Sensory overload is when your nervous system is taking in more input than it can process. Sounds, lights, movement, social cues, or even your own thoughts can all pile up until your body feels flooded. There are days when it feels like the world is turned up too loud. Too many open tabs in the computer, too many noises, too many people needing something from you. Your brain knows you are “just” at work, or in the kitchen, or scrolling on the couch but your body feels like it is going to snap or shut down. This is your nervous system trying to protect you from too much, too fast.
This is where TASE TIC or Trauma-informed Care becomes essential. In our program, we don’t start by revisiting painful memories. We begin by supporting the nervous system through somatic work, breathwork, vagal toning, grounding, and rebuilding the mind–body connection. Because sensory overload isn’t a mindset problem — it’s a nervous system response. When your system takes in more stimulation than it can process, it goes into protection mode.
Why sensory overload feels so intense?
Your nervous system constantly tracks three things:
How much is coming in?
How fast it is coming in?
Whether you have enough support to handle it?
When that balance tips, your body moves toward survival mode. Heart rate might spike, muscles tense, sounds feel sharper, small things feel like too much. Sensory overload is not “all in your head.” It is your biology trying to keep you safe with the best way it knows how.
Simple reset gives your system a few new tools, in very small, gentle dose to give your body back toward “just enough” to navigate again.
Step 1: Reduce the input
Give your system less to manage.
If you can, do one or more of these:
- Turn your body slightly away from noise or people
- Soften your gaze, look down at your hands or shoes
- Put on noise-reducing headphones or cover one ear with your hand
- Dim a light, or step a few feet away from the brightest spot
Even small changes in light, sound, and visual clutter tell your brain, “We are doing something to help.”
Step 2: Anchor into one steady sense
Pick the gentlest sense available. For many people, touch works best.
You might:
- Press your palm into your thigh or the edge of a table
- Hold your shirt hem, a key, a pen, or a piece of jewellery
- Feel the exact texture, weight, and temperature of that object.
Let your attention settle there. Noticing details like “smooth, cool, hard” gives your overloaded system one small, steady signal to organize around.
This simple orienting practice goes a bit deeper into using your senses to tell your nervous system that right now, in this moment, you are relatively safe.Simple and Gentle Reset for Sensory Overload
Step 3: Adjust your breath (only if it helps)
You do not need big deep breaths. In fact, forcing deep breathing can make some bodies feel more trapped or dizzy.
Instead, try this:
- Inhale gently through your nose
- Exhale like you are fogging a mirror, a tiny bit longer than your inhale
If at any point breath focus feels worse, drop it. Go back to touch or visual focus.
Step 4: Let your body move a little
Sensory overload often leaves your body hyper or frozen. Gentle movement helps the “too much” energy goes somewhere.
Pick one or two of these:
- Shake your hands out by your sides for 5–10 seconds
- Roll your shoulders forward and back a few times
- Press your feet into the floor for three slow counts, then release
- Stretch your arms overhead as you exhale, then let them fall back to your sides
Step 5: Choose one tiny next step
Overload makes everything feel urgent and impossible at the same time. Your job now is not to fix the entire situation. It is to choose one doable next step.
For instance:
- Drink a sip of water
- Reply to one message with one sentence
- Walk to the bathroom and back at a slow pace
- Put your phone face-down for two minutes
- Ask, “What is the next thing I can complete without bracing?” Then let that be enough for now.
If your overload is tied to workdays and constant demands, you may find it useful to build a tiny microbreaks you can plug into your schedule.
If any part of this article resonated with you, know that you don’t have to navigate your healing alone. Healing happens best in spaces where you feel safe, seen, and empowered.
That’s why our Trauma-Informed Care Program was created — to support you with tools, compassion, and a pace that honors your experience. Learn more about our TASE Trauma-Informed Care Program here.
Need a moment to reset after a long day? Take a gentle pause with our Free 6-Minute Reset Mini Workbook — created to help you ground, release tension, and feel safe in your body again. Download the Mini Workbook here
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purpose. If you have health concerns, consider speaking with a qualified professional.
