Healing Anxiety Through the Body
In This Article
Why anxiety is more than just thoughts
How anxiety shows up in the body
Why self-awareness alone doesn’t always resolve anxiety
What somatic work actually is
How nervous system regulation helps anxiety
Why small shifts matter
A gentle somatic practice for anxiety
Anxiety…In Real Life
Anxiety is second guessing what you just said to someone and wondering if you should go talk to them again and explain yourself better.
Anxiety is not getting a reply back for a few hours and wondering if that person hates you now and doesn’t want to see you again.
Anxiety is researching anxiety, reading 10 self-help books, learning about the nervous system, and still feeling your body brace the second life feels uncertain.
Anxiety can really shrink your world, even when you want to expand it.
This is where many people get stuck, between wanting more life and feeling held back from it.
You want to go out and meet friends, but the thought of going somewhere new and meeting new people makes your feet feel like they are stuck in cement and like there’s a vice grip inside of your chest.
Because if anxiety could be solved by understanding it intellectually, many of us would already have it solved.
Anxiety is not just a thinking experience, it’s also a body experience. You can understand your anxiety completely and still feel your nervous system freeze and panic the second life asks something of you.
And sometimes the body needs something very different than more analyzing, more fixing, or more trying to “logic” ourselves into safety.
Why Anxiety Isn’t Always Just in Your Thoughts
Anxiety is a whole body experience and what if I told you instead of trying to outthink your anxiety, we could approach it through the body instead?
Thinking our way out of anxiety is like trying to read a self-help book to a smoke alarm and telling it it just needs to calm down.
So what if we tried a different approach?
We have about 20% of nerve signals going from brain to body and about 80% going from body to brain. Which means the body has a huge influence on how we think and feel.
And really, many of you already know this intuitively.
How many times have you felt mentally better after a workout, after a hot shower or bath, after a yoga class, or even after a massage?
You know this because maybe you have felt:
Tightness in the chest
Tension in the body
shallow breathing
tightness in the chest
a clenched jaw
raised shoulders
hypervigilance
restlessness
exhaustion
an urge to run
The body is not broken, it is in a protective state. The nervous system simply hasn’t learned that it is safe enough to soften and settle again.
Another concept I want to talk about is: story follows state.
That in a nutshell, means that when your body and nervous system are stuck in anxiety or hypervigilance, it’s very likely that will influence your thoughts to be urgent, worrisome, overly suspicious, or even angry.
Tensed and panicked body → Brain thinks, “This must be done now!”, “What if?!”
But when the body settles, so does the story in your mind.
Relaxed and settled body → Brain thinks, “We have time to figure this out, no problem”
“Anxiety is not always a thinking problem. Sometimes it’s a nervous system state.”
So, we can tell the body over and over, “You’re safe. You're safe. You’re safe.” OR we can SHOW the body through sensation and experience that safety exists right now.
There are a couple ways to do this.
We can do this through somatic exercises that work to calm the nervous system and also build more capacity and safety in the body.
Because often anxiety is not just “in your head.”
Sometimes it’s energy the body never got to fully process or complete.
Maybe it’s grief sitting heavily in the chest.
Maybe it’s anger held tightly in the jaw.
Maybe it’s the impulse to run that never got to happen.
The body may still be holding onto something it never got to finish. And the cool thing is, we don’t have to know what that is!
And rather than forcing it away, somatic work helps us slowly build the safety and support needed to feel those sensations without becoming overwhelmed by them.
How Anxiety Might Show Up in the body
Sometimes anxiety doesn’t show up as panic. Sometimes it shows up as procrastination, doom scrolling, perfectionism, overthinking, or being mysteriously unable to answer one email.
Sometimes it looks like controlling everything around you because uncertainty feels unbearable.
Sometimes it looks like becoming incredibly self-aware while your body still feels on edge.
It is exhausting. I know because I have been there. I know how badly you want to open back up again. To feel relaxed enough to welcome life back in with open arms instead of bracing against it all the time.
Let’s take a small somatic pause.
What would it feel like to welcome life in again?
What would your breath feel like?
How would your body sit or stand?
How would your arms be positioned?
What expression would be on your face?
Sometimes even imagining safety, openness, or relief can begin teaching the nervous system something new. Small shifts turn into big shifts over time.
Why Some People Stay Stuck in Anxiety Even After Therapy or Self-Help
We can talk about and learn about anxiety all day. You could read this blog and have a deep understanding, but if the body is braced or hypervigilant, the insight won’t land fully in the nervous system.
There is a difference between intellectual understanding and actually feeling it in the body.
Reading about riding a bike is much different than actually learning to and experiencing riding a bike.
You might have talked to your friends, journaled, read, or talked to a therapist or coach about why you have anxiety. But, after all that, if your body is still on guard, you may still be stuck in a protective mode when you don’t need to be anymore.
It can even be a looping pattern to be constantly trying to fix and understand yourself by learning and reading more and more. This can feel very productive. But sometimes it also becomes a way of disconnecting from the body while creating the illusion that we are solving anxiety through information alone.
You can be so self-aware and still be really stuck in anxiety.
This does not mean you are failing.
It just means your nervous system needs new experiences, not just more information.
What Is Somatic Work?
Somatic work just means that it is related to the body.
The first thing I want to get out of the way, is that there is a ton of somatic “stuff’ out there and just because you are working with the body doesn’t mean it’s going to be helpful for your healing.
If we had an experience that caused trauma or left us struggling with anxiety, it’s often because your experience felt like too much, too fast, or too overwhelming for the nervous system to process at the time.
And we generally cannot heal in the same way we were overwhelmed.
Trama = experience that was too much too fast.
Healing= experience that isn’t too muc and too fast.
A good somatic practitioner should be able to adjust to your nervous system responses in real time, and ideally you shouldn’t feel heavily destabilized for days afterwards.
A lot of what I talk about, teach, and practice with clients comes from Somatic Experiencing which is often considered the gold standard of somatic trauma-trained work out there.
In this work, we work on becoming present to our environment and to our body. We don’t immediately dive into difficult emotions or past experiences. We first build safety, support, and capacity.
That foundation creates a more stable inner world which also gives us a more stable outer life. Over time, that safety allows the body to begin processing things that may have felt unfinished or overwhelming in the past.
What does it mean to complete a stuck stress response? It usually is subtle and sometimes it can be a little more dramatic.
Typically we might see:
finally taking a deeper breath
warmth moving through the body
a spontaneous stretch
shaking or trembling
a yawn
tears
feeling more grounded
noticing the body soften
temporary pleasant tingling in the limbs
digestive system gurgling and relaxing
The nervous system starts to shift out of protection mode.
We might see changes like:
less fear
less overwhelm
better sleep
less hypervigilance
more confidence
more emotional flexibility
more ease being alive
a feeling of “okayness”
This isn’t because you thought differently or read that book or listened to that podcast, it’s because you worked with the body through somatics.
I hope this helps you get a little more insight into somatics and if you feel like there is still a piece you don’t understand… well, that makes sense. Because a lot of this is an EXPERIENCE, and sometimes words just don’t do it justice and it’s something you’ve got to try.
How Somatic Work Helps Anxiety
Somatic work is not necessarily about fixing anxiety or making it disappear overnight, it’s more about helping the nervous system experience enough support and safety that anxiety no longer has to run the whole show.
Because often underneath anxiety is a body that has been bracing, protecting, scanning, and preparing for danger for a very long time. That takes A LOT of energy.
It is also about somatically learning to not fear anxiety and no longer letting it stop you from living the life you desire.
Somatics work by slowing things down and noticing what is happening in the body without becoming overwhelmed by it.
Rather than fighting anxiety, we begin to increase capacity to stay present with it in small, manageable amounts and then move that energy so it doesn’t stay stuck.
We also help the body release chronic bracing and feel safety wherever you are, no matter what is happening, even if it’s just a few seconds at first.
This translates into a body that can activate and then settle again instead of staying stuck in hypervigilance. And when the body starts to settle more often, the mind begins to follow.
This can create more rest that you can really relax into, reduced anxiety, and the ability to feel fully alive without becoming overwhelmed by it.
It works and I even have my own brain scans to prove it ;)
Small Shifts Matter More Than Big Breakthroughs
We all want a big breakthrough because we want out of the discomfort we feel. I absolutely get that. I absolutely have chased after that.
So maybe we hear that intense breathwork, cold plunges, intense workouts, and forced tremoring exercises are the answer. But sometimes these approaches just add activation to an already overwhelmed system. You may get a few days of relief but it’s less likely to teach your nervous system new skills of meeting activation and then settling again.
Stress → panic → use an intense tool to get rid of the feeling → temporary relief = no new capacity to stay with stress safely
We want:
Stress → use gentle, trauma-friendly somatic tools → learn safety and curiosity with activation = less fear, more confidence, and greater ability to move through stress
So instead, we often need to approach this work more slowly and bit by bit.
The body gets a chance to digest and absorb the new experience instead of becoming overwhelmed by it and it’s less likely to snap back into an old pattern.
This is also why co-regulation can be so powerful. Working alongside someone trained to notice your nervous system responses and adjust accordingly can help the body feel safe enough to change without becoming overwhelmed.
Consistency will beat intensity every time. Nervous systems change gradually through gentle and consistent repetition.
And yes, sometimes big shifts can happen suddenly. But often those breakthroughs are built on a foundation of many smaller moments of safety and regulation over time.
A Gentle Somatic Practice for Anxiety
1. Feel the support beneath you
Sit in a chair and, if possible, place your feet on the ground.
Notice the support of the chair beneath you. Let yourself feel your hips, back, and feet being held for a moment.
You might even gently stretch your toes as if they were in warm sand.
2. Slowly orient to your space
Take a slow look around the room with fresh eyes.
Let your eyes, head, and neck move gently as you notice shapes, colours, light, textures, or anything that feels pleasant or interesting.
Notice if your body responds in any way. Maybe your breath changes or your shoulders soften slightly.
And if nothing changes, that’s okay too.
3. Add a little gentle movement
Slowly lift one foot 1-3 inches off the floor.
Wait for a natural breath and gently lower it again.
Take a moment to notice the room once more.
Repeat this 2-3 times on each side.
4. Notice what feels different
Pause for a moment and simply notice:
What feels the same?
What feels different?
Is there even 1% more settling, softness, warmth, or space in the body?
5. Transition slowly
Before moving on with your day, let yourself stretch, wiggle, sigh, or make any small movements or sounds your body naturally wants to make.
Then continue on with your day.
Final Thoughts
What I want you to know:
There is nothing wrong with you.
Your body is working hard to protect you, not sabotage you.
If you have tried many different things, it does not mean you are failing, you may just need a different approach. A paced, supportive, and body-centred approach.
If you haven’t yet tried the intentional practice of being with your body and learning how it wants to communicate, feel, move, process, and experience safety, I would really encourage you to explore Somatic Experiencing.
Ideally with me ;) , if it feels like we would be a good fit.
The nervous system can change and adapt when it consistently experiences new information.
The goal is not to become a perfectly calm person who never feels discomfort again.
It’s to build a nervous system that can hold more of life without constantly feeling overwhelmed by it.
So you can enjoy life without constantly being on edge, instead you get to look forward to what is around you and what is ahead of you.
If you would like to learn about working with me, click here.
If you are looking for something that you want to do at your own pace, you can sign up for my 7 Day Somatic Course or check out my many somatic practice videos here.
