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Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women
Welcome to the Somatic Healing Podcast! — a personal growth space for sensitive, ambitious, soulful women who are ready to move beyond anxiety, burnout, and perfectionism… and come home to themselves through the wisdom of the body.
Anxiety isn’t just in your mind — it lives in your body. This podcast shows you how to release it, while exploring the intersection of somatics, creativity, wellness, and spirituality. We move beyond people-pleasing and self-doubt and into a life led by inner safety, clarity, and truth.
Hosted by Rae, a certified Breathwork Facilitator, Somatic Coach & Therapist, Sound Healer, and Flower Essence Guide each episode offers: nervous system regulation tools, mindfulness & spirituality insights, somatic breathwork practices, emotional processing and integration tools, creative expression as a path to wholeness, and real talk about anxiety, healing, and becoming who you truly are.
Rae is a podcaster, writer, creative, and guide on a mission to help women release stored emotions and reclaim their wholeness by reconnecting to the wisdom of the body.
Tune in exactly as you are — and leave feeling more grounded, more inspired, and more you.
Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women
(#103) Overthinking, Thought Rumination & Anxiety: A Nervous System and Somatic Tools Approach
In this episode, Rae explores thought rumination, why it happens, and how to break out of looping thoughts using somatic, nervous-system–based tools. If you’ve ever found yourself replaying scenarios, overthinking conversations, or spiraling into “what ifs,” this episode will help you understand what’s happening in your brain and body and how to create relief.
You’ll learn:
🌿 What rumination really is and how it differs from healthy reflection
🌿 How the nervous system triggers looping thoughts (fight/flight/freeze/fawn)
🌿 Why your brain chases “understanding” as a form of safety + control
🌿 How fawning and people-pleasing create rumination patterns
🌿 The mind-body feedback loop that keeps spirals going
🌿 Somatic practices to interrupt the cycle
This is the perfect episode for anyone navigating anxiety, overthinking, looping thoughts, emotional overwhelm, or fawning patterns and for practitioners supporting clients through these experiences.
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Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast is intended to inspire, educate, and support you on your personal journey. It does not substitute for professional mental health advice. I am not a psychologist or medical professional. If you are experiencing distress, mental health challenges, or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified professional.
Welcome back to the podcast. If you are new here, I'm Ray. I'm a somatic coach and breath work facilitator. And if you aren't new here, welcome back. I'm so glad that you are tuning in for today's episode. For today's episode, we're going to be diving into thought ruminations. And I chose this topic because it's something that I've personally experienced with anxiety and a history of fawning, and something that I help a lot of people with as well. And I was having a conversation about it the other day, and I mentioned that there are tools and options outside of rumination. And sometimes we just don't think of things from a different lens because we're like so in it. And ruminations are tough because it's like this like looping repetitive thought pattern that really keeps us stuck. We're playing different scenarios, worrying about the future, analyzing the past, you know, whatever it might be. So for today's episode, I'm going to unpack this from a nervous system perspective and also provide some tools if you find yourself ever experiencing something like thought rumination. So if you have ever found yourself in some sort of thought spiral or even an emotional spiral, I like to call it sometimes too, it's a sign that your nervous system is seeking some kind of safety. And the mind is seeking understanding, or maybe it's trying to problem solve its way into a safe place. And this is definitely like a little bit different than reflecting. So reflecting is when we're maybe looking back and saying, like, what did I learn from this? Or what might what might I have needed at that time instead? So there's a little bit more of like a spaciousness that comes from reflection, whereas rumination shows up as, you know, why did this happen? What happens? What if this happens again? What if, what if, what if, what if? And this can show up in social interactions. This can show up when uh we may have felt like we've made some some kind of like mistake, quote unquote. This can show up when you're feeling emotionally overwhelmed, anticipating things in the future that haven't happened yet, or relooping and processing things in the past that have already completed. And when this happens, the body has really already moved into either a fight, flight, freeze, fawn. And so the thoughts are starting to spin. And the brain starts to believe that if it replays the situation enough, it can prevent it from happening in general or from happening again in the future. And it's providing us with this basically like a sense of control, which is an illusion, but it's keeping our body in that trauma state, that trauma response state, whether it's fight or flight fees, fall. So although this behavior isn't serving us, thought rumination definitely isn't fun by any means. It is quite intelligent because it is a form of self-protection and it is seeking some form of safety. So the idea here is having these kinds of conversations to really understand what's happening in our experience, making sense of it, observing it, and then, you know, seeing what we can, what steps we can take to move forward and ideally bring ourselves some sort of relief and connecting this experience of thought rumination, making that mind-body connection, when the thoughts are going and they're going and they're going, they're starting to stress out the body. And a stressed-out nervous system can reinforce those thoughts. So it's kind of like that funny thing of like what comes first, the chicken or the egg. And that's why I believe really in the mind-body connection and that it's us speaking to the system as a whole. Something happens, our system seeking safety, then we start ruminating on thoughts. Those thoughts and those ruminations start to stress out our system, and it's kind of this loop, this mind-body loop. And when it comes to rumination, we can't think our way out of it because we're already looping in our thoughts, right? We're already very in the mind. And so we can't really think our way out of it. We can definitely use some cognitive tools for sure, and I'll go over that in a little bit. But the idea is really how can we feel our way through it? How can we use our tools to interrupt this loop, interrupt this experience or this emotional spiral, and really begin to welcome in that sense of safety back into the equation and bringing that sense of safety back into the equation so that you can really find some relief from these looping thoughts, negative spirals, emotional spirals. And I mentioned this idea of the fawn trauma response. And this is something that I also have a history of, and making that connection between when you fawn. So if you have a history of fawning, which basically means you in the past or currently, whatever it might be, have experienced people pleasing, self-abandonment, really working to appease others to maintain a sense of safety. And so how this connects to rumination is when you're not expressing or showing up exactly how you need to because you're very concerned about appeasing to other people, it can create a sense of anger, it can create looping thoughts, a lack of really true expression. And so all of that response that really needs to be going outwards ends up staying inwards. And so, because of that, it can cause that nervous system loop because it's not the energy isn't going out of your system, it's staying inside. And so that's how rumination can come from fawning. And I can also share from personal experience, I had this uh experience happen a little while ago that was really painful, really confusing to me. And so there was a lot of my understanding that was trying to go into this thing, was really trying to understand like what happened, what like what's going on. So part of the spiral for me was looping thoughts of like trying to piece things together. But when I stopped and allowed myself to really get curious about what I was trying to accomplish in replaying this scenario over and over again, I realized that I was just really sad, I was upset, I was scared. And I was trying to find this sense of control through the understanding. And so I was really feeling like 10 different emotions, and the rumination was trying to protect me from processing the experience. So, again, history of anxiety. So this tracks with my system for sure, like pretty um understandable for me. So all of these tools that I'm going to share are things that I've personally used and things that I've recommended to clients based on this, um, all of you know, all different personal experiences that I've had and um studying that I've done on this topic specifically. So, one thing that I think has really helped me personally is practicing with that non-judgmental awareness. So noticing what's happening. So for me, this sounds like, well, here we are, noticing that I'm in my head and asking, like, is this helpful for processing? Or am I looping here? Like, what's this feeling like to me? What is this creating in my body? Is there a sensation with this in my body? And and really practicing non-judgmental awareness in this experience. So it's a it's a split second, it's a pretty like my connected to a mindfulness practice of just having that awareness, noticing where you're at in your experience, and not judging yourself for that, really being compassionate. And I mentioned uh like noticing what it feels like in the body, and that is the second, the second thing that I would say. So getting into the body, right? So rumination, it is a mind experience. We're in our heads, get into the body. That could look like movement, changing environments, going outside, going for a walk, uh, breath work, looking around your space, orienting to your space, uh, shaking the body, moving the body, doing some grounding practices, um, grounding in the space that you're in, grounding with the earth outside, noticing what it feels like to feel safe in your body, and letting your body respond in a way that would help to alleviate the energy, the rumination in the mind without making it wrong, but allowing it to complete because it's looking for this sense of safety that the that the nervous system is looking for. So bringing yourself a sense of safety using any of the tools that I just mentioned. And then after practicing that non-judgmental, compassionate awareness, movement, grounding, getting into the body, I usually do those things first. And then I would invite you to, you know, come back to this third step, which is working with the mind and noticing like what's going on here for me. So working with that sense of control. Am I trying to control something that's not in my control? Uh, you know, we're in control of our thoughts, our feelings, our bodies, our choices, our behaviors, uh, but there's a lot that is not in our control. So is this rumination or is it something that you're trying to control? And if there are whys present, so if you're saying, like, why this, why that, why that, da-da-da, can you welcome in more curiosity and more um like space into your experience when we're experiencing any kind of emotional pain? We love curiosity. That is going to be our bestie because it's going to bring in naturally with curiosity comes compassion because we're like, oh, like this is interesting. Like, what's going on here? And so it gives us that grace, it gives us that compassion, and it gives us that safety, which would be my next thing, is giving yourself grace, offering yourself some understanding, and you're allowing yourself to know that whatever you are ruminating on, whatever may have happened, you know, it doesn't define who you are, it doesn't define your worth, it doesn't even have to be figured out, it doesn't even have to be understood in this exact moment. So this is going to bring you a sense of flexible thinking, a sense of safety because internally you're not combating everything. You're accepting it for what it is, and you're allowing things to be more at rest in the moment. And when you're experiencing a thought rumination in the moment, it can be really intense, it can be really unpleasant. And ultimately it's bringing us out of the present moment, which can, you know, add to how we're feeling in terms of like not feeling our best. So practicing that compassion, finding that safety, bringing in that curiosity, and yeah, noticing if you're trying to control something in your experience that might be out of your control. And that is what we have for today's episode. So I hope that you found value in this. If this is something that you also experience, or if it's something that you help your clients with, um, packed a lot of value into this one. And yeah, if you want to stay connected, you can check out the show notes. There is a resource library that has about 15 to 20 breath work meditation practices, and it also includes signing up for the somatic healing newsletter. So if you want to stay connected, that's one way that we can stay connected. And yeah, feel free to share this episode with a friend. Feel free to save it for later, something you can return back to. And I hope that you have an incredible rest of your day. I hope you have an incredible rest of your week. And I will talk to you soon. Thank you for being here and tuning in to Somatic Healing for Wellness Focused Women Podcast. If you were moved or inspired by today's episode, please take a moment to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It truly helps the podcast grow and helps more people find me on their healing journey. Make sure to check out the show notes to sign up for the monthly newsletter, links to more resources, opportunities to work with me, and ways that we can stay connected. If we aren't already connected on social media, head over to Instagram to follow me at Ray the Somatic Coach. Send me a DM. I'd love to connect with you, and I answer each note that comes in. I am so happy you're here, and I cannot wait to talk with you on our next episode of the podcast.