The Missing Piece: Your Nervous System
When going through a pain experience, we will often try anything and everything to get relief. We grab ice packs and heating pads, try massages, stretching, physical therapy, and a variety of medications and supplements. All of these are practical and sensible solutions, and yet sometimes the pain persists. Annoyingly, the pain persists.
You aren’t broken. You’re not a hopeless case. There is just another piece to the puzzle. The nervous system.
Your Brain Runs the Show
The nervous system is your body’s command center. It controls how you move, how you feel, and how you respond to pain. When it senses a threat, the nervous system will prioritize survival over everything else. Survival is the most important thing. To your body, sometimes even more important than healing.
Survival.
Have you ever thought:
- Where does this pain come from? Why is it so random?
- Why do I feel worse, and I didn’t even do anything?
- Why doesn’t rest help me recover?
- Why won’t the pain go away?
The answer is about more than just the state of your muscles and joints. The answer might be about the “state” of your nervous system.
Fight, Flight, Freeze… and Heal?
The nervous system has two main modes. These divisions work to regulate body functions:
- Sympathetic (fight/flight/freeze): survival mode
- Parasympathetic (rest/digest/recover): healing mode
Both are extremely important. They work together to create balance in the body. When your body goes off balance and gets stuck in the sympathetic state (survival mode) for too long (chronic stress), your ability to heal, recover, and move freely gets shut down. This can be a big problem when trying to manage pain.
Signs You’re Stuck in Survival Mode:
- You feel “on edge” all the time
- It’s hard to relax or sleep deeply
- Your body feels tight, even when you’re not active
- You crash easily from fatigue or emotional overload
- Pain flares up after stress—not just after movement
A nervous system that stays stuck in survival mode can amplify pain even without any injury. This is called central sensitization—when your system becomes hypersensitive to input. For example:
- A gentle stretch feels sharp
- Light touch feels like pressure
- Normal movement feels like strain
You’re not imagining it. Your system is just being overprotective, and you become hypersensitive.
- How to get out of survival mode? Nervous System Regulation.
What Does Nervous System Regulation Look Like?
Nervous System Regulation means your nervous system is balanced and can move between stress and rest without getting stuck. More importantly, nervous system regulation means that you can return to safety when the threat is gone. It does not mean that you are calm all the time, but rather that your body functions with balance and returns to safety after any threats are detected.
You should be able to:
- Feel safe at rest and while moving
- Recover easily after activity or emotional stress
- Pause, breathe, and respond (not react)
- Experience pain as a signal—not a prison
3 Ways to Help Regulate Your Nervous System
Here are 3 simple ways to help your nervous system shift back into recovery mode:
- Vagus Nerve Stimulation
Gargling, humming, or chanting stimulates the vagus nerve—a major player in your parasympathetic system. Try humming for a few minutes daily. - Orienting the Senses
Look around your space slowly. Name five things you see, four you can touch, three you can hear. This pulls your nervous system out of fear and into the present. - Rhythmic Movement
Repetitive, gentle movement (like swaying, walking, or bouncing on a yoga ball) helps release stored tension and signals safety to your system.
Our Approach at BodyTech
We combine therapeutic touch, movement therapy, and self-management coaching to help your nervous system feel safe again. Because real recovery starts with a regulated nervous system—not more pressure or pushing through pain.
If you’ve done everything right and still feel stuck, it’s time to try something different.
We offer both in-person recovery sessions and online coaching to help you regulate your nervous system and reset your pain experience.
Visit @bodytechnyc or bodytechnyc.com to get started.
