Guide · calm · 3 min read
Using your body to come down after something stressful — a gentle, practical guide, when you feel restless rather than tired
After a stress response, the body is left with fuel it did not use. Some of the recovery is physical, not mental.
Start here
Most of the usual advice misses the point. What follows is the version that survives contact with a real week.
Restless is different from tired, and it needs a different approach.
If you only do one thing from this page, do the first point below. It is first because it removes the most friction for the least effort.
What helps
Eat something if it has been a long time. Low blood sugar feels almost exactly like anxiety.
Do not go straight into problem-solving while your heart is still going. Your judgement is genuinely worse in the first twenty minutes.
Tell someone what happened, briefly. Saying it out loud closes the loop in a way that thinking it does not.
What to do when it does not work
Shake out your hands and shoulders. Animals do this after a fright, and it works on the same system in people.
Move first, think later. A brisk ten-minute walk uses up some of what the stress response prepared your body to do.
Give yourself a fixed amount of time to be angry or upset about it. Then move to the next thing. The time limit matters more than the amount.
Questions people ask
What if I cannot exercise?
Then slow breathing with a long exhale, cold water on the wrists, and a change of room do a smaller version of the same job.
Written for people who want the practical version. No accounts, no tracking, no newsletter wall.
If this is not the angle you need, try How to stop scrolling in bed — what nobody tells you, if you are sceptical about all of this, Why your weekend does not feel like rest — a short read, if you have five quiet minutes or Breathing exercises that help during panic — what to try first, when you are cold and want to be warm.