feelings Practice gratitude. Those are some very important ones. Those are the first four. Another one you can do, spend time in nature. That is so simple in your brain and it does something to you that you can't really put in words, but do you f Feel different if you're by water like a river or the ocean or sitting under trees. Maybe you feel different when you're breathing the air in a park or Walking up a hill. Research has actually shown that nature gently reduces the amount of information your brain has to process. So without you being aware of it, it allows your brain to sort of defrag or reorganize things in the brain by just being in nature.

You don't have to climb a mountain. You could sit in a park. You could walk around the block. Just sit in a yard and listen to the birds. Sit on a bench and listen to the birds. Just go outside and feel the warmth of the Sun on your skin.

Healing begins by remembering you're part of something bigger than your to-do list. 

Spending time in nature.

Now, I know that we all think of what we've seen on the gram that tells us Go out in here in these fancy places to go or see or travel here and do that. Sure, if you can accomplish all those, great. Most of us are living a more, you know, structured life and doing that is outside of what can be put into our routine. Maybe you get there that it becomes your routine later, but for just today, can you walk around the block? Can you sit in your backyard and listen to the birds? Can you find a way to go sit under a tree and put your feet in the grass? Just spend time in nature because it actually helps your brain reorganize and you know take those scattered, overwhelmed, stressful thoughts and sort of rest and recovery that. Default network in your brain.

So now we're at five things, right? What are they? Slow your breath, slow your brain, move your body, name your feelings Practice gratitude, spend time in nature. All very simple things. Have you figured out which one is gonna work for you before we get to the next two?

The sixth one you can do is what's called a brain break What does that mean? Give your brain a break. Most of us believe productivity is doing more. Neuroscience actually teaches that the brain needs periods of rest. To organize memories, solve problems, recover from stress. It's a default mode network that your brain has. Biologically, you need a brain break What does that mean? Step away from your phone, look out the window, sit quietly for my five minutes. Do absolutely nothing. When staring out the window if your brain can't stop daydream focus on oh look that bush is green there comes a little bird it's cloudy today name it Whatever that is, but you kinda need your brain to have a break so it can organize its thoughts and actually process what's going on.

Rest is not laziness. It's actually part of performance. 

For example, when you think about athletes who train the body, they work out really hard and go to peak performance, but then they need a down day because they understand that they need to rest and recovery. Muscle builds in that. Soft times, like you work out hardcore today, but resting tomorrow, your muscles actually building and there's biological processes happening Your brain is much the same. So a brain break. Really, really important.

Okay, now we're at six of them. Do you remember them? Slow your breath, slow your brain, move your body, name your feelings, practice gratitudes. Spend time in nature and a brain break. And the seventh one is connect with someone you trust. One of the greatest stress reducers isn't in a bottle or an app. It's actually human connection, that energetic exchange that you have with someone, a meaningful conversation with someone who actually listens without judging you. That can help your nervous system feel safe.

We are wired for connection.

Healing begins with hearing someone say, I understand you. You're not alone. 

This is scary, but I'm here for you. I'm sitting with you in the dark. That connection will actually help calm your brain and help you feel safe.

So those are the seven ways. Again, I want you to figure out which one you can practice Every day for seven days. Just commit to trying one. Do you remember? Slow your breath and slow your brain. Move your body. Name your feelings. Practice gratitude. Spend time in nature. Take a brain break or connect with someone you trust just every day for seven days. Pick one of those and watch how calm your brain gets after a week. It may not be to a perfect or what you imagine it to be, but you will notice a difference There actually is a spiritual side of stress.

Stress often comes from trying to control everything. And peace begins when we recognize the difference between what we can control and what we can't. Many of you in the professional world may have heard, trust the process, control the controllables, focus on what you can control. There is some really good advice in that is that stress actually comes from trying to control everything, but when we recognize the difference between what we can control and what we can't control. Doesn't mean you have to like it. Believe me, I don't like that I can't control the outcomes of things, but when you focus on what you can control, like your response Your breath, your thoughts, your attitude, the next decision, the next step.

These parts will help your brain predict That we are safe. We can take the next thing. We can do the hard thing. We're going to be okay. Everything else besides what you can control, you can learn to release. That's where your faith will enter.

So I'm just gonna challenge you to practice one technique every day for seven days. Please don't try to practice all seven. That will be overwhelming. And take you more time because you're kind of changing the dynamic instead of scientifically you try to change one small thing and then adjust from there. So just practice one technique daily for seven days Stress is a part of life, but living in constant stress doesn't have to be. There are periods where you're gonna have to do that and stress out and deal with it, but that doesn't have to be your life That is kind of my message with stress less and live more.

You're gonna have stressful days. I've had a stressful couple of months. I'm human, the brain ruminates. This bad thing. You know, it's that thing that's on your brain when you go to bed, and the first thing you think about when you wake up, it's ruminating. It's scary. It's fearful. I'm having all those feelings, but the real difference is I'm not reacting to them the way I used to. I am responding to them. It hasn't made it go away yet, but it has made it better and it has left me with peace as a lifestyle.

Again, stress is a part of life, but living in constant stress doesn't have to be life.

You have the control to take that back. Your brain is designed to learn and adapt. Your nervous system is designed to heal one small practice at a time. So pick one of the seven that seems realistic to you. Don't try to rationalize all seven. Just pick the one of those seven that, you know, resonates with you. Practice it daily for the next seven days, even if you're not in full panic and overwhelm. Just practice it and if you can, note down every day in that, you know, journal or someplace How you feel today, and then notice how different you feel in seven days. That's what the practice is gonna do for you.

If you didn't listen to the full episode, and I really hope you did, the seven ways again are slow your breath, slow your brain, move your body, name your emotions. Emotions, practice gratitude, spend time in nature, take a brain break, or connect with someone you trust. Just pick one of those seven and make it a commitment every day for the next seven days and see how different you feel in a week. Thanks for joining me today. Remember, karma's real, energy is contagious. Check your vibes.

Everyone, I want to thank you for always coming back and listening and sharing and liking. We're coming up on a year of me putting this project and creative content out here. I'm looking into some things for next year. One of the big ones I'm looking into doing is alive where you can interact and ask questions of me and talk to me and interact. So comment below, go to my website, justcalljenna.online email me your thoughts But please tell me if you think that connecting live, if I did a live once a month, if you'd want to join and ask questions, or if you have other ideas of ways that we can interact.

I'm looking to interact more with my audience versus just talking on camera. So please reach out and if you can, like, subscribe, follow YouTube, Instagram, any of those. Help a girl out.

I now have my workbook available for purchase on my website, justcalljenna.online There's a shop button. You can purchase the workbook that shows you Seven days of how to start resetting your stress level. It's downloadable. You're not getting some book. You can just download it and print it on your printer or use it on your phone For many of my listeners, I've been getting emails and comments about people asking how to get started without choosing to have coaching or lifelong sessions, if you will. Purchase it. It will give you the momentum to get started. And then if you need more support, please reach out to me. All my contact information is on my website.