Finding Calm When Your Nervous System Won’t Settle

A Personal Blend for When You’re Stuck in Fight or Flight

If you’ve ever lived in a season where your nervous system feels like it has one setting — high alert — you’re not alone. After months or years of stress, pain, recovery, or constant caregiving, the body can forget how to step out of survival mode. You might feel jumpy, restless, easily overwhelmed, or like your mind won’t quiet down even when your body is exhausted.

This state is often called chronic fight-or-flight, and it’s something many of us quietly struggle with. When the body stays “on” for too long, even small tasks can feel heavy. And yet, the moment you begin supporting your nervous system with intention — breath by breath, choice by choice — small shifts begin to happen.

As many of you know, this has been my personal reality. My body has been through an intense year. Surgeries, recovery, pain, stress, and the emotional heaviness of trying to keep up with daily life have kept my nervous system running at full speed. Some days it feels like it never gets the memo that it’s allowed to rest.

But healing happens in layers.
And one of the most supportive tools I’ve leaned on is essential oils.

Why Essential Oils Can Support the Nervous System

Certain essential oils interact with the limbic system — the emotional center of the brain — helping signal the body to soften, release, and shift into the parasympathetic nervous system. They don’t “fix” stress, but they help create an internal environment where your body can breathe again.

Over the years, I’ve crafted many blends, but this one is deeply personal — something I’ve been using daily as I navigate this season.

My Nervous System Support Blend — “Safe in My Body”

This blend is steadying, warm, grounding, and soothing without being sedating. It’s made to help ease tension, soften the stress response, and bring you back to a place of inner safety.

Essential Oils:

• Copaiba – 4 drops
• Lavender – 3 drops
• Frankincense – 3 drops
• Bergamot – 2 drops
• Cedarwood – 2 drops
• Vetiver – 2 drops
• Patchouli – 2 drops

Add these oils to a 10 mL roller bottle and fill the rest with fractionated coconut oil or jojoba.

How To Use It

Roll it over your heart when I wake up feeling tight or anxious.
Use it on the wrists when you feel overwhelmed or overstimulated.
Apply it to the spine to help ground your energy.
When the breath gets short, pause, inhale the blend, and let the exhale be longer than the inhale — a simple way to signal safety to the nervous system.

A Gentle Reminder

Healing your nervous system isn’t about perfection. It’s about creating moments where your body feels held.
If you’re living in survival mode, please know:
You’re not broken.
Your body is protecting you the best way it knows how.
And with time, breath, support, and compassion, it can learn to soften again.

Affirmation

“I am safe in this moment. My breath is my anchor. My body remembers how to calm.”