I recently shared an Instagram post that resonated with MANY of you about a common phenomenon that occurs when we enter into a deep healing process. 

And it’s super important to NORMALIZE, so I’m re-sharing the concept with you today. 

It goes something like this…

You start learning about the nervous system, how it works, and doing some solid healing work. 

Then something seemingly strange happens—you start feeling MORE. 

More pain, anxiety, skin rashes, night terrors, anger…the list goes on. 

You might be thinking, ‘What the heck? I’m doing all this healing work. Why is this happening?’

Not to fear, friend. 

This is NOT a sign of moving in the wrong direction. Or proof that you’re going about this healing thing all wrong. 

This is a sign of healing.  

It means you’ve built enough regulation, capacity, and safety within your system to BE WITH what you couldn’t when you were younger. 

And that’s a good thing.

There’s a catch. 

It is possible to feel too much too soon. (This typically happens when we start with methodologies that try to FORCE and “get” a trauma out!)

And this keeps us stuck. 

In my experience, the magic formula for healing that sticks (and doesn’t overwhelm or shut down our system) goes something like this: 

  • Build capacity.
  • Then, become better at noticing when stress enters.
  • From here, with the RIGHT kinds of practices that are nervous system and somatically-informed, we no longer allow new stress to stick to us—it just moves through.
  • In time, this builds more capacity and helps us heal the old traumas as we restore internal and external safety.
  • This increased capacity also allows us to feel MORE in general.

So remember, as nervous system regulation builds, it’s entirely normal to feel MORE. This is a wonderful, albeit sometimes uncomfortable, sign of healing.