BEST OF 2025: From Spiraling to Soothing

[00:00:00] Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Heal With Grace podcast.
[00:00:04] Welcome to the end of the year, y'all.
[00:00:06] It is the end of 2025, and our tradition here is, well, it's year two, and we're making
[00:00:13] it a tradition, is that we will air the top two episodes of the year, the last two
[00:00:19] weeks of December.
[00:00:21] And I love doing this because it really helps me understand what is hitting with you guys
[00:00:25] and what you need more of, what you want to hear more of.
[00:00:29] And just helps me kind of reflect on the year two, right?
[00:00:32] Now we have a couple really amazing episodes, and it's not that surprising that they are
[00:00:37] the top.
[00:00:38] I have a feeling we might shift next year to one from this December.
[00:00:44] So basically I take it from January through November, essentially maybe into December,
[00:00:48] but you know, we have to have time to plan and everything.
[00:00:51] And there's one episode that is popping off right now on the Heal With Grace
[00:00:55] podcast in December, and it's our last week's episode.
[00:00:59] So just FYI, if you have not listened to it, it is the episode with Chris Sykes, and I
[00:01:05] just, it's just such a wonderful one on chronic fatigue and how he's healed and everything
[00:01:10] that he's done.
[00:01:11] So if you have not listened to it, I highly recommend going back to it.
[00:01:15] This one that we are re-airing, one of the top two of 2025 is Episode 81, titled
[00:01:22] from spiraling to soothing, essentially how to stop catastrophizing.
[00:01:26] And this is an episode I did myself, so it's not a guest episode, it's a solo one.
[00:01:31] And I mean, again, this is no surprise why this was so popular, because so much of
[00:01:36] the time when we have unknown, relenting chronic symptoms in our body that we don't
[00:01:41] know how to handle or control or figure out or fix or move through or work with,
[00:01:47] we have so much anxiety, we have so much fear around our bodies, right?
[00:01:51] And what catastrophizing is, and obviously I will get into it, which you'll find out,
[00:01:55] so I won't re-explain the whole episode, but it's that fear response that happens,
[00:01:59] that spiraling from like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, what's wrong, what's happening
[00:02:02] to, wow, I cannot believe I said that thing to that person five hours ago or yesterday,
[00:02:07] and then you start spiraling about it, right?
[00:02:09] That's catastrophizing.
[00:02:10] We all do it, and it's really helpful to learn how to become more aware of
[00:02:14] it and what to do when you're in it.
[00:02:16] So that is what I go to in this episode.
[00:02:19] I hope that you listen to this again, especially if you're listening to this intro.
[00:02:23] It means that you probably want to hear it and need to hear it.
[00:02:26] So save this one, have it to come back to.
[00:02:29] It is an all-time favorite, and I hope that you are really taking care of yourself
[00:02:34] and cozying up at the end of this year.
[00:02:36] I'm in Indonesia right now, and I'm in this incredible, like, overlook,
[00:02:41] jungle Airbnb with a bunch of, just a bunch of animal nature noises,
[00:02:46] and it's wonderful.
[00:02:47] So if you hear that, welcome to the sounds of Indonesia.
[00:02:51] All right, without further ado, I will let you go ahead and listen to the episode,
[00:02:55] and I will talk to you next week.
[00:03:19] Hello, hello, friends.
[00:03:43] Welcome back to the Heal With Grace podcast.
[00:03:46] Today, we are going to talking about, and I'm going to help you understand,
[00:03:50] how to get out of those spiraling moments, those fear-based thoughts,
[00:03:55] the fear that induces and happens in your body that maybe even lands into a panic attack,
[00:04:00] and really what we're talking about is catastrophizing.
[00:04:04] It's that time, those moments where you get maybe a weird twinge in your body
[00:04:08] or you're afraid you might say the wrong thing and you think,
[00:04:13] oh, my gosh, something's wrong.
[00:04:14] What did I say?
[00:04:16] What's happening?
[00:04:17] I'm afraid I'm going to say the wrong thing or,
[00:04:19] ooh, what's happening in my body?
[00:04:20] I'm going to go Google these rare diseases and wonder if I'll ever get better.
[00:04:25] Those sneaky, sometimes feels rational, but oftentimes they're very irrational thoughts
[00:04:30] and feelings that happen when we get into this really deep fear response.
[00:04:36] It's actually one of the most common mental habits,
[00:04:39] keeping people stuck and chronic symptoms in fear and panic and anxiety.
[00:04:44] And so I want to help you understand exactly what's going on
[00:04:47] and then how to move through it.
[00:04:49] Because this is honestly one of the biggest topics oftentimes I share with people all the time
[00:04:54] around how it impacts your mental health, your physical health, your chronic symptoms.
[00:04:59] Because if you've been listening to this,
[00:05:01] you probably hope that you understand by now.
[00:05:04] And if not, you will understand that most of our chronic symptoms,
[00:05:08] when I mean that, I say things like pain, anxiety is actually a symptom.
[00:05:12] It's not an emotion.
[00:05:13] It's not a feeling.
[00:05:14] Anxiety is a symptom.
[00:05:15] And that's actually a whole other episode.
[00:05:17] So that's coming.
[00:05:18] But what I mean by this is that I'm talking about any type of symptom, illness, pain,
[00:05:24] that can't really be explained, does not have a true structural cause.
[00:05:28] And you've been trying things over and over and over again that can't, that aren't working.
[00:05:33] And when this happens, of course, we're going to catastrophize about it because it's scary.
[00:05:38] It's scary to have, even if you do have some sort of diagnoses,
[00:05:42] you can still land in the neuroplastic chronic symptom camp.
[00:05:46] And neuroplastic means a chronic symptom, like I just explained,
[00:05:50] that is not being treated.
[00:05:52] They can't find relief after around six months or so of treatment,
[00:05:56] depending again on what it is.
[00:05:58] When we're in that state, when we have these symptoms, we catastrophize.
[00:06:02] We get really fearful.
[00:06:03] We get worried.
[00:06:04] We go down the spiral of like, what ifs?
[00:06:06] What if, what if, what if, what if, what if?
[00:06:08] And even if you don't have chronic symptoms, or yeah, even if you do,
[00:06:12] there's plenty of other areas where this happens, right?
[00:06:15] Like, my gosh, what if my friend thinks bad of me,
[00:06:20] or what if I ask for what I need, and then they leave me,
[00:06:22] or what if I don't push harder than I'll fail,
[00:06:25] or if I slow down, everything will fall apart.
[00:06:27] All of these what if statements, what if, or should, or could lead us
[00:06:31] into this spiraling and catastrophizing.
[00:06:34] So, okay, let me back up for a second and explain what is catastrophizing.
[00:06:39] So really what's happening, that word means when your brain goes straight
[00:06:44] into the worst case scenario.
[00:06:45] It might sound like when you have a flare and you think,
[00:06:49] I was afraid of this happening.
[00:06:51] I can't trust my body.
[00:06:52] I'm never gonna get better.
[00:06:53] All of these all or nothing statements,
[00:06:55] that means you're catastrophizing.
[00:06:57] I'm never going to get better.
[00:06:59] This always happens.
[00:07:00] I'm gonna lose it all again.
[00:07:02] I just started feeling better.
[00:07:03] Why can't this go away?
[00:07:05] What if it never goes away?
[00:07:07] This pain means I'm going backwards.
[00:07:09] What if they don't like me?
[00:07:11] I'm going to fail.
[00:07:12] If I don't do this, blah, blah, blah, blah, all of those.
[00:07:15] Even if when I said all of those, like ugh,
[00:07:19] it means my body heavy, literally.
[00:07:21] Seriously, right now, it felt very heavy to say all of those things.
[00:07:25] The weight of those words sit very heavy on our nervous system.
[00:07:29] They send alarm signals to our brain that sound off danger.
[00:07:34] And even when you were listening to those statements that I just said,
[00:07:38] when you hear someone else say that,
[00:07:40] you might even think like, oh, that's a little dramatic.
[00:07:43] It's not, though.
[00:07:44] You're not being dramatic.
[00:07:45] You're trying to help yourself, actually.
[00:07:48] When those statements go off in your mind over and over and over again,
[00:07:53] what's happening is that you're trying to predict pain to protect yourself.
[00:07:58] But your brain doesn't know the difference between
[00:08:00] this is uncomfortable and we're in danger.
[00:08:03] So your nervous system hits the panic button again and again.
[00:08:07] So when it thinks that you're in danger, it sounds the alarm
[00:08:11] and your brain starts to say those terms, those words, those fear statements,
[00:08:15] the all or nothing, the oh my gosh, what's going to happen?
[00:08:18] What's wrong?
[00:08:18] I'm never going to get better, all of those.
[00:08:20] It's really just trying to protect you from even more danger, even more pain.
[00:08:24] But actually what's happening is it doesn't really protect you.
[00:08:27] It just continues to create more danger and pain.
[00:08:30] Let me say that again.
[00:08:31] So the thoughts, the catastrophizing thoughts,
[00:08:33] are trying to protect you from more pain
[00:08:36] and really from more emotional pain, from more fear,
[00:08:39] from rejection, from disappointment, from anger.
[00:08:43] All of those things were not allowed and I'm doing quotes,
[00:08:46] we're not quote unquote allowed to feel.
[00:08:48] Your brain wants to protect you from those.
[00:08:50] So it's going to say all of those statements,
[00:08:52] all those all or nothing statements,
[00:08:54] it gets going to send you down a spiral
[00:08:56] and then it's going to send you physical symptoms.
[00:08:58] It's your brain's job to keep you safe.
[00:09:01] And when you've lived when pain or illness or anxiety for a while,
[00:09:05] it just becomes normal, becomes hyper vigilant.
[00:09:08] It's like a toddler with a plastic toy fire truck
[00:09:12] running around screaming fire, fire, fire.
[00:09:14] Every time the toast burns a little bit.
[00:09:16] It's cute in theory, kind of.
[00:09:17] You can get pretty annoying.
[00:09:18] It's exhausting in practice.
[00:09:20] So when you have a symptom, your brain thinks,
[00:09:23] oh no, we've been here before,
[00:09:26] better to assume the worst so we're prepared.
[00:09:29] But that hyper alert date actually amplifies symptoms.
[00:09:33] It tells your body we're not safe,
[00:09:35] which feeds the pain, anxiety loop.
[00:09:38] Catastrophizing is your brain's way
[00:09:40] from protecting you from more pain,
[00:09:42] but that's not actually what happens.
[00:09:44] When you've been feeling better,
[00:09:45] but then what feels like all of the sudden
[00:09:47] you're back in your pain
[00:09:48] or sometimes you have a huge flare one day
[00:09:50] or two days or three days or a week or whatever,
[00:09:53] it's really easy to fall into,
[00:09:55] then nothing will get better.
[00:09:56] I'm so tired.
[00:09:57] I'm so over this.
[00:09:58] And so what I'm going to help you do
[00:10:01] is see that pattern that happens
[00:10:03] and turn inward towards yourself
[00:10:06] instead of away from yourself.
[00:10:08] What I mean by that is that
[00:10:09] when we are catastrophizing,
[00:10:12] we're trying so hard to not be in our bodies,
[00:10:15] to not feel our pain,
[00:10:17] to not think about ourselves
[00:10:18] because being in our bodies
[00:10:20] and our life in our present moment
[00:10:22] is too scary,
[00:10:23] because obviously we have pain,
[00:10:24] we don't know what to do.
[00:10:25] We're really uncomfortable.
[00:10:27] But when we turn towards our self
[00:10:29] instead of away and try to disassociate
[00:10:32] and distract and go to every different doctor
[00:10:35] and try every different protocol under the sun,
[00:10:38] we're trying everything outside of us.
[00:10:40] And instead, what I'm going to help you do
[00:10:42] is turn towards yourself.
[00:10:44] So I'm going to give you an example of this first
[00:10:47] and then I'll kind of walk you through it.
[00:10:49] So if you've been here
[00:10:50] and you've heard some of my story
[00:10:52] and I'm going to share a little bit more.
[00:10:53] So I've had many different symptoms along my journey,
[00:10:58] essentially like if I wrote out a script of a timeline,
[00:11:01] there would be different points on the timeline
[00:11:04] that my body gave me different types of symptoms.
[00:11:06] And it's interesting because there are some symptoms
[00:11:10] like a lot of pain,
[00:11:10] like physical pain in my body
[00:11:12] that was really helped by brain training,
[00:11:14] regulating my nervous system,
[00:11:15] and truly I don't experience those things ever anymore.
[00:11:18] Time and time again,
[00:11:19] I do a lot of the same brain training,
[00:11:21] nervous system regulation,
[00:11:22] some emotional work and I've moved through that.
[00:11:24] Now, there's been a few subset of symptoms
[00:11:27] and really this is more along my chronic fatigue,
[00:11:29] which if you've had chronic fatigue,
[00:11:31] if you have those symptoms,
[00:11:32] if you have the brain fog,
[00:11:33] the shut down, the collapse in your nervous system,
[00:11:36] then you know what I'm saying probably
[00:11:38] and also I feel for you.
[00:11:40] So for me,
[00:11:41] it's been a little more complicated with those symptoms.
[00:11:43] It hasn't been as easy in terms of,
[00:11:46] well, okay, I don't want to use the word easy.
[00:11:48] None of this has been easy.
[00:11:50] I guess I'll just say some things were a little bit more
[00:11:55] simplistic than some others.
[00:11:57] And so for me,
[00:11:58] whenever I have the collapse,
[00:12:00] the freeze, the shutdown response,
[00:12:02] which is fatigue for me,
[00:12:04] it's really scary.
[00:12:05] It's scarier than a lot of other symptoms.
[00:12:08] Symptoms are scary,
[00:12:09] but this one is just on a whole other level.
[00:12:11] It is this like deep, deep fear,
[00:12:13] this darkness that I've dealt with a lot before,
[00:12:17] which really in previous times,
[00:12:18] like in my teenage years
[00:12:20] and maybe early 20s looked like depression.
[00:12:22] But now or well, after that,
[00:12:25] maybe like late 20s anyway,
[00:12:27] it looked more like physical symptoms,
[00:12:29] like fatigue shutdown.
[00:12:31] Yeah, some disappointment,
[00:12:33] some despair or some feeling sad and grief
[00:12:35] came with that,
[00:12:36] but a lot of the physical symptoms
[00:12:38] truly just took me down.
[00:12:40] And I don't think I fully recognized
[00:12:42] how much I was catastrophizing in those states
[00:12:44] and how much I was just being like,
[00:12:46] oh my gosh, I can't do this anymore.
[00:12:48] I don't know what's going to happen.
[00:12:49] I'm over it, blah, blah, blah, blah,
[00:12:52] like I go into that catastrophizing hopeless state.
[00:12:55] And so what I have learned from that,
[00:12:58] what I was doing was dismissing myself
[00:13:00] and actually turning away
[00:13:02] because that place was so scary to be with.
[00:13:06] It was this place of deep darkness
[00:13:09] that I never knew how to be with.
[00:13:11] It was never taught to me how to be with.
[00:13:13] I mean, I could go down,
[00:13:15] that could be a whole other episode.
[00:13:16] And actually, I'm gonna share a little bit of this here
[00:13:18] because this might help you.
[00:13:19] For me, it was really scary to be with.
[00:13:21] And what I've realized is because
[00:13:23] those deeper darker years of depression
[00:13:25] were really scary.
[00:13:27] And I did have some help,
[00:13:28] but like I actually was in therapy.
[00:13:31] But to be honest,
[00:13:32] it was a lot of cognitive therapy.
[00:13:34] And I didn't really learn how to sit with
[00:13:37] and be with my body,
[00:13:38] with those emotions,
[00:13:39] with the darkness and allow it to be okay.
[00:13:42] Because all of the rhetoric around that time,
[00:13:45] around depression, around darkness,
[00:13:47] was, oh, something's wrong with you.
[00:13:49] We need to give you a pill.
[00:13:51] We need to give you treatment.
[00:13:52] And think about this.
[00:13:54] The more that you say that to someone,
[00:13:56] or that message is sent over and over,
[00:13:59] then we take that on as something's wrong with me.
[00:14:01] But that's not true.
[00:14:03] There's nothing wrong with me.
[00:14:04] There's nothing wrong with you.
[00:14:05] If you experience grief, sadness, pain, illness,
[00:14:09] there's absolutely nothing wrong with you.
[00:14:12] But if you've been in the mental health world,
[00:14:13] physical world, any kind of medical world,
[00:14:16] we have this idea that if you experience something,
[00:14:19] if you experience anxiety, depression, illness, pain,
[00:14:23] something is wrong with you.
[00:14:25] Man, just sit with that for a second.
[00:14:27] That's to your core, you take that on.
[00:14:29] And so when we have this idea or this feeling
[00:14:33] or belief that something's wrong with us,
[00:14:35] then it's gonna be really hard to be with ourselves,
[00:14:38] to turn towards ourselves when we're feeling pain
[00:14:42] or illness or symptoms or whatever it is.
[00:14:44] I'm gonna just say pain from now on
[00:14:46] to be honest and just know that that means all things,
[00:14:49] all symptoms.
[00:14:50] So when we feel pain, of course we wanna run away.
[00:14:52] We don't wanna feel it because we've been told it,
[00:14:54] that's bad, that's wrong, there's something wrong.
[00:14:56] So my work and what I'm hoping will help you
[00:15:00] is that when we can turn towards it and be with that pain,
[00:15:03] even when it's so scary,
[00:15:05] then your brain doesn't have to go into protective mode.
[00:15:09] Your brain doesn't have to protect you from something
[00:15:11] because it's not actually bad.
[00:15:13] There's nothing wrong.
[00:15:14] And that means, one, that it doesn't have to send you
[00:15:17] danger signals, so it doesn't need to send you symptoms.
[00:15:19] And also two, it doesn't need all this catastrophizing
[00:15:23] and spiraling in your mind into panic and fear and anxiety.
[00:15:26] That's old programming.
[00:15:28] That is learned chaos.
[00:15:29] That is the learned chaos of I'm wrong, something's wrong,
[00:15:33] I have to neglect myself because people have neglected me
[00:15:36] and there's a lot of uncertainty around being in pain
[00:15:40] and fear and doubt and despair and anger and rage.
[00:15:43] So when we can turn towards and be with and open to the experience
[00:15:46] and know that there's nothing wrong with us,
[00:15:48] then we don't have to have that danger.
[00:15:49] Furthermore, I want you to look at, think about it this way.
[00:15:52] Okay, look at the people you grew up around.
[00:15:55] Look at your family.
[00:15:56] Now, I'm gonna say this first.
[00:15:59] If you look back at your childhood and you think,
[00:16:01] I was fine, no big deal.
[00:16:04] I don't know, I had an okay, you know, normal quote
[00:16:06] unquote childhood.
[00:16:07] That might be true from context, from looking outwardly in.
[00:16:11] Right? Maybe you had people that always showed up physically for you.
[00:16:14] Maybe you were never scared that you weren't gonna eat
[00:16:18] or ran a food or were never abused.
[00:16:21] Those are wonderful.
[00:16:21] That's great.
[00:16:22] Happy for you.
[00:16:23] And sorry, I don't mean that to say, to mean sarcastically.
[00:16:26] I really don't.
[00:16:27] I'm saying that's great.
[00:16:28] You don't have those stories.
[00:16:30] At the same time, I bet if you're listening to this,
[00:16:33] you never learned how to respond to hardship,
[00:16:37] to paint, to deep emotion, to disappointment, to rejection.
[00:16:40] If you're caregivers, your family, the people around you,
[00:16:42] never showed you how to feel disappointment,
[00:16:45] how to feel emotions, how to move through difficult experiences.
[00:16:49] What else were you gonna do with those?
[00:16:51] You're gonna respond like them.
[00:16:53] You're gonna bottle it up.
[00:16:54] You might go into panic mode.
[00:16:55] You might think, oh my gosh, I don't know how to handle this.
[00:16:58] I need to spiral and think that if I'm not doing this,
[00:17:00] if I'm not, if I'm feeling pain, then something's wrong.
[00:17:03] Or if I don't push harder, I'm gonna fail.
[00:17:05] Or if I ask for what I need from this relationship,
[00:17:08] then they'll leave me.
[00:17:09] Then maybe I'm too much if I feel a lot.
[00:17:11] If you never learned how to be with and feel,
[00:17:17] then your brain is gonna think that there's something wrong
[00:17:19] when you do feel.
[00:17:20] And PSA, if you're human, you have feelings.
[00:17:24] You have emotions.
[00:17:25] We all do.
[00:17:26] You can't tell them to go away.
[00:17:27] You can't control them and push them away because, guess what?
[00:17:30] That leads to all this fear and doubt
[00:17:33] and an overflow of repressed emotions,
[00:17:36] which leads to chronic symptoms.
[00:17:39] So that is what I mean by when I say old programming.
[00:17:43] We don't want that programming anymore.
[00:17:45] We wanna help you turn towards yourself
[00:17:47] so that your mind doesn't have to take over
[00:17:49] and spiral into doubt and fear and pain and panic.
[00:17:52] Okay, I'm gonna give a little synopsis here
[00:17:54] before I move into how do we catch it?
[00:17:56] How do we work with it?
[00:17:57] So the catastrophizing in your mind,
[00:17:59] the fear, the spiraling really is a protective mechanism.
[00:18:04] Your brain wants to protect you from what it thinks is wrong,
[00:18:07] from what it thinks is dangerous.
[00:18:09] And what it thinks is dangerous, what it thinks is wrong,
[00:18:12] is probably just what you've learned from society,
[00:18:14] from family, from growing up, that feelings are bad,
[00:18:17] that if you don't show up a certain way,
[00:18:19] you're gonna be rejected.
[00:18:20] That if you don't show up a certain way, you're gonna fail.
[00:18:22] If you don't present a certain way, you're not good enough.
[00:18:25] And then furthermore,
[00:18:27] when you're in the midst of pain and illness
[00:18:29] and you have pain again, you have a flare,
[00:18:32] something goes wrong, you have a new symptom that pops up,
[00:18:34] your brain goes danger, danger, danger,
[00:18:36] because you've never learned how to deal with it.
[00:18:38] And no one's ever helped you with it.
[00:18:40] So of course, there's hopelessness.
[00:18:41] And so your brain goes danger, danger, danger,
[00:18:44] let's send all these thoughts to figure something out.
[00:18:46] But we have to help this, we have to fix it, right?
[00:18:48] The thing is that, again, you didn't really learn
[00:18:52] how to manage that fear, how to be with that fear
[00:18:56] and take care of yourself in it.
[00:18:58] And talk to yourself in a way of like,
[00:18:59] oh, hey, okay.
[00:19:01] Yeah, I know we're fearful right now.
[00:19:02] I know this is really scary.
[00:19:04] And also, we're gonna move through this.
[00:19:06] So how do we catch it in real time?
[00:19:08] Let's get practical.
[00:19:10] First and foremost, you're gonna name it.
[00:19:11] Instead of shaming yourself, you're going to try,
[00:19:14] this is my brain trying to protect me
[00:19:16] by imagining the worst.
[00:19:18] It's scared, it's not stupid.
[00:19:20] Then you're going to ride the wave.
[00:19:23] You know how we've talked about
[00:19:25] writing the wave of emotion?
[00:19:27] Technically, if you learn to ride the wave of emotion,
[00:19:31] and I'm gonna explain this here for a second,
[00:19:33] we have learned that emotions in the body last 90 seconds
[00:19:37] if you allow it to go there, if you allow it to be there.
[00:19:41] So emotions are raw, vulnerable.
[00:19:44] They are truth, fear, rejection, pain, sadness, hopelessness.
[00:19:47] All of our emotions are true to us.
[00:19:51] What keeps them around for longer than 90 seconds
[00:19:54] is our fear and judgment and shame
[00:19:56] and criticism about the emotion.
[00:19:58] So when you're in a flare and you feel so hopeless
[00:20:02] and like, oh my gosh, what did I do wrong to be in this?
[00:20:06] That's the criticism about the symptom.
[00:20:08] That's the criticism about the emotion.
[00:20:11] And actually what I mean here is symptoms and emotions,
[00:20:13] actually we can see them as the same thing.
[00:20:15] We can treat them similarly.
[00:20:17] With emotions, we want to be with them and feel them.
[00:20:19] With symptoms, we want to be with them and feel them.
[00:20:22] I know that sounds scary and might sound kind of intuitive,
[00:20:26] but we allow them to be there, feel them, ride the wave of them.
[00:20:30] They don't have to be dangerous to our mind and our bodies anymore,
[00:20:33] which then reduces the catastrophic and the spiraling thinking.
[00:20:37] So once you ride that wave, I also then I want you to ask yourself,
[00:20:41] what's actually true here?
[00:20:42] Is the only possible outcome that I'm telling myself right now
[00:20:46] truly that I'm gonna be in this forever and it's never gonna end?
[00:20:49] Is that really true?
[00:20:50] Have I survived this before?
[00:20:52] Maybe, and I know this is cliche, but it really works.
[00:20:56] What would I say to a friend in this exact situation?
[00:20:59] What would you tell someone?
[00:21:00] Then, if you didn't find it already when you rode the wave of the symptom,
[00:21:05] I want you to understand the emotion underneath.
[00:21:08] Catastrophizing often masks fear, grief, powerlessness, hopelessness, rage, anger.
[00:21:16] So I want you to ask yourself,
[00:21:18] what is this thought protecting me from feeling?
[00:21:20] Then breathe into it, feel it, journal it, talk about it.
[00:21:25] But I really want you to feel that emotion and know that it's completely okay to feel.
[00:21:31] Remind your body it's okay to feel because when you feel it,
[00:21:33] then your signaling to your brain, it's okay to feel this even when it's scary.
[00:21:38] So when I can feel it,
[00:21:40] you don't need to send me signals of danger by means of pain or illness.
[00:21:43] Then to close this out, you can use a calming reframe.
[00:21:48] You can say something like, this is uncomfortable, but it doesn't mean I'm in danger.
[00:21:52] Doesn't mean all is lost or all is wrong.
[00:21:54] I've moved through this before.
[00:21:55] Yeah, I'm tired of it.
[00:21:57] I'm tired of this.
[00:21:58] I'm here.
[00:21:58] I'm tired.
[00:21:59] At the same time, I know I'm doing the work and I'm moving through this
[00:22:02] and I'm moving forward and I will heal.
[00:22:04] I am healing.
[00:22:05] You don't have to know the future to support yourself in this moment.
[00:22:09] Remind yourself of that.
[00:22:10] You don't have to know exactly what's going to happen in the future
[00:22:13] to help yourself right now.
[00:22:14] Maybe you say to yourself, my body is asking for presence, not panic.
[00:22:19] Maybe you place a hand on your heart, breathing deeply.
[00:22:23] Maybe you hug a pillow or punch a pillow, whatever you need,
[00:22:28] whatever emotion or feeling is there.
[00:22:30] And say to yourself, even though this symptom is here,
[00:22:32] I am okay in this moment and I choose to respond
[00:22:36] and be with myself with presence and compassion instead of fear.
[00:22:41] It is safe to feel all the fear, the disappointment, the sadness, etc.
[00:22:47] It's okay to be with this, even if it's really scary.
[00:22:49] Remember that you are not dramatic.
[00:22:51] You're not overthinking.
[00:22:53] You're just trying to stay safe in a body and world
[00:22:56] that's felt unsafe for a very long time.
[00:22:58] Catastrophizing, spiraling, it's a habit.
[00:23:01] And like all habits, it can be rewired.
[00:23:03] When you stop feeding the fear loop,
[00:23:05] you actually start building a new one.
[00:23:08] One where your brain learns,
[00:23:11] I can feel something without assuming the worst.
[00:23:13] I can have a bad moment, a bad day, a bad week,
[00:23:16] without a bad life.
[00:23:17] And I can pause before or when I notice that I'm spiraling
[00:23:22] because that pause is power.
[00:23:25] Even if it's a second pause or it's an hour pause, it's powerful.
[00:23:30] Hey, friends, it's Grace.
[00:23:32] If you feel like you've been doing all of the treatment protocols
[00:23:35] and all the different modalities to heal
[00:23:37] and you're still not feeling better
[00:23:38] and it's just kind of managing things,
[00:23:40] I'm here to talk to you for a second.
[00:23:43] So it's not because you're doing it wrong
[00:23:45] or you just haven't found the answer yet.
[00:23:47] It's truly because your nervous system and brain
[00:23:50] are still operating in protection mode.
[00:23:52] And your nervous system and brain, when it perceives danger,
[00:23:56] physical or emotional danger, and even just ongoing stress,
[00:24:00] it keeps your body on high alert.
[00:24:01] So none of those treatment modalities
[00:24:04] are actually going to stick or work
[00:24:06] until you work with the bottom line,
[00:24:08] which is your brain and nervous system.
[00:24:10] Because when you're in the danger mode state,
[00:24:11] your digestion, immune system, hormones,
[00:24:14] and pain signals all get affected.
[00:24:16] It's like trying to heal
[00:24:18] while the alarm bells are still ringing in the background.
[00:24:21] And that is why so many people get stuck.
[00:24:23] You can do all of the treatment things you want,
[00:24:26] but if your system isn't regulated,
[00:24:28] your body can't access its natural healing state.
[00:24:32] This is exactly why I created my four-month signature program,
[00:24:36] the Mind Body Healing Method.
[00:24:38] It's a step-by-step process that helps you calm your system,
[00:24:41] rewire old stress patterns,
[00:24:43] and retrain your brain to feel safe again.
[00:24:45] So you can finally start to heal for good,
[00:24:48] chronic pain and illness.
[00:24:49] This is a true recovery program, not just management.
[00:24:52] You'll get guided lessons, nervous system practices,
[00:24:55] live support, individual and group support,
[00:24:58] and a community that actually understands
[00:25:00] what you're going through.
[00:25:02] Enrollment is now open,
[00:25:03] so you can find the link below in the show notes
[00:25:06] or go to elevatetherapywellness.com
[00:25:09] slash mind body healing method.
[00:25:11] Because until your brain and body feel safe,
[00:25:14] no protocol or treatment plan will actually work.
[00:25:17] When your nervous system works,
[00:25:19] everything starts to heal.
[00:25:22] Is one of the most important lessons
[00:25:26] that I can share with you.
[00:25:28] And there's a lot of new lessons within this lesson.
[00:25:31] I probably talk about this every single week
[00:25:34] on our Mind Body Healing Method call.
[00:25:36] Every week someone brings this up in some way, shape, or form,
[00:25:39] or they don't even realize they're bringing it up,
[00:25:41] but then I have to talk to them about it because
[00:25:43] how could you not spiral when you're in pain?
[00:25:46] That's what you've learned, but we're going to relearn.
[00:25:48] And every time I talk about this,
[00:25:50] I look at the screen and I see all these nods from everyone.
[00:25:53] Everyone's like, oh my gosh, you got me too.
[00:25:54] Oh, thank you for saying that.
[00:25:56] Yeah, it's really powerful to see the group realize it together
[00:25:59] and then move through that catastrophic thinking and that spiraling.
[00:26:03] If you want more tools like this
[00:26:05] and you want to be in that healing hub
[00:26:08] when we're all in it together
[00:26:10] and we're learning these tools and we're doing it together,
[00:26:14] and I get to give you this real-time feedback,
[00:26:17] I would love, love, love to have you
[00:26:18] in the Mind Body Healing Method.
[00:26:20] And you can find the link below to apply for a time
[00:26:23] to talk about it, to chat.
[00:26:25] We can figure out if it's a right fit for you,
[00:26:27] but this is really an important wonderful space
[00:26:31] to heal together, to be together
[00:26:34] and learn how to rewire your brain,
[00:26:36] get out of the habits and the patterns that you've been in,
[00:26:39] and really understand how to be with
[00:26:42] and move through your symptoms
[00:26:43] so that they don't have to run your life anymore.
[00:26:46] Truly treat and heal them.
[00:26:47] And also, you are resilient,
[00:26:50] you are not broken, and your brain is capable of change.
[00:26:52] Until next time, I'm Grace, and keep healing with Grace.
[00:27:23] Thanks for listening,
[00:27:24] and I hope this brings you hope on your journey.