The main reason anxiety is such a gargantuan and growing epidemic on our planet is that we’re failing to address its root cause. We often try to solve a problem in the mind when its origins lie in the body. Let me explain: we feel anxiety in our minds, noticing fearful thinking, catastrophizing, looping thoughts, and worst-case scenario thinking. However, what we don’t understand is that our psychology (our thinking) is shaped by our physiology (what’s happening in the body and nervous system). When the nervous system becomes stuck in a state of survival due to long-term stress and unresolved trauma, it continuously leads the body through a process called interoception. In fact, 80% of the communication between the brain and the body goes from the body to the brain. This is why no matter how hard you try to think or talk your way out of anxiety, it often doesn’t work.
When the nervous system is trapped in a survival state, the brain interprets this as constant danger and threat, causing your thinking to align with this dysregulated state. Many of you are struggling with anxiety and may have tried everything to heal your nervous system, but you’re missing a crucial piece: a concept called switching. Commonly discussed in somatic therapies, polyvagal theory, and trauma-informed approaches, switching involves redirecting our focus from the mind—where we often experience anxiety—to the body (or nervous system), where the root of the problem resides. By making this shift, we can disengage from the thought patterns that fuel anxiety, such as overthinking or attempting to solve problems solely in our minds.
Instead, we reengage with our bodies through practices that cultivate awareness of physical sensations. This new sensory input alters and regulates our physiology, immediately shifting the messages the brain is receiving from danger to safety. Simply put, this shift allows the mind to receive new information from the body, reprogramming both brain and body to move out of survival states.
