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Hello Reader,

This week things are starting to settle back into a some semblance of a routine for me. I'm taking care of myself and my needs, and that feels right ❤️. Thank you for all the messages of support. I've had so many interesting conversations with many of you, and one thing has emerged that hit home this week: it is the idea of freedom, of self-sovereignty.

Musings

What's freedom, for you? Is it freedom from something, like pain or constraint (be it emotional or physical)? Or is it freedom to do something you want? Sometimes, when you're in pain or facing a difficult situation, freedom feels like the urge to step away, to run away. Our brains want to avoid pain at all costs. Sometimes we give in to the impulse: "I need to get out of this right now". We mentally step away from our painful backs and push through, we dissociate from our trauma, we avoid conflict or unpleasantness in relationships. That's one form of freedom.

But there's another form of freedom, which comes with more agency, more power, more sovereignty. That freedom comes with ownership of what drives you, a sense of purpose, and an acceptance of uncertainty, just long enough that you can transform pain and discomfort and fear into something else. Pausing with discomfort, staying with your body when pain arises, is an art that allows you to expand your perception, and to feel the difference between the urgency of avoidance and the drive of alignment. I'm not saying to push through despite the pain, but to slow down enough that you can feel it and tolerate it when it arises.

Staying with our pain, in this sense, is not the opposite of freedom. It’s what makes freedom possible. It is in those slow moments that possibilities arise.

I salute the amazing courage and drive of all of those who walked into my office this past week, who decided to slow down and stay with their discomfort, pain or fear, long enough to watch it transform.

🎁 NeuroSomatic Practice of the Week

🧠 NeuroMinute...

The urge to “leave”, to avoid pain, is closely tied to how the brain processes uncertainty and threat.

At the center of this is the amygdala, which evaluates potential danger, especially when situations are ambiguous or unpredictable. When uncertainty increases, the amygdala amplifies signaling to stress systems, including activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. This leads to heightened arousal, vigilance, and a bias toward action. This is where your bracing patterns come from: your back seizes, your chest tightens, your heart races.

From a survival standpoint, this makes sense: moving away from uncertainty can reduce immediate physiological load. This is why avoidance often feels relieving in the short term. It decreases activation in threat-related circuits and can temporarily lower anxiety. You avoid putting weight on that painful knee, thereby creating excess weight somewhere else, which leads to more stress and more pain. But research in pain science, affective neuroscience and behavioral psychology shows that repeated avoidance reinforces the brain’s prediction that the situation is dangerous—making future responses more reactive, not less. Worse, you lose parts of yourself in that process: your mental map of that painful lower back is no longer refined, and you can't access any possibilities of movement. The same can be said about trauma or regular emotional patterns.

When a person remains present with discomfort without being overwhelmed, in a safe space, the prefrontal cortex becomes more involved. This region supports regulation, perspective-taking, and the ability to hold multiple possibilities at once. Over time, this changes how the brain predicts the situation: what was once coded as threat can be recoded as manageable. You can then rewrite your body map, or your beliefs, fears and emotions.

This process is often described as extinction learning within the fear conditioning framework. The brain doesn’t erase the original fear or urge to leave—it builds a new memory alongside it. When you remain in a situation that feels uncertain but is not actually harmful, the amygdala signals danger, but over time the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus update that prediction: this is uncomfortable, but manageable. This only works if there is enough activation to engage the system, but also enough safety to prevent overwhelm. In that space, the nervous system gains flexibility, and what once triggered automatic escape can become something you can stay with, and choose from.

Importantly, this only works when there is enough safety. If activation is too high, the system defaults back to survival responses.

So biologically, “freedom” is not simply the ability to leave.

It’s the capacity of the nervous system to remain present without escalating into threat, and therefore to access choice, rather than reaction.

PS: I have hope for you...

Warmly,

Joana

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