After decades of living in survival mode, I thought I had moved past the old patterns of bracing and pushing through.
But recently, while recovering from an injury and navigating life on crutches, something unexpected happened— my nervous system got triggered back into a familiar place where everything felt hard.
Not just physically, but emotionally.
The tension, the overwhelm, the feeling of constant effort.
It was all too familiar.
For a long time, that used to be my normal.
Hard was just how life felt.
It wasn’t until I moved into nervous system regulation that I started to experience something different—ease.
Not ease as in “just relax.”
But ease as in working with the nervous system instead of against it.
Ease as in revisiting those old fight, flight, or freeze patterns—and giving them space to complete and resolve.
This injury didn’t erase the healing I’ve done.
But it did reveal the layers that still live in my system—and reminded me just how powerful these tools really are.
One of the tools that’s helping me reconnect to ease again is a simple movement to re-educate the core tendon guard reflex—a reflex that’s often active when we’re stuck in survival mode.
It’s gentle, effective, and one of my go-to techniques when things start to feel hard again.
In the video below, I’ll walk you through this movement and explain how it helps bring your system back to a place of internal safety and support.
I’d love to hear—What’s one moment recently where you noticed your system slipping back into old patterns?
Leave a comment below! You’re not alone in this.
💗 Kelly
