From a somatic, or body perspective, anxiety refers to the “sensations generated by the body’s total response to a threat.” The body reacts to this threat because it will do anything to survive.
Physiological symptoms of anxiety and being in a hypervigilant state include:
Chronic muscle pain (back, neck, shoulders, hips, pelvis, etc.)
Heart palpitations or irregular heart beat
Holding breath, shallow breathing or shortness of breath
Migraines and headaches
Contraction in throat, chest, belly
Digestive issues (constipation or loose bowels diarrhea, etc.)
Sleep issues, insomnia
Fibromyalgia
Sweating, especially palms of hands or soles of feet
Heat or shivering
Dizziness, light-headedness
Pins and needles
Trembling, shaking, twitching
Feeling weak or tired
A churning feeling in your stomach
Nauseau
Feeling restless or irritable
Difficulty concentrating
Grinding teeth or pressing tongue into backs of teeth
Do any of these physical symptoms sound familiar? If so, the good news is it’s not a bunch of different problems — it’s all one thing: a dys-regulated nervous system, very possibly like this for many years, and possibly your body’s way of managing a fight or flight charge that was never released at the time of one or many traumatic events — either recent or from many years ago.
THE AMYGDALA’S ROLE IN ANXIETY
Some people find psychotherapy helpful, but often people report there’s no real change in their physical symptoms of anxiety from talking — also referred to as a “top-down” approach.
One reason for the inability to feel physical relief is that the amygdala, the part of the brain that is scanning for danger because it’s wired for us to survive, continues to fire and send signals to the body to be vigilant. So the body continues to “brace” and “contract” in anticipation for the next bad thing to happen. The rational thinking part of the brain can’t come online until the more primitive, survival part of the brain calms down.
The amygdala doesn’t listen to reason, it acts to keep you safe.
When the amygdala, the part of the limbic system that protects us, perceives a threat, it triggers a fear or anxiety response that activates the body's fight-or-flight system. This response can include increased heart rate and blood pressure, feelings of fear and anxiety, and increased stress hormone levels, and any of the symptoms listed above.
We can’t control our physiology with the thinking (rational) part of our brain. We can’t reason ourselves out of a burst of cortisol or rapid heart rate.
But we can use the sensory part of our brain to regulate our physiology.
BOTTOM UP APPROACHES TO REGULATE THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND REDUCE PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS OF ANXIETY
This is where “bottom up” approaches such as trauma-informed somatic techniques and trauma-informed bodywork are effective in changing the physiology of anxiety and regulating the nervous system.
Some of these techniques include: Somatic Experiencing®, The Feldenkrais Method®, Havening Technique®, and Craniosacral therapy.
The goal is not only to simply feel calmer for the moment and then fall back into anxiety, but to regulate the nervous system and create new, healthier neural pathways (also known as neural “habits”) that begin to overtake the older, habitual neural pathways of anxiety.
Neural pathways are simply the connections that form between the neurons, or brain cells, in your brain.
Somatic Experiencing® and Feldenkrais® work with the process of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change and reorganize and to create new neuralpathways.
With these somatic methods, you actually change nervous system “habits,” but instead of doing this from the top down (i.e., mind over matter or forcing oneself to be or think a certain way) it’s done with a bottom up approach, which means including one’s body in the equation and following and listening with one’s focused attention to the sensations of the body to guide the process.
Movement as a common pathway in the body
Feldenkrais uses focused attention and slow, gentle, small movements to access this inherent plasticity of the brain.
Movement is the common pathway to all of our body systems: respiratory system, nervous system, muscular system, cardiovascular system, digestive system, urinary system, endocrine system, lymphatic system.
Our nervous system keeps us safe by knowing when to move toward, move away from, stay still to conserve energy, and so on.
The nervous system processes as a very slow pace. In Feldenkrais, we move slowly to match the pace of the nervous system. We make small movements to create a non-threatening environment for the brain so that it can signal muscles to release.
To read more about how Feldenkrais works with neuralplasticity, link here.
The reason for the nervous system is movement.
Fast movements heighten the sympathetic activity (fight and flight) and slow movements allow the nervous system to be in a parasympathetic state (rest and digest).
In Feldenkrais we move slowly to allow the brain to access this parasympathetic state.
When you’re in chronic pain or experiencing other physical symptoms of anxiety, your thinking brain is off line and the brain is noisy. The brain believes there’s a threat that’s emminent.
Feldenkrais provide alternatives to what has been the status quo of anxiety.
When working within the framework of Somatic Experiencing®, this trauma informed bodywork can create an experience of safety, grounding and resourcing so that people can begin to work with the unprocessed trauma through the wisdom of their body.