A free guide from Life Beyond Long COVID
Post-Viral Reset Kit
A Long COVID Nervous System Reset Guide
Three simple tools to help your system shift from protection back into repair.
Your Body Isn’t Failing, it’s Protecting You
After a long stress period, like viral illness or prolonged recovery, the body can get stuck in protection mode instead of easily switching to repair mode.
And here’s the problem with that:
You can only heal when your body feels safe enough to shift gears.
These tools help your nervous system do exactly that — gently, without force or pushing. Think of them as messengers that tell your nervous system it’s allowed to ease off the emergency brake and start restoring energy.
3 Nervous System Resets
The Grounding Breath (3-5 min)
Inhale through your nose for a count of four
Exhale through your mouth for a count of six
Let your shoulders soften and your jaw loosen
Stay with it, even when part of you wants to check out or move on
Why it works:
Slow, elongated exhales activate your vagus nerve (your body’s “all-clear” signal), telling your nervous system: No threat here. You can downshift.
2. The Steady Hold (2-3 min)
Place one hand on your chest
The other over your low ribs or belly
Notice warmth, weight, and breath beneath your hands
Continue to breathe for 2-3 min
Why it works:
Comforting pressure and slow awareness cues your system that it doesn’t need to stay braced. This is communication at the body level, bypassing thinking, and going straight to regulation.
3. The Gentle Sway (1-2 min)
Stand with soft knees
Let your arms sway side to side
No forcing — think loose, rhythmic, unhurried
Continue to follow your body’s sway gently, for 1-2 min
Why it works:
Light rhythmic movement helps lymph to flow, fascia to release, and energy to shift without exertion. It tells the body: We’re not in freeze or fight — we’re safe enough to move.
A Note From Your Nervous System (and from Me)
As you start to calm your system, your mind may try to pull you back into alertness.
It might say, “Okay, that’s enough,” or remind you of something urgent. That’s not you doing it wrong, that’s your brain doing what it thinks is its job: keeping you safe by staying on guard.
These small resets gently retrain that pattern. They’re not just soothing — they’re retraining your body and mind how to trust calm.
So when the urge to stop comes up as you start to feel relief, see if you can stay a little longer.
Three minutes. Maybe five.
You’re teaching your system what true safety feels like. And that’s where real recovery begins.
And if you try these tools and don’t feel a big shift yet, please don’t take that as a sign you’re doing anything wrong. After long periods of stress or post-viral illness, the nervous system sometimes needs more than self-guided practices to unwind. When your body has been holding survival energy for a long time, it may not fully release until it feels steady support and co-regulation — the same principle Peter Levine describes in Waking the Tiger.
So if your system doesn’t respond right away, there’s nothing “wrong” with you. It simply means your body may need more support, more safety, or more guidance than these small practices can offer on their own.
Curious about WHY only one or two of these tools work for you?
P.S. If you noticed one of the tools felt especially regulating; the stillness cue or the movement cue, you’re not imagining it. There’s a real physiological reason for that.
If you’d like the deeper explanation for why your system responds the way it does, I put all of it (and and how to work with your body’s pattern) in the extended guide here.
Want to keep going?
If this helped your system settle even a little, imagine the shifts you’ll feel when you know exactly which part of your body needs support first.
The Systems Assessment Blueprint shows you where your biggest leverage point is, so you can focus your energy where it matters, instead of trying everything at once.
Start here:
👉 Take the Systems Assessment Blueprint
Small steps.
Right order.
Your system will meet you there.
About Life Beyond Long COVID
I’m Kari Mitchell — founder of Life Beyond Long COVID.
I help women whose recovery has stalled, rebuild steadiness and resilience using nervous-system-first, body-based healing.
Not “push harder.”
Not “think positive.”
Not woo — not medical.
Just grounded, physiology-aligned tools that help your body remember how to heal.
You're not fragile. You're recalibrating.
You don't have to accept that illness is your new normal.
Just keep giving your body reasons to feel safe, and it will meet you, one moment at a time.
With care,
Kari
*Not medical advice. Information for education + support only. You’re in charge of your pace.