How do you come out of shut downs?

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When you're overloaded and your brain shuts down, and it's hard to think or do anything, what do you do to recover? What helps you?

Sleep helps me.

Sleep is the only reliable solution.
Sometimes enough is enough, and the only way to cope is to find some quiet time.
Even a nap will usually help.
Failing that, any activity you can engage in that is quiet, that you can do on your own without interruption can help, but often in full shutdown mode that's not possible, so that takes you back to sleep being the best option.
If possible you could try meditation, or listening to quiet ambient music while lying down in bed.
The main thing is that if you can't cope, don't force yourself to, or you'll make it worse.

Might try deep breathing exercises - some therapists can teach those.

There are also various relaxation exercises to be found online. When you are in a better frame of mind, or mood, you might google and read until you find some that sound good to you. (Some relaxation exercises that make you react like "yeah! I can do that.") Then, print those out.

I'm not talking about meditation since you said you want concrete things to do, and meditation is hard at first, and not something to learn while upset, I think. (I'm no expert on it, just speaking from experience.) I'm talking about breathing exercises and things like that. Actors learn those, to relax before going on stage and such.

If your head hurts too much to think or to listen to music (or I'd have recommended counting backwards), sometimes grounding yourself back into your body, while relaxing, is the ticket. It requires focus and it has a good physical effect.

(Yoga is the next step up from this, although I don't know your feelings on learning yoga. There are some good Dvds out there, I think. Make sure you start off at beginner level.)

For me it depends on the kind of meltdown because I get a couple of different kinds. Every now and then if I get really frustrated or angry confusion I have a head bang meltdown. I usually bang my head a few times really hard and that kind of just takes care of itself. Those are really short and are usually done in a minute or two except that there is a bit of a headache afterwards. But as long as I don't get a concussion, like I did once, those just come and go.

If I have a meltdown where it is triggered by anxiety or a kind of fear or massive confusion overload that is not from frustration or anger, then I usually cry and scream like a toddler and those just kind of have to run their coarse. Sometimes I rock a little and that helps or sometimes I call someone I trust and hear their voice on the voicemail and that really helps too. Sometimes I have headaches from those too and sleep afterwards is always good.

Sometimes I have meltdowns that are more like just zoning out, it's like I just kind of not focus on anything in particular or I zone in on one detailed thing. If I get really overwhelmed and I am in a public place or at someone's house where I can't cry and scream or head bang, I'll have this kind of meltdown. Those usually can last a few minutes and then I can kind of calm down. It's like my brain just takes a break.

Sometimes if I am hugged and held it really helps and I can come out of all the kinds of meltdowns better that way but not just anyone can hold me, it is only very specific people. If it's not one of those people, than that makes the meltdown worse.