14/08/2026
"Magda, I understand where this comes from. So why does my body still react this way?"
I hear this question in therapy more often than you might imagine.
We can understand our history very well, recognize our patterns, and rationally know that the situation we're in now is safe, while still experiencing a tight jaw, a knot in the stomach, a racing heart, or difficulty allowing our body to relax.
That doesn't mean that your body is "broken", and it doesn't mean that all the work you've already done on yourself hasn't worked.
Our response to potential threat isn't simply a conscious decision. Our brain is constantly integrating information from the environment, signals from within our body, and what we've learned through previous experiences. This means that a physiological response can sometimes begin before we've consciously made sense of what is happening.
And this is one of the reasons why we can't always simply "think" ourselves out of stress.
At the same time, I don't want to create a false division between "working with the mind" and "working with the body". Good therapy can involve thoughts, emotions, behaviours, relationships, as well as the way we notice and interpret physical sensations.
Research on interoception — our perception and interpretation of signals coming from within the body — also shows an important relationship between these processes and emotional regulation.
Learning to notice what is happening inside us, without immediately judging or fighting it, can therefore become an important part of therapeutic work.
💛 This is Part 3 of the **"Understand Your Nervous System"** series.
In the next post, we'll start looking at what can happen in the body when stress and tension continue for a longer period of time.
**But for today, I'm curious: where in your body do you usually notice tension first?**
Tell me in the comments, or save this post to come back to later.
