A Quick Win From the Trail
Close Your Eyes for 2 Minutes — The Fastest Nervous System Reset I Know
It's a Saturday morning. I'm running — sprints, actually, which is a funny thing to be doing on a video about calming the nervous system down. But that's kind of the point.
Before I even started, I was thinking about a quick way to calm the nervous system down — something fast enough to use every single day, any time of day, without any equipment or app or appointment.
Here's the idea, in short: about 80 percent of what hits our nervous system comes through our vision. Close your eyes, and you block out a huge share of what might be revving your system up in the first place. Go to a happy place. A calm place. Hold it for two to five minutes.
That's it! No cost. No gear. Works almost anywhere.
I say "almost" on purpose — there are two notable exceptions, and I get to those below.
Why Vision Hits Your Nervous System Harder Than Anything Else
The idea that vision dominates our nervous system isn't just a hunch — it's something researchers have actually measured.
Estimates vary depending on how you count it, but many put vision at somewhere around 80 to 90 percent of the sensory information the brain processes at any given moment. One number that's easier to pin down precisely: researchers at the University of Pennsylvania calculated that the human retina transmits roughly 10 million bits of information to the brain every second — a data rate comparable to an Ethernet connection. For comparison, most of your other senses combined don't come close.
Ten million bits, every second, just from your eyes. That's not a stat, it's a firehose.
And here's the part that matters for your nervous system: all of that visual information has to go somewhere. It gets processed, sorted, and reacted to — every flicker of movement, every notification, every face, every screen. Your nervous system doesn't get to opt out of processing it. It just runs, constantly, in the background, whether you're aware of it or not.
So when your nervous system feels revved up, wired, or a little too hot, a meaningful chunk of what's driving that is coming in through your eyes, whether you're consciously looking for stress or not.
Which raises the obvious question: what happens when you simply stop that input?
What Actually Happens in Your Brain When You Close Your Eyes
Here's what's genuinely interesting: closing your eyes doesn't just cut off visual input. It changes how your brain operates.
A 2015 study published in Scientific Reports used functional brain imaging to look at exactly this. Researchers found that when people closed their eyes, their brains didn't just go quiet — they switched processing modes entirely. With eyes open, the brain runs in what researchers call a visually-dominated state, where the visual system takes priority over almost everything else. Close your eyes, and the brain shifts toward a non-visually-dominated mode, with increased activity and connectivity in the areas that handle other senses and internal processing.
The researchers put it simply: the act of closing your eyes itself alters how the brain processes information, not merely the absence of visual signal.
In plain terms — when you close your eyes, your brain isn't just resting. It's actively reorganizing, stepping out of the mode that's constantly scanning and reacting to everything in front of you, and shifting into a calmer, more internally-focused state.
That's the real mechanism behind the two-to-five-minute reset. You're not just avoiding stimulation. You're giving your nervous system a genuine, measurable break from the channel that demands the most from it.
The Technique — Straight From the Trail
Here's the whole thing, no complications:
Close your eyes.
Go to a happy place. A calm place.
Hold it for two to five minutes.
That's genuinely the entire technique. No breathing pattern to memorize, no app to open, no equipment to buy. Just your eyes, your imagination, and a couple of minutes.
Try it anywhere, any time of day. Do it when your nervous system feels a little overwhelmed, a little too hot, a little too wound up to think straight. A hallway at work. A parked car. Your kitchen. It doesn't matter where you are — the moment you close your eyes, you're already cutting off a huge share of what's been driving your nervous system in the first place.
Don't take my word for it, either. Look at the research. Look at what the professionals are finding. The studies are linked throughout this post if you want to go deeper.
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Close your eyes
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Go to a calm, happy place
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Hold for 2–5 minutes
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Works almost anywhere
Free Your Mind — A 7-Day Email Course
Liked this? This is one small tool. The free course walks through several more — short, simple emails on why your nervous system gets stuck and small ways to help it settle.
Start the Free Course →A Couple of Important Exceptions
Now, a quick word of caution, because I'd rather say this outright than have you find out the hard way.
🚗 Don't do this while you're driving.
🚽 And don't do this while you're on the toilet.
I probably don't need to explain either one of those. But I'm going to anyway, because someone out there needs to hear it: vision is a critical requirement in both of those scenarios. For reasons that should be obvious. For reasons I'm afraid I have to spell out, so I'll stop just shy of connecting ALL the dots.
Everywhere else? Fair game. Your desk. The waiting room. The grocery store parking lot. A hallway between meetings. Just maybe not those two... and a couple others. I'll let you sit with that one.
One More Honest Thing
A Great Quick Win — And What It Doesn't Fix
Here's my honest take, as someone who spends most of my working hours thinking about nervous systems.
This technique works. It's real, it's free, and it's one of the fastest tools I know for taking the edge off in the moment. If you use it, you'll probably notice something shift.
But here's the thing worth saying out loud: a two-minute reset is built for a two-minute problem. Traffic. A hard conversation. A stretch of the day that got away from you. For that kind of moment, closing your eyes and stepping away from the visual firehose is exactly the right tool.
What it's not built for is a nervous system that's stuck. If you find yourself needing this trick constantly — multiple times a day, every day, just to keep functioning — that's not really a two-minute problem anymore. That's usually a sign the nervous system has settled into a pattern it can't easily drop on its own, no matter how many times you close your eyes.
That's a different kind of work. It's the kind of work we do here at Clear Mind Utah — helping a nervous system that's stuck find its way back to a baseline where it doesn't need constant emergency resets just to get through a Tuesday.
Use this technique. Use it often, even. Just pay attention to how often you're reaching for it — because that number tells you something too.
No referral needed. No pressure.
If You're Reaching for Quick Resets More Than You'd Like
We offer a free 30-minute consultation — a real conversation about what's going on, what you've already tried, and whether nervous system support might help. No obligation, no pressure.
Book a Free Consultation →Or call or text us directly at (385) 304-4434.
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Individual experiences vary. This technique is offered as general self-care information and is not a substitute for medical or mental health treatment. Clear Mind Utah provides microcurrent neurofeedback as a wellness and nervous system support service. We do not diagnose, treat, or cure any medical or mental health condition. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact a qualified professional or call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Clear Mind Utah is located at 21 E. 100 N. Ste. 101, American Fork, UT 84003.
About the Author
Troy Gundersen
Troy is the co-founder and owner of Clear Mind Utah, a family-owned IASIS Microcurrent Neurofeedback center in American Fork, Utah. He and his wife Valerie opened the center after experiencing firsthand how a stuck nervous system can quietly take over — and how much is possible when it finally shifts. Troy works alongside Val and their daughter Sydni to help adults and families across Utah County find their way back to calm. Learn more about the team →
