7 easy hacks that calm nerves – we’ll teach you!

My daughter Caroline and I made a video we hope can help many families!

In it, we share the methods we used to turn our stressed out home into an oasis of calm – most of the time!🍃 Fight-or-flight no more 🤍

These universal hacks are perfect for both adults and kids!

They were critical for her recovery from PANS & my own from Long COVID

•••

You’ll find other tips too — an easy dinner idea, kids books, tonie box choices and yoto card ideas for peaceful minds — and much more!

Also, a big hello from Caroline to everyone 👋🏼 See you there!

Our Steps to a Calmer Nervous System 🍃

Tip: The video will continue to play while you scroll this page

Video Notes:

Simplified Brain Retraining (Pattern Interrupt)
- Caroline’s Three C’s Method:
  - Catch, Cancel, Calm – see this Primal Trust video for even more on the topic.
- Concept: worry time ⏰
Less Rushing
- Be in nature – we find a turtle! 🐢
- Bumblebee breathing 🐝
- Concept: Slow living 🍃
Let Them
- Freedom from judgement
- Concept: Gentle Adulting
White Space
- Under scheduling 🗓️
- Concept: Progressive muscle relaxation
Quick way to reduce environmental toxins
- Including – What we use for household cleaners and personal care products
Clean Eating and Supplements
- Trip to the grocery store
- Our pick for a multivitamin
- Make a healthy, simple dinner with us
Reduce decision fatigue
- Capsule Wardrobe
- Household – limit field of vision
- Fantastic kids books, tonies and yoto cards for peaceful minds

Trip to the beach 🚐 🌊☀️

See you next time!

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If your child is nonverbal and you don’t think could benefit – our best advice is to focus on everyone else in the home, it really will create a ripple effect. You’ll see ❤️

Research: Cell Danger Response – for more information on this topic if you need it

If you’re dealing with a PANS flare, please see this post: https://recoveringkids.com/pans

This topic is a significant part of our comprehensive PANS solutions that can easily be missed. 🙏🏻

Thank you so much for watching!

Please feel free to share with friends who may benefit 🤍

For ourselves (the parents) – this infographic may help, and you can view in high res here:

https://infograph.venngage.com/ps/xa0zud95Mu0

Here’s a Related Article a reader shared that you may enjoy too:

Being unbothered: 8 steps to a happier life

Most people think happiness comes from improving their circumstances—more money, fewer problems, better relationships, less stress. But real happiness, the kind that lasts, doesn’t come from controlling the world around you.

It comes from mastering the art of being unbothered.

When you’re unbothered, you stop letting every inconvenience, rude comment, unexpected change, or emotional trigger hijack your peace.

You develop a kind of internal steadiness that can’t be shaken by every passing storm.

And here’s the surprising truth: unbothered people aren’t detached or emotionless. They simply know what deserves their energy—and what doesn’t.

If you want a happier, calmer, more grounded life, these eight practices form the foundation.

1. Stop assuming everything needs a reaction

Not every slight needs a response.
Not every comment needs clarification.
Not every misunderstanding needs a full discussion.

One of the telltale signs of emotional maturity is learning to pause rather than pounce.

People who constantly react to everything are always drained, because they give every little thing equal weight.

But the truth is simple:

Most things aren’t worth the emotional price of reacting.

When you stop responding automatically, you gain a level of freedom you didn’t even know you were missing.

2. Master the art of letting people be wrong about you

This one took me years to learn.

I used to exhaust myself trying to correct assumptions, fix misunderstandings, and prove who I really was.

But the older I get, the more I realize:

People who want to misunderstand you will always misunderstand you.

And people who genuinely care will ask—not assume.

Letting people be wrong isn’t about giving up. It’s about refusing to fight battles that don’t matter. Your energy is too precious to spend on convincing people who have already made up their minds.

Let silence do the heavy lifting.

3. Develop inner stillness

If there is one skill that can transform a life more than any other here, it’s learning how to cultivate stillness.

Stillness doesn’t mean emptying your mind—it means learning to observe your thoughts instead of becoming them. It means returning to the breath, the body, the present moment.

This is the core of Buddhist practice and was popularized by Eckhart Tolle

If you’ve ever struggled with stress, overthinking, or emotional reactivity, his teachings will give you a practical roadmap for building the unshakable calm you’ve always wanted.

See our infographic above for a summary of them

Stillness is where clarity begins. It’s where emotional confusion dissolves. It’s where you learn to differentiate between what deserves your attention and what doesn’t.

If you want to be unbothered, it starts with anchoring yourself internally.

4. Build boundaries that protect your peace—not your pride

Many people think boundaries are about drawing lines for other people. But boundaries are really about managing your own energy.

Being unbothered doesn’t mean isolating yourself. It means knowing what drains you and adjusting accordingly.

Some boundaries are firm: “I don’t tolerate disrespect.”
Some boundaries are soft: “I’m not available for emotional dumping today.”
Some boundaries are invisible: “I choose not to engage in this argument.”

When you build boundaries from self-awareness instead of self-protection, they become tools for peace—not walls of avoidance.

5. Release the need to control what others do

Nothing steals your happiness faster than the belief that other people should behave a certain way.

You can’t control:

how someone talks
how they feel
what they choose
whether they appreciate you
whether they understand your perspective

Trying to control these things is a recipe for frustration.

Emotionally unbothered people don’t waste time trying to manage others. They focus on what they can control: their own actions, intentions, and responses.

When you detach from the need to shape someone else’s behavior, your emotional life gets infinitely lighter.

6. Learn to differentiate between discomfort and danger

A lot of people react to discomfort as if it’s a threat. A difficult conversation, a disagreement, a change of plans, or someone’s disapproval can trigger a stress response that feels like panic.

But one of the deepest skills in emotional mastery is recognizing:

“This feels uncomfortable, but I am still safe.”

That awareness prevents overreaction.

It lets you breathe instead of spiral. Respond instead of explode. Stay grounded instead of becoming overwhelmed.

Your nervous system becomes steadier when you stop interpreting discomfort as danger.

7. Declutter your emotional environment

Being unbothered is not just about reacting less—it’s about carrying less.

Ask yourself:

Which grudges am I still holding?
Which conflicts do I replay in my mind?
Which disappointments am I clinging to?
Which people drain me even in their absence?
Which expectations keep stressing me out?

Emotional clutter is just as real as physical clutter. And it weighs you down more than you think.

Start clearing out what no longer belongs to you. Most of the heaviness you carry is not yours to hold.

8. Choose slowness as a lifestyle, not a luxury

Modern life encourages constant rushing—fast answers, fast decisions, fast reactions, fast opinions. But rushing is the enemy of peace.

Slowness isn’t laziness. It’s intention.

When you slow down:

You think more clearly
You speak more gently
You make better decisions
You feel more grounded
You react less impulsively

Slowness is the secret behind the “unbothered energy” so many admire. It creates a psychological buffer between you and the chaos of the world.

Take slower morning routines. Walk slower. Chew slower. Speak slower. Decide slower. Your nervous system will thank you.

Final thoughts

The art of being unbothered isn’t about indifference—it’s about wisdom. It’s about choosing peace over chaos, presence over reactivity, intention over impulse.

And that’s the real key to living a happy life—not avoiding storms, but learning to stand firmly in the middle of them without losing your center.

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