Is Your Nervous System Running on Empty? How Holistic Therapies Help You Reset

We live in a world that rarely stops. Emails at midnight, back-to-back shifts, the invisible weight of caring for others — day after day, the demands accumulate. And while many of us have learned to push through, our nervous systems quietly keep the score.

If you regularly feel wired but exhausted, struggle to switch off, lie awake despite being exhausted, or find that rest never quite feels restful — your nervous system may be in a state of chronic dysregulation. And you are far from alone.

The encouraging news? holistic therapies like massage, reflexology, and Reiki have measurable, evidence-backed effects on the nervous system. They are not simply relaxing. They are genuinely therapeutic.

Understanding Your Nervous System

Your autonomic nervous system (ANS) operates in the background of everything you do. It has two primary branches:

·       The sympathetic nervous system — your accelerator. It activates the fight-or-flight response, flooding the body with cortisol and adrenaline to manage perceived threats.

·       The parasympathetic nervous system — your brake. Often called the “rest and digest” system, it slows the heart rate, lowers blood pressure, and allows the body to repair, recover, and restore.

The problem for many people in modern life is that the sympathetic system rarely gets to switch off. Chronic stress, overwork, poor sleep, and emotional overload keep the body in a low-level alert state — even when there is no immediate danger. Over time, this depletes our physiological and psychological reserves.

This is not a character flaw or a sign of weakness. It is a biological response to sustained pressure. And it requires more than willpower to resolve.

The Science Behind the Reset: What Research Tells Us

Massage: Changing Brain Activity, Not Just Muscle Tension

Many people think of massage as a pleasant treat. The research suggests it is considerably more than that.

A 2025 randomised controlled trial published in BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies (Ntoumas et al.) examined the effects of two types of manual massage on brain activity and stress response in people with poor sleep quality. Using EEG polysomnography to measure brain activity directly, researchers found that:

·       Relaxation massage increased relaxation scores by 23.4% — a result strong enough that researchers could be 99% confident it was not down to chance

·       Sports massage reduced muscle tone by 7.2% — with such a high level of statistical certainty that chance as an explanation was effectively ruled out entirely

·       Relaxation massage also improved sleep latency — how quickly participants entered restorative sleep stages

The authors concluded that massage can “positively impact the quality and quantity of daytime napping and may serve as a complementary intervention to enhance mental well-being, reduce work-related stress, improve performance and promote overall healthier living.”

What is particularly striking here is the use of objective, neurological measurement. This is not simply participants reporting that they felt better — their brain activity changed. Massage created the physiological conditions for genuine rest.

This aligns with earlier research showing that manual massage stimulates parasympathetic activation — shifting the nervous system from the sympathetic “alert” state into the restorative “rest and digest” response.

Reflexology: Regulating the Autonomic Nervous System

Reflexology works by applying precise pressure to specific reflex points on the feet, hands, and lower legs, which correspond to organs, systems, and structures throughout the body. It is gentle, non-invasive, and deeply calming — yet its effects on the nervous system are increasingly well-documented.

Research by Nor Marican and colleagues, published in their review Reflexology: A Modality in Manipulative and Body-Based Method, drew on a broad body of evidence to conclude that reflexology is “a simple, less expensive and non-invasive method that is effective to regulate the autonomic nervous system activities.”

Additional research has shown that foot reflexology increases cardiac parasympathetic activity — directly activating the body’s rest and recovery system — and supports improvements in heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate. For people whose nervous systems are caught in a cycle of chronic activation, reflexology offers a safe and accessible way to shift the balance.

In my practice, I regularly see clients arrive holding enormous amounts of stress in their bodies. Reflexology has a unique ability to reach that tension — not through force, but through the body’s own regulatory pathways.

Reiki: Addressing Anxiety at a Deeper Level

Reiki is perhaps the most misunderstood of the three therapies discussed here. As an energy-based practice, it can be difficult to explain in purely biomedical terms — and yet the clinical evidence for its effects on anxiety is growing.

A 2024 meta-analysis published in BMC Palliative Care (Guo et al.) brought together data from multiple studies involving 824 participants to assess the therapeutic efficacy of Reiki for anxiety. The results were statistically significant: Reiki therapy demonstrated a meaningful reduction in anxiety — with researchers 99.9% confident the effect was real and not a result of chance.

Specifically, short-term Reiki interventions — including both programmes of three sessions or fewer and programmes of six to eight sessions — were effective in reducing anxiety in people with chronic conditions including fibromyalgia and depression, as well as in the general adult population.

Anxiety and nervous system dysregulation are deeply interconnected. When the nervous system is chronically overactivated, anxiety is often one of the first symptoms to emerge — and one of the last to resolve with rest alone. Research like this positions Reiki not as a complementary afterthought, but as a legitimate therapeutic intervention worthy of integration into a broader wellbeing plan.

Why Holistic Therapies are Effective: The Whole-Person Perspective

From a psychological standpoint, what unites these three therapies is their capacity to engage the body’s own regulatory systems — rather than overriding them. They do not suppress symptoms. They create the conditions in which the nervous system can restore itself.

This is why I work from an integrative framework that brings together evidence-based psychological science with complementary medicine. These are not separate worlds. They are complementary lenses on the same human experience.

Stress lives in the body as much as it lives in the mind. And for many people, the demands of their work mean that their nervous system rarely, if ever, fully recovers. For some, holistic therapies can offer support towards that recovery.

Signs Your Nervous System May Need Support

If you recognise several of the following, it may be worth exploring holistic therapy as part of your wellbeing:

·       Persistent fatigue that sleep does not resolve

·       Difficulty relaxing or “switching off” even during downtime

·       Heightened anxiety, irritability, or emotional reactivity

·       Physical tension, particularly in the neck, shoulders, or jaw

·       Disrupted sleep — difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking unrefreshed

·       A sense of going through the motions without feeling present

·       Feeling “numb” or emotionally flat rather than stressed

These are not simply signs that you need a holiday. They are indicators that your nervous system’s capacity to regulate has been stretched beyond its current resources.

Where to Begin

You do not need to overhaul your life to support your nervous system. Sometimes, the most profound shifts begin with a single session.

If you are drawn to going deeper — to understanding the science behind these therapies and eventually sharing these skills with others — I offer CMA-accredited professional training in reflexology, massage, and Reiki across all levels.

Your nervous system has been quietly working to protect you. It deserves the same care in return.

Jilly Edmundson is the founder of The Holistic Coach House, a psychology-led wellbeing and training practice. She teaches from The Sanctuary of Healing, Langho, Blackburn. She holds an MSc in Psychology and a BSc in Complementary Therapies & Health Sciences, and is a qualified teacher and practitioner with over 20 years of experience as a holistic therapist.

To find out more about therapy sessions or accredited training, visit www.theholisticcoachhouse.co.uk

References

·       Ntoumas, I., Karatzaferi, C., Boubougiatzi, F., Manakou, N., Aslanidi, A., Giannaki, C.D., Papanikolaou, F., Dardiotis, E., Lavdas, E., & Sakkas, G.K. (2025). Massage positively influences daytime brain activity and reduces arousal state in poor sleepers: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, 25(1), 290. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-025-05022-6

·       Guo, X., Long, Y., Qin, Z., & Fan, Y. (2024). Therapeutic effects of Reiki on interventions for anxiety: a meta-analysis. BMC Palliative Care, 23. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-024-01439-x

·       Nor Marican, N., & Halim, M.H. (2019). Reflexology: A Modality in Manipulative and Body-Based Method. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337158629