Is your nervous system regulated? It’s the question on everyone’s minds these days – at least, it seems that way on TikTok, where a growing wave of wellness routines aimed at “resetting” our systems is sliding into the zeitgeist. Common suggestions range from ice baths and meditation, to somatic practices including EFT tapping, slow blinking, arm swings and hops, ear massage, humming, and pressing your feet into the ground. While it’s easy to dismiss this as another iteration of “new year, new me” content clogging timelines every January, these gestures are reaching for something more urgent than optimisation, as people try to regulate nervous systems pushed into a near-constant state of strain.

At its most basic, the nervous system is the communication network between brain and body, responsible for everything from breathing and digestion to how we perceive threats. When it’s relatively regulated, the body can move between states of alertness and rest before returning to a balanced baseline. Without that regulation, however, people can become suspended in a near-constant state of stress. “Our nervous system needs to have a baseline of feeling basically safe in the world, while remaining appropriately sensitive to arising threats,” explains Glasgow-based counsellor and psychotherapist Amber Thornton. It’s this baseline that allows us to cope with the inevitable ups and downs of existence.

For some, dysregulation is identified through a formal clinical diagnosis. But for many others, it’s first encountered online: through TikToks, Reels, and carousel posts that list symptoms and offer fixes. These symptoms can include a need for constant stimulation, a persistent low-level sense of urgency, and physical effects like headaches, digestive issues, and sleep problems. The proposed solutions, meanwhile, range from clinical interventions – counselling, EMDR, pharmaceutical drugs – to everyday practices like mindfulness, forest bathing, sauna and cold plunges, and sound baths.

“For neurodiverse individuals, resetting may be specific to sensory needs, or you may find co-regulation with a trusted loved one beneficial,” says Thornton. “Finding the right practice for you may be a case of trial and error or working on what’s going to be feasible in your schedule, rather than create additional stress trying to do it all.”

One abbreviation often listed among online “solutions” is Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), or tapping. The practice combines acupressure with cognitive therapy, involving tapping specific meridian points on the face and body while focusing on negative thoughts or sensations. It’s said to send signals to the brain’s amygdala, release “trapped” energy, and ultimately calm the nervous system. Online, creators often suggest it as something to do at work, between high-stress meetings and looming deadlines.

But while the end goal may be the same, dysregulation doesn’t follow a prescribed path. “If your nervous system is on constant high alert due to experiencing long-term poverty, it will require a different approach than someone who is chronically dysregulated due to a background of trauma,” Thornton says. “There may also be huge systemic barriers to a regulated nervous system, such as living with a long-term health condition or experiencing institutional racism.”

The rise of regulation techniques sits alongside a broader turn toward wellness culture, now embedded in the mainstream routine. People are frequenting saunas, masking up for red-light therapy, reaching for electrolytes and adaptogen gummies. Its popularity speaks to a wider grasp for respite in a socio-political landscape that feels increasingly fragile. But while the two are clearly linked, the fixation on nervous system regulation suggests something beyond simple wellness obsession. It points to a society-wide sense that life itself has become destabilising – not just something to escape from, but something that constantly needs fixing.

As these practices settle into daily routines, they risk being flattened into a duty. In doing so, we’re asked to take responsibility for harms inflicted by larger systems – capitalism, landlords, governments, billionaires –while the underlying conditions remain unchanged. Another layer to this is the science of epigenetics, which suggests that the nervous system adapts to what it’s exposed to, and that prolonged stress can leave physical changes in our DNA that carry across generations. In other words, the stress we feel may be entangled not only with the pressures of the present, but with the inherited weight of what came before us.

If the real solution is removing the conditions that cause harm, it remains sadly largely out of reach. The systems producing chronic stress aren’t easily dismantled. But refusing these rituals doesn’t fix the system either, for many, nervous system regulation is not a lifestyle choice but an essential response to a lack of support elsewhere. What emerges instead is a turn towards each other – a mutual aid that historically surfaces in moments of collective strain. In this way, people creating regulation hacks on TikTok, sharing their experiences and symptoms, are building their own system of care.

“Another tip when thinking about regulating our nervous system is to take an approach of enjoyment, rather than a focus on fixing,” Thornton adds, pushing back against the idea that the body is something in need of constant correction. But when regulation stops offering relief and becomes one more thing to manage, or when self-soothing starts to replace care that doesn’t exist elsewhere, it’s sensible to reach out for professional help. “If you’re finding that small things feel massive, feeling frequently tense or tearful, or just a general difficulty around ‘switching off’, it might be time to chat to your GP or a qualified mental health professional,” says Thornton.