From Freeze To Flow

Feeling stuck doesn’t always look like shutting down. Sometimes it looks like getting everything done while feeling numb, unmotivated, and disconnected from your own life force. We talk about the freeze response and functional freeze as a protective nervous system strategy, including the classic signs like heaviness and brain fog, plus the sneakier pattern of being “fine” on the outside while your inner world feels flat.

We unpack why freeze often carries locked-in fight or flight energy, creating that frustrating gas pedal and brake feeling. From there, we focus on what actually helps: building safety first. I guide you through finding “glimmers” of okayness in real time through orienting to your space, feeling the support underneath you, using breath, and inviting small movements that signal safety to your body. We also explore titration, taking tiny doses of sensation and emotion without flooding, so your system can build capacity instead of snapping back into start stop.

The second half is a gentle central channel biofield tuning session using a tuning fork, moving from the feet up the spine to the crown and back, with cues to soften rigidity, return to certainty, and stay present. If you tend to leave your body under stress, you’ll get simple anchors like wiggling toes, opening your eyes, and even using sound or a small belly laugh to help thaw stuck energy in the throat and belly.

If this supports you, subscribe, share it with someone who feels stuck in survival mode, and leave a review so more people can find somatic tools for nervous system healing. What part of functional freeze do you recognize most in yourself?

Sign up for my free course, Nervous System Embodiment for Real Life. https://leahmcquade.com/resources/

Be a part of the Somatic Self Healers Community https://mailchi.mp/leahmcquade.com/mg2urgzy6d

Want 1:1 support? Book a virtual Sacred Somatic and Intuitive Healing Session here: https://leahmcquade.com/sacred-somatic-intuitive-healing/

Website: https://leahmcquade.com/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/leahmcquade1/

Transcript

Welcome And Settle In

0:00

Welcome to Somatic Self-Kalers Podcast. This is a space for people who are tired of living in survival mode and are ready to start feeling safe in their body again. I'm your host, Leah McQuaid, and here we don't just talk about nervous system healing. We experience what it actually looks, what it feels like to come back to yourself in real life. Through somatic practices, breath work, and guided energetic healing sessions using sound. These episodes are designed to support you in shifting out of survival mode and into a deeper sense of presence, connection, and aliveness. So wherever you are, take a moment. Let this be a place you can soften and slow down. Take a nice big deep breath in. Settle in and let's begin. Hi,

What The Freeze Response Is

1:13

welcome to Somatic Self-Healers. My name is Liam McQuaid, and I love helping you feel safe enough to fully live. So today we're gonna talk about the freeze response. We're gonna move from freeze into flow, helping you restore safety, energy, and life force. So we'll talk a little bit about freeze and functional freeze. Then we're gonna get into our healing session as we always do here in Somatic Self-Healers. And I'm gonna be using the tuning fork in the central channel today. So I'll talk a little bit more about that as we get into the healing portion of our time together. So taking a moment, settle in, settling into wherever you are, and we'll just jump right into the freeze response and what the freeze response is. So I'm sure you've heard fight, flight, or freeze as the autonomic response that our nervous system is telling us we're in a state of threat. And fight, flight, or freeze is how our body responds. So freeze is the last option in that sequence. So first, fight or flight is a mobilizing response. We either fight or we flee, it's a lot of mobilizing energy. We get out of the situation or we fight the situation, right? That threat. And if it's not safe for us to fight or flee, we move into the freeze response. So it's still active energy within our body, it's still the fight or flee energy in the body. It's just it's locked in, it's constricted, it's stopped because if we were to run or fight, it wouldn't be safe. So it's interesting because there's some classic freeze responses that show up in our life, right? We feel shut down, we feel numb, we feel heavy, we feel collapsed, we feel far away from ourselves, we have brain fog. And then there's also the freeze response that shows up in a different way. We might still be productive and successful and active and doing our lives, and yet there's a disconnection or a lack of aliveness or life force in the doing. And this is considered more a functional freeze. So there's parts of us that are moving and functioning and working and parenting and showing up, and we might even be performing at a high level. But inside there's a disconnect, there's low life force, there's low motivation for pleasurable activities and for creativity. So parts of us are mobile, and then there's parts of us that are immobile, and we have a hard time kind of mobilizing towards our resources, towards things that we know will help us, but yeah, we have a hard time kind of mobilizing and moving towards those things. So it's this idea that our body is forced to keep going, but we don't really have a whole lot of energy for it. Procrastination can show up here, troublemaking decisions can show up here. We can feel overwhelmed by emotion. So we might feel the emotion or know the emotion. We might know the emotion, but we have a hard time feeling the emotion, right? And we know that we've got to feel that emotion for it to move through. Yeah. So because this energy is stuck, it can feel like we have a immobility in parts of us. It can feel like one part of us is on the gas pedal and the other part is on the brake. And when we want to start moving through this stuckness, when we want to start moving through some of this freeze, it can feel as if we can cling on to our emotions, right? Or we can suppress our emotions. And so we want to start building enough safety in our body to where we can hold a little bit more of our life force, where we can hold a little bit more of that emotion, emotions that are coming up, those emotions that are coming up without feeling like we have to cling to them or feeling like we have to suppress them. And so today, when we work through the central channel, I want to offer an opportunity for us to lean into and be curious about the parts of us that might start something and then stop it, or the part of us that kind of flip-flops. And just being curious about that, that can be really helpful to start applying some of these principles in our lives, right? Because of course, awareness precedes choice. So having that awareness around how functional freeze might be showing up in our lives can be really helpful. So I want you to be really curious about that. And what's beautiful about our time together is we have space towards the end of our time, right? Towards the end of these videos and the podcast. Like we have time to take a few moments and settle into our experience, settle into how these things are showing up for our lives in our lives right now. Because what's the point of having all this knowledge if we can't apply it? So this works really about applying, and I assist you today. I'll be assisting you with a central channel biofield tuning where we work from the feet all the way up to the crown of the head and back down, and I'll talk a little bit more about that.

Building Safety With Small Glimmers

8:13

So let's talk first a little bit about safety, right? So it's about building a sense of okayness, openness, safety. So safety isn't a word that resonates. You can create your own word, whatever word works for you. Okayeness or aliveness or openness. Safety is subjective. So I can't tell you what's safe for you. But what I invite us to explore today is how might you bring something either into your environment or into your experience right now as you are that offers a little bit more of safety. So maybe you just look around your space. Maybe you feel the support underneath you. Maybe it's through movement. Maybe you roll your shoulders, maybe you do a little shaking. Maybe you feel your hips kind of spreading. Maybe you take an exhale. How might you in this very moment find a tad bit more okayness, neutralness, aliveness, openness, safety? It could be just by looking around your space and finding something in your space, that pillow that has texture, or that picture on the wall. Maybe you just allow those things in your space to give you just a tiny bit more, or maybe a lot. Maybe it gives you a lot more spaciousness and okayness. And just know how that thing, or or practice how that thing might live in your body as a felt sense of okayness or openness or safety right now. And it might just be one percent, might be ten percent, it might be fifty percent, whatever it is, just allow that thing in your environment or how your pillow under your head supports you, leaning into what's underneath you. Because I've said this before. So we're not levitating yet as humans that I know of. So there's always something underneath you supporting you. So now I'm just feeling into my feet, finding a little bit of that safety. So safety is always first and foremost, before we can in this case start to hold some of that life force. Yeah, before we can change our current state, right? Which the state here we're talking about is that functional free state. Before we can change that, we have to bring in little glimmers. Deb Dana calls them glimmers, right? So little glimmers of safety in this moment, and these can change and you can build upon these, but this is really the foundation of any nervous system work. Whatever state we want to change, we gotta first build in that safety. So just encouraging you for the next minute or so. Maybe bring in that breath, that movement, that sound. That's it. And

Central Channel Session And Grounding

12:55

so we're gonna start with that central channel activation. Inviting you now to maybe close down your eyes so you can always keep your eyes open. Don't encourage our healing sessions to be done while driving. If you're in the car, stop, that's okay. But these would be useful for a more settled body experience. You can be sitting up or lying down. Yeah. And I'll start with grounding. So anytime we work with the energy, we want to ground. So I'm gonna just start with some grounding. And if you've been here before, you know I do lots of breathing to help move the energy. And so I'm at your feet, and you might start to bring that breath down to the tailbone, down to the feet, helping you ground your energy. Yeah, and I can sense already some of that freeze in the system. Yeah. So what might help here, I'm getting the sense that there's also some fight or flight energy that's sitting on top of that freeze, and that's really common. And if we're intending to help move some of the freeze out of the body so that you can hold a little bit more of your life force, we might want to move some of that fight or flight energy. So you might bring in more of the horsey lips, you might move your body a little bit more before you settle in. Ah, yeah, that's it. Yeah. And continuing that breath in and out of the feet. That's it. Continuing to move your body in any way. If your body's asking for movement, for release, for discharge of some of that fight or flight energy. Yeah, that's it. Just bringing that energy down to the feet, grounding it before we move through the channel. Yeah, so you can't do this wrong. You can't make a mistake in doing this work, right? So that's one of the things that holds us back when we're in a state of functional freeze. We might start to move forward and then we get a lot of fear, right? And fear is that closing in that tightness. And there when we have fear, fear of failing, fear of making a mistake, it's gonna prevent us from moving forward, but it's also gonna constrict the flow of our life force, right? And so when we get into that channel, I'm gonna help kind of soften that constricting, that pulling inward of the spine. And so you might just offer your body that chance to pull gently away from the spine instead of pulling in. Maybe you soften and melt away from the side, the spine. So you're moving away from the spine. Yeah, beautiful. That might feel like a spreading of your muscles outward, out. Yeah, yeah, great. You might imagine that from your head all the way to your toes, all the way down the spine, the muscles along the spine are moving outward. Yeah. That's it. Good almost to ground here. Doing an amazing job. Can't get this wrong. You're here, you're showing up. You're doing it right. Yeah, alright. Great, and so we're gonna just start to work the channel now. So from your feet all the way up your spine to the crown of your head, out the crown of your head, like a whale spout, and then about five or six feet on either side, and then back two or three feet at your feet there. And we're just gonna keep going with this motion, with that intention of continuing to loosen up that constriction, that fear, right? That's what I think of. That's what I think of. That's kind of the visual that's coming in around fear and around stuckness and around rigidity, right? Is this and also what came through is softening the pelvic floor and breathing in that rhythm of the breath. And if you've been with me following along, that's been a theme here recently is bringing some rhythm into the breath. Because if we think about functional freeze, one foot on the gas, one foot on the pedal, it's a lot of uh-uh uh uh stop start, flip-flop, you know, uh uh uh, sort of. That's kind of the other thing that's coming in around that. And so we're just inviting in more flow, more ease. Yeah, there we go. Less rigidity. Yeah, that's it. More ability to feel not just know the feeling, but actually feeling the emotion and feeling your body. And that can start with just feeling your bottom on the chair or your back against the car seat or the the seat of your car, not the car seat. Not like a child's car seat. Or your spine being held on your bed, right? Softening your belly. Yeah, and if you notice yourself coming out of your body, or maybe there was a level of out-of-bodiness when we started, and just encouraging you to maybe come back to your feet, wiggling your toes. Come back to your breath. And

Titration And Returning To Certainty

22:53

we're gonna do this with titration, right? So we're gonna do this with little bits of feeling, little bits of returning back to yourself. We don't want to flood the system. So just encouraging little bits of softening and receiving. Yeah, that's it. And still just working that central channel flow from your feet up to the crown of your head and then out around, and strengthening the boundaries on the outer edge of your field. Building that capacity to stay with your experience. Yeah, that's it. Uncertainty can have us stop, right? That uncertainty of the future. So just encouraging you to come back to what is certain for you in this moment. You can practice this again and again. Like, what is certain in this moment? Your breath, each time you breathe. Each time you notice your feet and can wiggle your toes. Are you certain that the bed underneath you is solid and there? Maybe the chair you're sitting on. Can you be certain that it's going to support you? There's a lot of things that we can come back to to help us find that certainty in our lives. And just beginning to notice the life force, the charge a little deeper, maybe just one percent, maybe ten percent, fifty percent. Just notice what you notice about your experience of being in your body in this moment. That's it. And you might only notice for 30 seconds or a minute, and then you might blink open your eyes. So this is titration, right? Blink open your eyes, find those glimmers, the safety we established before we started, the things around your room. Yeah. Building the capacity to stay with yourself. Even if you feel numb, numbness is a feeling, it's a sensation. Just allowing the fork, the sensation of the sound in your body, allowing it to move your insides. Bringing in some voltage. But the right amount of voltage for you in this moment right now. We don't want to create that flip-flop. We don't have to bring in a lot of voltage right away, so much so that you go back to the flop, right? So just enough of that voltage that you can hold. So we gotta titrate little bits. Otherwise, we just continue the start stop, the flip-flop. So just holding. Yeah, great. Keep breathing. And if you notice you're coming out of your body, coming out of your experience, just gently wiggle your toes. Ah, make a sound.

Using Sound And Laughter To Move

30:32

And in fact, sound can be really helpful here. As throat, belly are two places where the energy of functional freeze can really get stuck. So I encourage you to make a little sound. Ah, you might even laugh a little bit. So I love like a good belly laugh because it works the belly, it works the throat. So you might create a little belly laugh. It might be silly. You might be like, oh my god, I can't believe I'm doing this. But do it anyway. Create that little belly laugh. Yes. Yeah, beautiful. Really good job. That's it, my friends. Beautiful. Let's just do a few more minutes here. We're just gonna work the central channel going up for today. That's it. You might visualize here that central channel, that energy, that life force on these last few moments here. You might imagine each strike of the fourth fat energy moving up your feet, up your spine, all the way to the crown of the head, around five or six feet on either side of you, and then back to the feet. Yeah. Beautiful. That's it. Remembering it's not about getting out of how you are, so we're not doing this session, this healing session to get out of or move away from how you are, but just creating some spaciousness so you can be with how you are. That's it. You might feel some openness, some softening, some spreading once again along the spine. And you may not. No expectations. Honoring your process, happier here. Yeah, amazing. Rather than needing to figure it out, just inviting in curiosity. Curiosity around the freeze response and curiosity around this life force and holding your life force. Finding the safety within beautiful. See here if I can find it. Must be this one. All right. Ah. This fork just makes me exhale and sigh and soften a lot of the 222 fork. I've been using a 222, I've been using it a lot. So I'm using inviting in once again that central channel flow using this fork. As usual, it's such a delight being with you. I hope that this was valuable for you in some way. Let the fork go all the way down. Until next time, sending you so much love. Take care. Thank

Integration And Ways To Go Deeper

37:59

you for being here with me today. And if something in this episode resonated, don't feel like you have to change anything right away. Or at all. Just take a moment, notice what landed, what's alive for you in your body. Let that be enough for right now. And if your body is asking to go deeper, I would love if you checked out my free online program Nervous System Embodiment for real life. You can find that in the show notes. In this course, you'll learn how to regulate the nervous system, release storage survival energy, and build a foundation for embodied living. And if you want 101 support or you want to join my somatic self-healers community, you can find all of that in the show notes as well. Till next time, my friends, take care of yourself gently and gracefully.