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Hello Reader!

Last week’s post about my little “panic attack on the airplane” seems to have sent quite a few people down their own rabbit holes, which honestly makes me weirdly happy 😜.

I have been having many discussions around the same issue: that strange gap between what we feel and what we know (or we think we know). Or even before that, the gap between what the body is sensing and the story the mind starts building around it.

So I thought I’d stay with this a little longer, because there’s clearly something here. And because this confusion between sensation, feeling, thinking, and “knowing”, is at the root of so much unnecessary suffering - but also of potential healing!

Musings

One of the most intriguing parts of being human is the speed with which these layers blur together, so that a sensation becomes a feeling, a feeling becomes a story, and the story suddenly feels like permanent truth.

A shortness of breath becomes “I’m anxious.” A wave of heat becomes “I can’t take it anymore" (hello menopause 😅). And before we’ve even had time to notice what is actually happening, the body has handed off its little packet of sensations, the brain has slapped an interpretation on it, and now we’re in a full relationship with the story.

These moments do not arrive saying, “Hello, I am a temporary cluster of bodily sensations awaiting contextual interpretation.” They arrive dressed as certainty, mostly because of memory and experience. They can be quite convincing, butwhen you slow yourself down, you get the 'all access backstage pass' to your brain and body:

There is sensing, which is the raw data of the body: pressure, heat, fluttering, constriction, hollowness, buzzing, collapse. There is feeling, which is the emotional tone that starts to gather around those sensations. There is thinking, which is where the mind explains, predicts, dramatizes, or tries to make meaning out of it all. And then there is knowing, which is not always as unified as we imagine.

Because it is entirely possible to know something with the mind and not know it with the rest of yourself.

You can know that you are safe and still feel gripped by danger. You can know that a conversation is harmless and still feel your body preparing for impact. You can know that a pain flare does not automatically mean damage and still feel the whole system contract around threat.

To me, embodied knowing is what happens when sensing, feeling, and thinking all begin to point in the same direction. When the body is no longer saying one thing, the emotions another, and the mind a third.

This is one reason healing is often slower, stranger, and more interesting than simply “changing your thoughts.” The nervous system does not reorganize because we have produced a brilliant explanation. It reorganizes when new experiences become believable enough, repeated enough, and safe enough that the old interpretation is no longer the only one available.

🎁 NeuroSomatic Practice of the Week

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🧠 If you’d like to go further…

If you’d like to explore this work in a more immediate way, I have several courses and guided resources on the site, depending on what kind of support you’re looking for.

If what’s showing up for you is stress, overload, shutdown, or that sense that your nervous system has been running on fumes for far too long, you can start with From Chaos to Calm in 28 Days.

If what you’re dealing with is more chronic pain, anxiety, and the deeper pattern of nervous system reactivity that can sit underneath both, have a look at The 4-Step Reset

If what feels more relevant is the knot between regulation, nourishment, digestion, and body trust, you can explore Nourish.

And if what you need most right now is help rebuilding steadiness, flexibility, and inner resources, you can start with Resilience.

Or schedule an in-person or online session here: