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Therapy in a Nutshell

9 Micro Habits for Self-Regulation of Trauma or Anxiety

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Education, Health & Fitness:mental Health, Self-improvement

4.8 • 657 Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Learn daily habits for trauma and anxiety self-regulation, focusing on nervous system regulation and dysregulation to manage stress and PTSD. Free Grounding Skills for Anxiety or PTSD course: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/grounding-skills-for-anxiety-stress-and-ptsd Learn the skills to Regulate your Emotions, join the membership: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership Safe Place visualization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isw37iCwMCg&t=6s Progressive Muscle Relaxation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNqYG95j_UQ Living with Trauma or PTSD can feel like your nervous system is constantly on high alert—like an overly sensitive car alarm that goes off at the slightest trigger. This state of nervous system dysregulation can leave you tense, hypervigilant, anxious, angry, or completely burnt out. But the good news is that you can retrain your body toward balance and calm through simple, consistent practices. In this video, you’ll learn 9 science-based daily habits for trauma and daily habits for anxiety that promote nervous system regulation. These micro habits include setting clear intentions, slowing down instead of rushing, creating a calm morning routine, scheduling true rest, checking in with your body, restoring a sense of safety, and developing skills to bounce back after triggers. You’ll also learn how to expand your window of tolerance with movement and end your day with soothing wind-down rituals. Healing your nervous system doesn’t mean you’ll never feel stress again—it means you’ll feel safer, calmer, and more confident in your ability to recover quickly. With small daily changes, you can reduce anxiety, improve resilience, and support lasting recovery from trauma. Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.therapyinanutshell.com Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books  Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger Institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome back to another episode of the Therapy in a Nutshell podcast. I'm Emma McAdam and I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist.

0:07.1

And this podcast is all about taking the life-changing, but usually kind of complicated topics of therapy and boiling them down into simple, easy-to-understand concepts that you can use in your daily life.

0:18.8

If you find today's episode as helpful to you,

0:20.9

please pass it on to someone else who could benefit from it as well. Each podcast

0:24.5

episode comes from a corresponding video you can find on the Therapy in a Nutshell

0:28.3

YouTube channel. Also, these podcasts are educational and don't replace the advice

0:32.5

or direction you may be receiving from a therapist or other health professionals.

0:36.4

Now please enjoy the episode.

0:38.3

It's probably the therapist in me who wonders if this minivan might have trauma.

0:43.3

But to be serious, when you have trauma or anxiety, it's like your nervous system is an overly sensitive car alarm that goes off if anything gets too close.

0:55.0

For someone living with trauma or anxiety, stress, hypervigilance, anger and fear can seem to

0:59.8

dominate your day and leave you feeling triggered, tense, jumpy, and eventually exhausted and burnt

1:05.3

out. With trauma, it's common for your nervous system to be what's called sympathetically dominant.

1:11.6

The sympathetic state is the activated state, the anxious state of your nervous system.

1:17.6

And it's fine for brief spells, but when it's chronic that can lead to some unwanted negative impacts on your mental health and physical health.

1:24.6

The good news is that we can retrain our nervous systems to be healthier, to be parasympathetically

1:30.2

dominant.

1:31.2

That's the calming state of your nervous system, where we feel safe, balanced, and confident.

1:36.8

Then when things get stressful, your alarm doesn't get triggered as often.

1:40.5

And when it does, you can come back to a sense of safety more quickly.

1:45.0

But this retraining isn't something we do in therapy.

1:48.8

In this video, you'll learn nine micro-habits you can work into each day to retrain

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