If you are wondering how to calm dizziness caused by vestibular conditions such as PPPD, vestibular migraines, vestibular neuritis, or general motion sensitivity, you are not alone. Many people who come to North 49 struggle with dizziness that interferes with their daily lives. Over the years, we have seen that teaching people strategies to calm their dizziness has helped them improve their symptoms, feel more in control, and improve their ability to manage triggers.
More specifically, we teach our patients vestibular regulation techniques, which are practical tools that help calm dizziness while also supporting long-term recovery. Some techniques, such as relaxation and distraction, provide immediate relief and are especially helpful when one has increased symptoms from performing vestibular exercises or when caught in busy, stimulating environments. Other approaches like visualization and graded exposure work over time to reduce a person’s overall sensitivity to dizziness.
Why Vestibular Regulation Strategies to Calm Dizziness Work
The brain is plastic, which means it can rewire itself and become less sensitive to specific triggers through exposure, visualization, and mindset.
Exposure therapy:
With vestibular conditions, once BPPV has been ruled out, we often prescribe a series of gradually more stimulating tasks to help improve dizziness. This is based on the same principle fighter pilots use to prevent motion sickness during maneuvers like barrel rolls. With repeated, gradual exposure, the vestibular system becomes less sensitive to motion.
It is important to remember that this is context-specific. For example, if busy visual environments (i.e. being in Walmart or a moving vehicle) trigger your dizziness, performing rapid head movements will likely not help. Rather, gradually exposing yourself to busy visual environments will. While this approach is very effective, it is also beneficial to complement it with other strategies that help “rewire” the brain.
Visualization:
Athletes use mental rehearsal to improve performance. They imagine themselves performing a skill successfully, whether it is a golf swing, a gymnastics routine, or sinking a basketball shot so it becomes natural and prepares the body to perform in an ideal way. You can use the same approach in vestibular therapy. Visualizing yourself moving through daily activities without dizziness is a powerful tool to train your brain and become less sensitive to motion.
Mindset:
Who do you talk to the most every day? Often, it is yourself and we tend to be harder on ourselves than on others. Given such, when dizziness increases, what do you tell yourself? “Will this ever get better?” “Why me?” “My day is ruined!” Remember, increased symptoms can be a normal part of recovery. Acknowledge them, but also tell yourself you are okay and that, with time, things will improve. This kind of supportive inner dialogue helps your brain see the situation as safe, which can prevent symptoms from escalating.
Stress and anxiety are not only major contributors but leading causes of dizziness. When stressed, your body releases cortisol, which makes the nervous system more sensitive. Small triggers that normally would not bother you can suddenly feel overwhelming. Managing stress, possibly with help from a professional, can make a big difference.
Your body also has a natural “calm system.” Endorphins, released through laughter, exercise, music, and sex, help make the nervous system less sensitive. By reducing stress and boosting endorphins, you can create a more balanced nervous system and reduce dizziness.
What We Can Learn From Pilots
Most of us would like to be a Top Gun, so with dizziness let’s apply some of the principles we know from airforce studies done in Canada, the USA and Italy. These studies showed that motion sickness improved significantly with structured programs combining gradual exposure, relaxation techniques, and mental rehearsal. While we do not need to be as intense and get the you on a centrifuge like they do with the air force, these principles help us understand how to calm dizziness and to retrain the vestibular system.
3 Relaxation Techniques for How to Calm Dizziness
Given the above, the last thing we need to cover are specific relaxation techniques that you can use when you get into a situation that makes your dizziness return or increase. Here are 3 relaxation techniques that we have found useful to help our patients calm dizziness when it does occur:
1. Deep Breathing
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Below are 3 deep breathing options.
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Diaphragmatic Breathing: Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly. Inhale for four to five seconds, letting your belly rise, then exhale for six to seven seconds. Perform for 1-2 minutes when needed.
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Resonance Breathing (Coherent Breathing): Aim for ~6 breaths per minute (inhale 5 seconds, exhale 5 seconds). Perform for 1-3 minutes when needed.
- Box Breathing (Navy SEAL technique): Inhale 4 seconds → hold 4 seconds → exhale 4 seconds → hold 4 seconds. Perform for 2-5 minutes when needed.
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Why: Helps calm your nervous system and improve heart rate variability, which measures how well your heart responds to stress and rest. Higher heart rate variability supports a balanced nervous system and better stress management, reducing dizziness.
- Short sessions are usually enough to calm symptoms immediately, but longer sessions that can be done even when not having increased symptoms builds a cumulative benefit over time. Each technique targets slightly different aspects of the nervous system, which is why the timeline to perform each technique varies.
2. Palming
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How: Rub your hands together to warm them, then place them over your closed eyes for 1-2 minutes while breathing slowly. Actually a lot of time we simply just have our patients close their eyes to give them a break from the stimulation and even do it on a scheduled basis to prevent an increase in dizziness
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Why: Blocks visual stimulation that is often a strong trigger for your brain. The light eye pressure also helps distract you from the dizziness.
3. Grounding
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How: Use the 5-4-3-2-1 method where you name five things you see, four things you feel, three things you hear, two things you smell, and one thing you taste.
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Why: This technique, sometimes called a distraction method, has been used in military programs to help pilots and navy personnel maintain focus when they start to experience motion sickness. It works because it gets the thinking part of your brain (the prefrontal cortex) more involved, which helps settle down the alarm system in your brain (the amygdala). When the prefrontal cortex takes the lead, your body and mind feel calmer and more balanced.
Tips for How to Calm Dizziness Over Time
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Expect symptoms during therapy: Feeling dizzy is part of retraining your brain.
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Practice positive self talk: Encourage yourself rather than criticize.
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Be consistent: Gradual exposure, visualization, and relaxation strengthen your vestibular system.
With time and practice, these strategies help you feel more confident and in control, providing real improvement in daily life.
Frequently Asked Questions About How to Calm Dizziness
1. What is the fastest way to calm dizziness?
Short term strategies like deep breathing, palming, and grounding techniques help quickly.
2. Can visualization really help dizziness?
Yes. Imagining yourself moving through tasks without dizziness retrains your brain, making real life activities easier and less provocative.
3. How long does it take to calm dizziness with therapy?
With vestibular conditions improvements can typically be seen in weeks with exposure therapy, visualization and mindset, but when symptoms flare up the relaxation techniques described above can offer immediate relief.
4. Are there activities I should avoid while learning how to calm dizziness?
Your vestibular therapist will guide you on what is safe and how much exposure is helpful to promote recovery.
5. Can self talk really affect dizziness?
Absolutely. Encouraging and patient self talk reduces anxiety and helps make symptoms feel less bothersome.
If you are in Saskatchewan and want to address your dizziness our team of vestibular physical therapists at North 49 can design a personalized plan for you. Call 306.343.7776 or book online for your Vestibular Assessment today.