How do we reset?
How do you give the nervous system the best possible chance to recover and reset? What tools and techniques are going to give you the greatest return on your investment of time and energy?
There are many ways to try to come back into balance. However, they start from different levels. Here are some examples:
At the physical level — Doing
- Sitting in a sauna
- Cold plunge
- Yoga
- Pilates
- Swimming
- Walking
- Breathing techniques
At the level of the mind — Thinking
- Mindfulness practices
- Focused attention or concentration techniques
- Contemplation
- Listening to music or chanting
- Visualisation
At the level of pure consciousness — Being
Automatic self-transcending style of meditation:
- Vedic Meditation
- Transcendental Meditation
- Sahaj Samadhi Meditation
The ultimate reset
While there are many different ways to try to regain a sense of equilibrium, I want to flag up the factors that will have the greatest impact on your ability to reset:
— How deeply can you settle your nervous system?
— How quickly can you do this?
— How consistently can you make it happen?
Because Being is foundational, anything that harnesses that state will have the greatest impact on the other levels that spring from there — Thinking and Doing.
Meditation is the ultimate tool to de-excite and experience the least-excited state on a daily basis.
The ultimate technique to reset at the level of Being
It is possible to have a brief glimpse of Being in the silent gaps between thoughts or a spontaneous burst of joy that arises from within. But these are fleeting and most often overshadowed by the noise of the world. Rather than a rare, hit-and-miss event, we need to learn how to experience this in a systematic and reliable way. As we’ll see, there are many benefits from being able to settle down your mind and body and recognise the fundamental stillness that’s there, deep inside.
Meditation is the single best technique to give us an easy and consistent way to regularly drop into this state of Being.
When I first learned to meditate back in 1997, meditation was more on the fringes and not as mainstream as it is today. Now meditation is everywhere, with an abundance of scientific research about the benefits. For some, meditation means listening to someone guide them through an experience via an app on their phone. It could be that sitting or moving in nature is a form of meditation. For someone else it means trying to concentrate their mind on a specific image or focus on their breathing. Meditation can be a form of prayer or devotion, while for others it may be a process of observing their thoughts in an attempt to be more present.
Whatever the style, more people are realising that the ability to sit still, to be at peace and at one with the world, is becoming increasingly urgent.
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Excerpt from Do Reset: Meditate. Move beyond thinking. Find clarity by Jillian Lavender.
Do Books, $14.95. Published April 22nd, 2025.