Anxiety: The Head May Be Swirling, But The Nervous System Is Screaming

Let’s talk about anxiety—but not the sudden stress that shows up only when your boss emails “Can we chat?” I’m talking about the lingering kind. The wired-but-tired. The racing heart at rest. The sudden “doom” vibe for no good reason. The anxiety that feels like it just moved in and decorated your chest cavity without asking, and has taken the mic over in your mind.

Hear Me Out—what if your anxiety isn’t a mental problem at all?

What if it’s your nervous system screaming for regulation?

We tend to treat anxiety like a thought spiral we need to logic our way out of. But your thoughts are just passengers. The driver? Often your autonomic nervous system—specifically, a dysregulated one.

Let me break it down in plain language (the way I wish someone had for me):

When your nervous system is in fight or flight, your body thinks it’s in danger, even if you’re just trying to pick a salad dressing. Heart races. Breath shortens. Digestion slows. Blood rushes to the limbs to prepare to run (from a bear… or your responsibilities). This is not an ideal time to make grounded, calm decisions.

And if your body stays stuck in that state too long? That’s when anxiety becomes chronic. Your soldiers of calm (the adrenals) become overtired, and suddenly every small thing feels like an impossible mountain to conquer.

But here’s the kicker: You don’t have to “think your way” to calm. You have to regulate your way to safety. That means using the body to signal the brain that it’s safe now. You can soften. You can breathe again. You can stop rehearsing worst-case scenarios on a loop.

Anxiety might just be your body trying to process energy with no outlet.

And when you understand that, you stop beating yourself up. You stop saying, “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking, “What does my nervous system need right now?”

Here at Innerlume Healing, we have the tools not only to assess exactly which areas of the body need support, but also WHY the nervous system is crashing in the first place, so we can recover it back to balance. Working with a practitioner to regulate the body's needs is a safe and speedy way back to recovery, however there are some small tools to incorporate at home in the meantime.

Here are a few simple, body-first ways to support regulation:

• Humming or chanting: Stimulates the vagus nerve. Calms the whole system. Yes, even in the car at red lights.

• Co-regulation: Be around calm, grounded people. Nervous systems sync up. (Yes, yours too.)

• Movement: Gentle shaking, dancing, or even walking tells your body it has completed the stress cycle.

• Deep belly breathing: Not the shallow chest stuff—think “inflate a balloon in your belly.”

And please know—if you’ve tried meditating and felt more anxious, you’re not broken. You’re not “bad at being calm.” Your system just may need to be grounded through the body before the mind.

Your anxiety might not be from a broken brain. It might be from a body that’s been running on fumes, in survival mode, for too long.

Let’s bring you back home to yourself. One breath, one regulation tool, one nervous system moment at a time.

Ready to find your inner healing?