Anxiety and how to deal with it using a somatic framework

Anxiety is a state of self protection. The body feels unsafe even when there is no apparent threat. In essence, your body is remembering something that has happened in the past, activating your system in the present moment. It can be seen as “residue” of survival stress, but also as a protective layer, to avoid feeling deeper emotions (a subject for another post).

Triggers often come from implicit memory (unconscious memory). When trauma happens (anything that is too much for your system to handle) your prefrontal cortex (the logical part of the brain) goes offline, this is a perfect mechanism and it’s designed to keep you safe. The shutting down of this part of the brain is what enables the body to act fast in situations that are unsafe. The thinking mechanism is too slow when you are in real danger. So when you experienced trauma in the past your thinking brain was not online.

For this reason, when you are experiencing anxiety it is not possible to talk your way out of it. When your body feels under threat it doesn’t understand cognitive language. You need to literally show your body you are not in danger.

Anxiety is experienced through your sympathetic nervous system, the same part of the system where fight/flight response is experienced.
And because the fight/flight response is a state of mobilisation, to go back into regulation it’s best to use movement.

Walk in nature, running, gym, stretching etc...
And if none of the above is possible at the time, try to stop for a few moments and look around the room slowly, showing your body that you are safe in the present moment.