Somatic Tools for When Your Body Feels Like the Enemy

When anxiety is intense, the body can feel like an unpredictable, unreliable place. Somatic tools gently rebuild trust.

Here are three of the safest, simplest tools to help you feel safe:

1. The Hand-to-Heart Hold

Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly. Breathe slowly and let the warmth signal safety.

2. Orienting

Turn your head slowly and look around the room.
Name 5 things you see.
Your brain shifts from threat scanning to environment scanning.

3. Leg Press

Press your feet firmly into the floor.
Push gently, 5 seconds on, 5 seconds off.
This engages stability muscles and calms adrenaline.

These tools don’t stop anxiety—they soften it.

They bring your body back into the present moment, where fear has less control.

Fight, Flight, Freeze: A Simple Guide to the Polyvagal ladder and Feeling Safe Again

The polyvagal theory can sound complicated, but at its core, it explains one simple truth:

Your body tries to protect you before you even think.

Here’s the easiest way to understand the polyvagal ladder.

The Three Rungs of the Ladder

1. Top: Safe & Social

You feel connected, calm, steady.

2. Middle: Fight-or-Flight

Anxiety, racing heart, restlessness, hypervigilance.

3. Bottom: Shutdown

Numbness, fatigue, disconnection, overwhelm.

Anxiety lives in the middle rung.

How to Climb Back Up

From Fight-or-Flight → Safe & Social

1. Long exhales

2. Humming or singing (stimulates the vagus nerve)

3. Warmth on the chest

4. Eye contact with someone safe

5. Gentle shaking to discharge adrenaline

These signal safety to the body.

Why This Matters for Anxiety

Many people try to “think” their way out of anxiety, but that’s nearly impossible because anxiety begins in the body.

Nervous system → brain → thoughts. Not the other way around.

Regulation must start with the body.

How to Break the Google Spiral: A 5-Step Plan for Health Anxiety

For people with health anxiety, Googling symptoms feels impossible to resist. You tell yourself you’re just “checking,” but within minutes you're reading medical forums, rare conditions, and worst-case headlines.

This cycle has a name: cyberchondria.

Here’s how to break it—with compassion, not shame.

Step 1: Understand the Reward Loop

Googling gives your brain a hit of dopamine because it feels like you’re gaining control. But because the reassurance never lasts, the urge returns. Awareness is the first point of interruption.

Step 2: Create a 10-Minute Delay

When the urge hits, say: “I can Google in 10 minutes if I still want to.” Most urges pass when given space.

Step 3: Replace With a Regulation Tool

During the 10 minutes:

• Slow exhales

• Body scan

• Cold water splash

• Grounding object

• Light movement

You’re teaching your nervous system safety.

Step 4: Use a “Reassurance Tracker”

Write down:

• What triggered the urge

• What you feared

• What actually happened

Over time, patterns become clear. Your brain learns that most fears resolve without Googling.

Step 5: Identify Your “Trusted Source Rule”

Pick ONE source (like your GP or a reputable medical site). If it’s not from that source, you don’t read it.

This eliminates rabbit holes instantly.

Final Thought

Stopping the Google spiral isn’t about willpower. It’s about retraining an anxious brain to trust safety more than fear.

“Is this anxiety?” - A gentle guide to interpreting body sensations

If you live with health anxiety, you’re probably familiar with the moment a sensation appears out of nowhere - A flutter in your chest. A tingle. A tightness. A headache. Suddenly your mind is scanning, analyzing, and imagining the worst.

What most people don’t realise is that anxiety produces real, physical sensations—and often very intense ones.

This article isn’t here to dismiss you. Your sensations are real. Your fear is real. But the interpretation? That’s where anxiety takes over.

Why Anxiety Mimics Illness

Anxiety activates the fight-or-flight response, pushing adrenaline, increasing heart rate, tightening muscles, and shifting blood flow. This can create:

• Chest tightness

• Tingling in hands or feet

• Digestive issues

• Shortness of breath

• Dizziness

• Hot or cold flashes

• Difficulty swallowing

These sensations feel alarming, but they are biologically normal responses to perceived threat—even when there’s no actual danger.

The 3-Question Reframe for Any Sensation

When a symptom appears, pause and ask:

1. Has this sensation appeared before, during anxiety?

If yes, that’s important data.

2. Does the sensation change when I shift my focus or my breathing?

Anxiety-based sensations often decrease when regulation increases.

3. Is this sensation worsening rapidly or staying the same?

Health anxiety imagines worst-case scenarios instantly. Most serious medical events escalate quickly.

A Regulation Tool: The “Name & Normalize” Technique

1. Notice the sensation (“My chest is tight.”)

2. Name it as a nervous system response (“My body is in threat mode.”)

3. Normalise it (“This has happened before when anxious.”)

4. Soothe it

• 4–6 breathing

• Gentle shaking

• Warmth on chest

• Grounding through feet

This technique retrains your brain to regulate instead of panic.

Final Note

You deserve to feel safe in your body. Learning to understand sensations without spiralling is a skill—one that can absolutely be learned with time and practice.