1211: A Healthy Nervous System Isn't Always Calm: Rethinking Anxiety And Healing
The Anxiety Coaches Podcast
Gina Ryan
4.6 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In today's episode, Gina discusses an important consideration for anxiety recovery: that anxiety recovery does not imply a consistently calm nervous system. Your nervous system is here to do a job: keep you alive. Sometimes, you need to get excitement and activation to enable you to make corrections for yourself or your environment. Listen in to reframe your anxiety recovery expectations and prepare for authentic, full-on living!
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Chapters
0:26 Welcome to the Anxiety Coaches Podcast
1:55 Rethinking Anxiety and Healing
4:03 The Myth of Constant Calm
6:12 Understanding Nervous System Flexibility
8:59 Embracing Our Emotions
11:23 The Dangers of Chasing Calm
14:28 Trusting Our Body's Signals
17:26 Building Resilience Through Activation
19:48 Capacity Over Calm
20:52 Closing Thoughts and Acknowledgments
Summary
In this episode, I delve into the misconception that a healed or regulated nervous system equates to feeling calm all the time. It is crucial to challenge this notion, as the idea that healing consists of constant tranquility can actually hinder our progress on our healing journeys. I explore the reality that experiencing anxiety does not negate the healing work we've done; rather, it’s a normal part of being human. Many people grapple with feelings of inadequacy when they compare their internal experiences to how others appear on the surface, which often leads to unnecessary self-doubt.
Throughout our discussion, I aim to unpack the myth that constant calmness is synonymous with a healthy nervous system. It's vital to realize that life will invariably activate us, and our approach should not be to avoid these feelings but to learn to move through them. Embracing our experiences—be they anxious thoughts or bodily sensations—without fear allows us to build resilience. This shifts our focus from striving for a state of perpetual calm to recognizing that our nervous system is designed to respond and recover from activation.
I quote psychiatrist Mark Epstein to drive home the point: "Healing is not about eliminating pain, but about changing our relationship to it." Our society often promotes calmness as the ultimate goal, suggesting that peace is a reachable destination. While calmness is valuable, it can also become a performance metric that distorts our perception of healing. I've observed that many people mistakenly believe a healthy nervous system is one that remains completely undisturbed, when in reality, it is all about flexibility—having a system that can engage and settle in response to life’s demands.
#AnxietyCoachesPodcast #GinaRyan #CalmIsNotTheGoal #BefriendYourNervousSystem #CapacityOverCalm #RespondNotReact #FullCatastropheLiving #TheWormhole #HealingIsAJourney #AnxietyWarrior #BeGentleWithYourself #ACP
#NervousSystemRegulation #PolyvagalTheory #VagusNerve #HeartRateVariability #SomaticHealing #NervousSystemHealth #WindowOfTolerance #SomaticAwareness #Neuroplasticity #BodyMindSoul
#PsychologicalFlexibility #EmotionalResilience #ResilienceBuilding #SelfCompassion #MindfulnessPractice #MentalStrength #EmotionalIntelligence #InnerPeace #TrustYourBody #HealingFromWithin
#AnxietyRelief #MentalHealthMatters #StressManagement #PanicAttackRecovery #MentalWellness #WellnessJourney #OvercomingAnxiety #HealingIsPossible #MindfulnessMeditation #SelfHealing
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the anxiety coaches podcast, a relaxing and informative show where we explore anxiety, panic, and PTSD, sharing how you can overcome them for life. |
| 0:23.1 | Aloha. |
| 0:24.2 | Welcome back to the anxiety coaches podcast. |
| 0:27.6 | I'm your host and coach, Gina Ryan, and I am so happy to be with you again today |
| 0:34.1 | as together we can consider the many ways to bring your mind and body back to its |
| 0:40.5 | natural peace and calm. In today's episode, I'm talking about something that really can trip up |
| 0:48.3 | the best of us. We can be really well-intentioned on our healing journey and we can get tripped up by the idea |
| 0:56.6 | that a regulated or a healthy nervous system means feeling calm all the time. And that is |
| 1:05.9 | simply not true. So I thought today we could rethink anxiety and healing altogether. If you've ever thought, |
| 1:14.2 | why am I so anxious if I've done so much work? I hear this all the time. Or other people seem so |
| 1:22.6 | peaceful and calm. What's wrong with me? Well, I want to clue you in. How people look on the outside is not a |
| 1:31.4 | clear indicator of what's going on inside. So you can let that one go right away. And finally, |
| 1:38.2 | people think if my nervous system were healed, I wouldn't feel this activated. Now, we know that's not true either. |
| 1:46.5 | Life is going to activate us, but we don't have to live down the wormhole. |
| 1:52.9 | We don't even have to visit the wormhole anymore. We can feel symptoms, sensations, |
| 1:59.2 | and difficulties, wacky thoughts, the whole laundry list of |
| 2:05.3 | anxious things without having to go there and live there. We learn over time that these come |
| 2:15.4 | and they go. |
| 2:21.8 | So there's nothing wrong with you if you are feeling activated. |
| 2:27.7 | If you have any of those items on that laundry list of anxiety, symptoms, and sensations, |
| 2:29.7 | it's stuff that happens. |
| 2:36.9 | What you don't want to do is live in fear of those things, and you don't want to live where you are constantly activated by each and every one of those. We learn not to take the activation so seriously, |
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