Danielle RalstonFounder, How Capacity Works · Founder of ND Hive | Building the productivity hub where work actually gets done | Execution spaces, body doubling & community accountability

Unlock Calm: Vagus Nerve Hacks & Fidgets for Stress Relief 💛

27 Oct 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:55

In this YouTube video, Danielle Ralston explores practical, low‑tech methods for calming the nervous system and reducing overstimulation, with a focus on vagus nerve activation. She emphasizes the importance of building a personal "toolbox" of tactile fidgets and sensory objects that can be quickly accessed when stress spikes. Examples include a textured cup whose surface provides a soothing tactile stimulus, stress balls, a headphone case used as a handheld fidget, and soft stuffed animals with gentle yarn. Ralston explains how these simple items help slow down neural firing, give the vagus nerve a chance to reset, and prevent the feeling of being "in a pool of overwhelm." The video blends brief physiological background on the vagus nerve with concrete, everyday recommendations, encouraging viewers to experiment with different textures and objects to discover what best grounds them during high‑arousal moments.

Chapters

What are the things that are driving me nuts? What are the things that I need to calm myself down? Like, for me, this new cup that I got— I love this cup because it's textured. Each one of these blocks has a different texture in it, and it's become a fidget for me. But having fidgets, um, just simple fidgets like stress balls or just messing with my, my headphone case. Have a toolbox. We need a tool box full of things that help us get out of that overstimulation.
And sometimes it might even be like a little stuffed animal. Um, you know, like I've got that yellow one up there. That one has a very soft yarn on it. So when I'm really stressed, I can just pull it down, you know? So what, what things can slow your brain down, slow you down, keep you from jumping into that overwhelm? It's like a pool of overwhelm.