The unseen cost of hyper-vigilance.

I used to be an undercover nervous wreck.

People would reflect to me: "oh you're SO calm. I love your peaceful energy."

But really, I was frozen.

Unconsciously, I was running on hyper-vigilance. My adrenals were utterly exhausted, yet anxiety kept me running anywhere accept the present moment.

For those of us who struggle with hyper-vigilance, we are over-identifying with PREY.

Essentially, I didn't have a strong foundation of internal safety to lean into, so I hyper-focused on my environment (without consciously knowing it).

Every time our system registers a potential threat, it draws upon the waters of our kidneys to signal the body.

Like AI data centers pulling water to cool down their systems, our nervous system has to pull water from our deepest well to signal a threat; pulling from our internal bank of vital life-force energy, or jing as it's called in traditional Chinese medicine.

When our kidneys are in balance, they are charged up with vital essence that can be used for creativity including making love, making art and making babies! They are related to our reproductive system and bone health, which both closely link us to our ancestors.

Art by Rose Skerten

Every time our system throws a red flag - -which is a lot for those who are snagged in a state of hyper-vigilance and not quite able to drop down into a resting, parasympathetic state - -there is a tax on our kidneys, adrenals, and hearts via the heart-kidney axis that runs through our central channel...leaving us feeling drained yet anxious.

In our modern-day world of over-stimulation and trying to constantly keep pace with consumerism, many people live in this territory full-time (unconsciously 🫣).

Unresolved fear in the body can crystalize our internal waters so that our mobilization response is frozen. This mobilization is the job of the wood element and our liver. If we aren't able to take action based on a signal of a threat, we choose other modes like freezing or appeasing. And the energy doesn't get to move.

Essentially, the charge freezes in time, often holding suppressed emotions with it in our tissues, like anger and grief. This lack of flow and holding of energy becomes toxic and can cause disease or fertility issues. Western psychology calls it "trauma."

Check out this flow to see how the body can heal trauma from a five elements perspective:

From The Tao of Trauma

So how have we become a culture of hyper-vigilant people?

For one, we've suppressed natural embodiment practices that allow us to consistently clear and reset our nervous system. A lot of us have a back-log of trauma to heal from our shit and our ancestors' shit.

To be clear, this is good shit when faced, metabolized and digested. We release what we don't need and the rest fertilizes our system with wisdom. The gold.

Thankfully we are remembering how important these practices are to our overall health now. Think of how many resources we have today that our parents did not have!

We are also living in a highly over-stimulating environment / culture, rising our cortisol at all times of the day. From that morning cup of coffee to that nightly scroll or news.

Our internal threat response is a highly intelligent system that was developed by our ancient ancestors so we could escape predators...

Amazing photo by Ary Bassous

But today, the "predators" are no longer the beasts that creep up on our tribe. It's...

...opening your bank account

...scrolling social media

...obsessively worrying about the future

...or constantly questioning your belonging or worth (!).

Basically everything that causes us to live outside of our body and the present moment.

None of these things are necessarily bad, but the level at which we modern-day humans are stimulated does not match our internal safety operating system.

Plus, past traumas - -yours and your ancestors - -may lead you to unconsciously respond random stimuli as threats such as...

...a man coming up behind you

...a woman in her power (seriously, how do you respond to this?)

...expressing your truth or sensuality

...or even being spiritual out loud.

What I see is this: our system needs an up-grade to be able to move with the amount of activation (or stress) so that we can alchemize fear into empowered action.

But many people are so caught up in feeling "safe" that they hyper-control their healing process, when they actually need to let the fire of their becoming change them by dismantle their egoic protections. This is the tough, gristly, indigenous healing work that we know we must do in our bones.

Here's what worked for me:

🧠 training my mind to come back to the body as the guide through tracking sensations and honoring feelings as guides (but not The Truth...many somatic guides get stuck here)

⛩️ building an internal architecture of safety rooted in my body instead of relying on external circumstances (this is a BIG ONE for the collective right now and where being "trauma-informed" has gotten out of control)

🥵 facing my fears and learning through fire --initiation rites that indigenous communities have upheld since time immemorial (re-learning in my body that feeling afraid and facing perceived threats does NOT equal harm)

And with qigong + intuitive movement specifically:

🚮 regularly purging excess stress that I accumulate in my body

🌪️ balancing my emotions by tending to specific organs that have become imbalanced due to suppression

⚔️ regularly sealing and protecting my energy

🤲🏽 learning how to hold and cultivate my life-force rather than spend it mindlessly

This devotion has transformed my health, my relationships and my life. Including...

👁️ greater capacity for presence + intimacy

🌀 overall lowered stress levels

🔥 more creative (and fertile!) energy

❤️‍🔥 a stronger foundation to be able to handle activation without freezing so I can continue to do things that scare AND up-level me

🐍 And the big (and on-going) one: no longer being hyper-vigilant or attached to my trauma stories (sometimes traditional Westernized therapy can collude with our trauma stories and keep us stuck in victimization)

Everyones healing path is unique, but we all need to be able to move it through.

I invite YOU to discover how qigong + intuitive movement is an amazing practice to support your energetic mastery, no matter where you're at in your journey.

QI DANCE: WINTER SERIES begins Jan 8 (Thursday!).

JOIN US HERE: www.embodysoul.love/qi-dance

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Author's note:

My content will never come from AI. It always comes from my distinct mind and heart which has been practicing, studying and teaching embodied healing + transformation for 10+ years. It will always be imperfectly human and me. Promise.