Stress, the Nervous System & Trauma: How Your Body Holds It
Stress isn't just "in your head." When something threatening happens, even something as ordinary as a tense email or a fight with someone you love, our body doesn't know the difference between a real danger and a perceived one. It reacts the same way it would if we were being chased by something in the wild.
That response is beautiful, actually. It's ancient, intelligent, and it's kept humans alive for a very long time. The problem isn't that we have it, the problem is what happens when we don't know how to regulate it. When we get stuck, or when our systems have been built by parents and guardians who did their best, but didn't know how to regulate theirs.
A lot of us are carrying chronic stress or old trauma, so our bodies are stuck in "on." The nervous system keeps sounding the alarm long after the danger has passed. And because the body doesn't really do "years", it does “now”, it just keeps responding as if the threat is still here. Cortisol stays elevated. Muscles that were meant to brace for a moment stay braced for a lifetime. The part of the nervous system responsible for rest, digestion, connection, and repair, the vagus nerve and everything it touches - gets quieter and less responsive.
This is why prolonged stress doesn't just feel exhausting, it is exhausting, on a cellular level. It isn't weakness or imagination. It's a nervous system that has been doing its very best to protect you, for far too long, without a clear signal that it's safe to stand down.
The hopeful part is that the nervous system is not fixed in place. It's built to move, to shift states, to come back into balance and human beings have an incredible ability to heal. Things like slow breath, touch, gentle movement, and safe human connection are some of the oldest and most direct ways of sending the body a new message: you can put this down now. You're safe here. Every time that message gets through, even briefly, it's practice. And the body, given enough practice, remembers how to come home to itself.
The stress response
Something in the environment signals danger. A sound, a sight, a memory. Anything the brain interprets as threatening. → Sensory information reaches the amygdala. → The amygdala sounds the alarm. The amygdala activates the hypothalamus. → The hypothalamus triggers stress response. It activates the sympathetic nervous system, triggering an instant release of adrenaline & cortisol. → The body mobilises for fight, flight, or freeze; Heart rate and blood pressure rise, Breathing becomes fast and shallow, blood shifts away from digestion and toward muscles, muscles tense, pupils dilate, senses sharpen.
The effects of stress on the body
Metabolism & Digestion: Cortisol raises blood sugar, telling the body to release stored energy. Cortisol diverts blood and energy away from digestion, since the body prioritises survival. Chronic elevation can contribute to bloating, IBS-type symptoms, and a disrupted gut microbiome.
Sleep: Cortisol should be lowest at night and highest in the morning. Chronic stress disrupts that rhythm & cortisol can stay elevated at night, making it hard to fall or stay asleep.
Immune system: Short bursts of cortisol are anti-inflammatory and helpful. Chronically high cortisol suppresses immune function over time, making the body slower to fight off illness.
Cardiovascular system: Cortisol raises blood pressure and heart rate. Sustained elevation increases long-term risk of hypertension and cardiovascular strain.
Brain & mood: Cortisol affects the hippocampus (memory) and prefrontal cortex (decision-making, emotional regulation). Chronically high levels are linked to brain fog, memory difficulties, and reduced ability to regulate emotion. It can also keep the amygdala more reactive, so the threat-detection system becomes more easily triggered.
How can Biodynamic Rebalancing Massage help?
Each session weaves together somatic practices, breath, and bodywork to teach your body that it's safe to relax and connect now.
With breathwork and somatic practices we can create our own break. We're often caught up in unconsciously feeding our own stress loop, we feel stressed and drained after work so we put the TV on and watch a dramatic show which evokes the same stress responses within us that we've been experiencing all day, whilst also providing us with distraction and disassociation from what we feel. These techniques give us the space to stop, take a moment and feel what is happening in our inner world. With this introspection we can make better choices, we can choose to do something that will be supportive and nurturing.
Biodynamic Rebalancing Massage places real importance on our own awareness, and as we are seeing in studies more and more, there's truth and importance to this. With trauma informed touch guiding your attention away from the noise of your mind and into the world of our body, you can find more stability, resilience and peace. You can meet any sadness, pain or anger that has been residing within you unnoticed. The more emotions we process with presence, the more room there is for joy, peace and equilibrium.
In a culture that used to hard and fast solutions with a real addiction to destination thinking, this 'solution' can feel elusive and disappointing.
The truth is that healing takes time. It takes time to rebuild the structures of your body and mind to know that it is safe, when it has felt deeply unsafe for so long.
There is no landing spot, no definitive finish line for you to run through. It's repetition of practices, small steps, epiphanies along your journey that create change internally and in how you respond to life. It can happen so subtly, so immeasurably that you look back years later and realise 'oh wow I've changed so much.'
Moments of deep peace, connection with yourself and others leave breadcrumbs along the path, showing you that there is evermore depth and healing. Once you have those tools, those understandings, they never leave you.