(#125) Why You Can’t Think Your Way Out of Anxiety: Nervous System Explained & What Helps

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Why does anxiety feel so hard to “think your way out of”?
And what if the answer isn’t in your thoughts—but in your body?

In this episode, we dive into the connection between anxiety and nervous system dysregulation, and why traditional mindset tools alone often aren’t enough to create lasting relief.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in cycles of overthinking, racing thoughts, or physical anxiety symptoms (like chest tightness, shallow breathing, or a racing heart), this conversation will help you understand what’s actually happening in your body—and how to begin working with it instead of against it. 

✨ In this episode, you’ll learn:

•  What nervous system dysregulation actually means 
•  Why anxiety is a fight-or-flight survival response
•  How anxiety creates a loop between the mind and body

🌿 This episode is for you if:

•  You experience chronic anxiety or overthinking
•  You feel stuck in mental loops that won’t turn off
•  You notice anxiety shows up physically in your body
•  You’ve tried mindset work—but something still feels missing 

Share with me your stories, questions, and desires for the podcast! Submit a Podcast Listener Form!

📩 Want to go deeper?
Check out the Breathwork Resource Library + monthly newsletter for somatic tools, guided practices, and ongoing support.

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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.

Transcript

Welcome And What We’re Covering

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the podcast. If you are new here, I'm Ray. I'm a breathwork facilitator and somatic coach. 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 talking about anxiety and nervous system dysregulation. And when we start to bring the body into the conversation, it can really alleviate and shift a lot of different patterns that we might have around anxiety. But before we dive into today's topic, I wanted to check in with you quick. And this episode is number 125 of the podcast, which is pretty incredible. And some of you have been listening since the beginning when I started like two years ago. And others may have found me along the way. Amazing either way. There are a few hundred people that tune into the podcast every week from all over the world from over a hundred different countries. And I really want to make these episodes and the podcast as a whole a really great resource for you. Part of my vision for the podcast as a creator is to meet you where you are, bring an understanding or an integration or a piece of inspiration to your day, and really be a reliable and trustworthy resource for you. I know there are so many podcasts out there, and I also love listening to podcasts too. And so I don't take it lightly that you're spending anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour with me each week. I think it's really, really amazing. And I'm so grateful that you are here and that you are tuning in. So, with all of that being said, I'd really like to know if there are any reflections or stories that you would like to share with me based on your experience with the podcast so far. Maybe there are topics that come to mind, areas that you'd like me to expand on, guest speaker ideas. Maybe you're seeking more community opportunities with other listeners. So I created a form, a Google form, so that you can share with me any of what I just mentioned. And that's going to be right in the show notes. The form is completely anonymous unless you want to share your information with me. And it will probably take, I mean, I imagine it would take less than five minutes. I think there is maybe five or six questions on there. So take your time with it. Uh, but I would absolutely love to hear from you, and I would be really grateful because your voice is only going to make this podcast a better place for all of our listeners here and for the community as a whole. All right, so that's what I had for you before we dive in. And yeah, let's dive into today's topic of nervous system, dysregulation, and anxiety. So navigating anxiety is really where my kind of experience started with getting into the personal development and self-development world. And oftentimes I would be finding information that was really focused on cognitive reframing and working with our thoughts of anxiety. And there would, it would cause a lot of like inner friction for me because I had this layer of self-awareness around anxious moments, but I wasn't really able to like navigate how changing my thoughts were not changing how I felt. So discovering the somatics, discovering the somatic world, nervous system regulation and dysregulation was really eye-opening for me personally. And so that is part of the reason why I'm so passionate about this nervous system lens and working with the body, because it really brings in another element to the conversation to add to all of the, you know, wonderful mindset work that we can do too. So at the root of anxiety, what is happening is that our bodies and our mind is going into a survival response. So the nervous system is shifting into fight or flight to protect us from what we perceive to be danger. And this, the idea of that is actually, you know, really, really helpful. Our nervous system is brilliant. Uh, but the issue is that when it becomes chronic, so ultimately your body is trying to keep you safe, even if it's not what we want, or if it doesn't feel good, and it can even be overwhelming at times to feel, you know, anxious. It's also information. And feelings of anxiety and that information can come online from chronic stress, from burnout, from past trauma, unpredictable environments, even being constantly stimulated. All of these things can cause that fight or flight, that nervous system survival response to come online. And what happens with the nervous system is that it learns these patterns really well. And so it will see that all, you know, this response that you're having is constant and allow that to become a default state. So we'll just our default state will be, you know, fight or flight or dysregulation or hypervigilance, because our nervous system sees that pattern and just finds that to be the place to hang out in. That is becomes the default state. And so, what can happen when we're in that state of anxiety is that it's usually both the mind and the body. I know that I've definitely experienced this. So the mind might be moving really fast, it might be very loud, it might not be the kindest, it might be worried. And then the body is maybe feeling that pressure in the chest, racing heart, trouble breathing, maybe even some like stomach issues happening. So then that is where that loop begins, that's where that pattern begins. So we feel something in the body, and then the mind is feeling rumination or stress or loud or looping thoughts, and then that cycle continues. And a part of this that I think that is important to name is that we're not really used to feeling things in the body. So automatically, when we do feel something in the body, whether it's the pressure on the chest or stomach pain or shortness of breath, automatically our brain interprets that the sensation means danger. And it means that we need to be worried. And again, that fight or flight, that hypervigilance. And so a big part of what we do together in the world of somatics is building a sense of safety, of being able to understand, see, and sometimes sit with, sometimes not, different forms of sensation in the body. And there's so much information for us there. So a big part of I can speak for myself, but what I do with somatics is the inner child work, parts work, sensation association, sensation exploration, metabolizing emotion, metabolizing sensation, things like that. And that all happens when we bring pause and awareness and safety to a felt sense in the body. But this is not something that we're normally used to. It's not something that we really know how to do unless we learn or we're taught or we do it with somebody, or we, you know, get curious about these things, we listen to the podcast, then we can get more familiar with that practice. So what happens is this cycle of perceived danger, a response in the body, a reaction in the mind, and then that continues to loop and it continues, and then that puts us in this constant state of hypervigilance. And so if this idea, this concept is resonating with you, and you're like, yeah, like I've ex I experience anxiety all the time, and like this is wild, and all that. I do believe that working with the nervous system instead of working against it can help to alleviate, regulate, and integrate different forms of anxiety. So when we work with the nervous system, we get really curious around our experience with it. So, invitation in this moment to get curious around what your experience is like when you are experiencing any form of anxiety, any form of dysregulation. It is insight and information. And just by inviting in that curiosity, this will gently begin to alleviate friction and also help you to try and prevent thinking your way out of it, thinking your way out of the feeling. Because when we get curious, it's like, hmm, there's like a little bit of space there. So it's not so much like avoidance or pushing the feeling away or pushing the sensation away. It's information. It's just like, oh, this is more intel for me to see and understand what's coming up for me. And that can be really interesting. And then something that will begin to happen naturally when you start, you know, playing with these tools of curiosity is and working with the nervous system is yes, I, you know, ideally we want we like to feel, you know, calm and regulated, of course, but that's not always going to be the case. That's just unrealistic. And so another thing that we can do is is expanding our capacity for our nervous system. And this can look like uh using that curiosity and sitting with sensation or just exploring it, um, being uh compassionate and open to what information you can receive based on the experiencing experience that you're having. So it's not always necessarily about calming the nervous system, it could be about expanding it as well. And this can be a bit uncomfortable, of course, because normally it's uh yeah, it's a practice that you you have to have to learn. Um, but it is a part of the process. And what happens when we include expanding as part of the process is that is when a felt sense of safety inside can also expand. So we're expanding our capacity, expanding our ability to feel safe in our experience, to feel safe in our body, in our mind. And that safety will allow us to feel calmer. So working with that tool of nervous system expansion, allowing that to cultivate a sense of inner safety, and then the side effect of that will most likely be a sense of calm. And so, just to recap briefly, you have your curiosity, you have your expansion of the nervous system, you have your felt sense of safety in your experience, and most likely bringing a sense of calm. And so, this is why somatic-based tools, I believe, work best for anxiety, because it really allows you to get a felt sense of what it feels like to be in your body, what information and insight is there for you with anxiety. The anxiety isn't bad or wrong or anything like that. And working with these tools will bring a lot more information and also help you to feel safe in that experience. All right, and so that is what we have for today's episode, episode 125 of the podcast, which is super cool. If you uh fill out the form in the show notes, it's a podcast listener form. I'll read each one that comes in. I would be so grateful. And yeah, thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. I hope you have an incredible rest of your day, 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 Well News 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.