Trust Your Body, Heal Yourself: Somatic and Emotional Practices for Overthinking & Stress

I attended a public event with my husband — his first big outing after a serious bike crash that left him with multiple injuries and a 2½-week hospital stay. He’s well known in the community, so as he wobbled around on walking sticks, people came over to greet him and wish him well.

Before long, the conversations shifted into a familiar pattern: their surgeries, diagnoses, symptoms, latest scans or medications.

At one point, a well-meaning friend turned to me and asked, “How about you, Jane? Are you healthy?” - clearly expecting me to start listing things that were wrong.   

I froze for a moment. “Uh… yeah,” I stammered, surprised by the assumption — as if health is something that disappears on schedule, an eventuality we’re all preparing for.

Seeing Health and Stress Differently

Now, I’m not perfect. I’ve been working through some pesky hypothyroid symptoms — and making significant progress. But I still consider myself a healthy person. That’s where I place my intention and attention.

The idea that illness is inevitable or random simply doesn’t align with my lived experience or the work I do.

Of course we don’t control everything. But our lifestyle, emotional patterns, and beliefs profoundly shape our physiology. Many people never connect the dots between unresolved emotions and chronic stress, which keeps the limbic system — the emotional brain — stuck in hyper vigilance. And when that system is locked in stress, the body can’t fully repair.

Why Emotional Awareness Matters

So many of us were taught to outsource authority to a healthcare system that manages disease instead of developing well-being. We weren’t taught to practice body-based emotional awareness.

Most people stay so distracted or busy that they don’t notice how “off” they actually feel. Others have been dismissed so many times — “your labs are normal,” “this is just aging,” “there’s nothing wrong” — that they’ve stopped trusting their own instincts.

This is not a personal failing. It’s the water we’re swimming in.

• We’re encouraged to rely on quick fixes instead of inner wisdom.
  

• We’re told “that’s normal for your age.”
  

• Symptoms are normalized until dysfunction becomes the baseline.
  

For me, calming my overcharged nervous system has been the key to healing.

My Journey to Self-Trust and Healing

Growing up, my natural joy and exuberance were often met with rage, ridicule, and criticism. Comments about my body. My privacy invaded. My boundaries ignored. I went from open and bright to hypervigilant and guarded.

I felt unloved. Unsafe. And my body paid the price.

By my twenties I was diagnosed with “chronic fatigue.” I saw numerous doctors — conventional and alternative. My labs were normal, yet I was not well. One doctor literally shrugged, said “I’ve got nothing for you,” and ushered me out.

I realized nobody was coming to save me. If I wanted to heal, I had to understand my body-emotion-mind connection deeply and directly.

Healing Through Body-Based Emotional Awareness

So I began. I changed my diet, researched supplements, journaled, meditated, and tracked my emotional patterns. Layer by layer, things shifted — physically and emotionally.

Here’s the truth I learned the hard way:

Hormones, immune signals, and metabolic processes are all downstream of the nervous system. When the nervous system recalibrates, things can reorganize.

When you learn to feel your emotions instead of override them, your system stops bracing. When you come home to your body, healing becomes possible.

A Simple Practice to Reconnect With Your Emotions

(Embodied practice / somatic awareness)

1. Sit somewhere comfortable.
   

2. Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly.
   

3. Take a slow breath in through your nose and exhale longer than you inhale.
   

This signals safety to the nervous system.

4. Ask your body quietly: “What are you trying to tell me right now?” Don’t think — sense. Is there tightness? Pressure? Warmth? Numbness? A pulling?
   

5. Say internally: “I’m listening.” You don’t have to fix anything. Simply acknowledging the sensation begins to release the bracing. It’s the difference between wanting peace and choosing it moment by moment.
   

6. Notice what shifts. Maybe nothing. Maybe a softening. Maybe an emotion rises. All of it is information — signals.
   

This is the doorway back to yourself.

The Power of Body and Emotional Awareness in Healing

Dis-ease doesn’t just descend on us from the outside. We can’t control everything, but we can choose how we care for our bodies, emotions, and thoughts — and those choices shape everything.

We all have the capacity to heal. The question is whether we have the support, tools, and space to do it.

Invitation to Reflect

What did this bring up for you? Where did your body respond — tighten, soften, resist, or feel seen?

I genuinely want to know. If you feel comfortable, share in the comments below.