Sometimes what you think is anxiety… isn’t.
It’s not always stress, overwhelm, or mental illness. Sometimes it’s your nervous system whispering the truth your mind has tried to bury. And that whisper becomes a scream when you don’t listen.
What if the tightness in your chest, the insomnia, the tension in your jaw isn’t proof that you’re malfunctioning – but evidence that you’re finally waking up?
The Body Knows Before You Do
“Neuroception is the subconscious evaluation of risk in the environment that determines whether the nervous system will move into states of safety or defensive survival.”
– Stephen Porges
Your body has always known when something wasn’t right. Even when your mouth said “I’m fine,” your gut twisted. Even when you performed at work, your breath stayed shallow. Even when you showed up with a smile, your muscles clenched silently beneath your skin.
That’s not failure. It’s intelligence. It’s your system running the original software of survival, doing its job to keep you safe, even when that means making you shut down. And no amount of affirmations or productivity hacks can override what the body is begging you to finally hear.
You weren’t born anxious. You were taught to silence yourself.
“You’re not broken. You were trained to distrust your aliveness.”
Anxiety isn’t the disorder. Self-abandonment is.
And it was installed in you through a thousand tiny micro-moments – when you cried and were told to stop, when you spoke your truth and were met with discomfort, when you felt the impulse to scream or sob or say no… and instead, you smiled and complied. Because that’s what gets rewarded.
Eventually, you didn’t need anyone to silence you. You did it all on your own.
But here’s where the awakening begins – not in the dramatic, soul-shaking, Bali-retreat kind of way. In the quieter moments. When you pause mid-email because your chest feels tight and, instead of pushing through, you ask yourself: “What am I pretending not to know right now?”
This isn’t about therapy clichés. This is about choosing truth over performance.
That tightness in your chest isn’t a malfunction – it’s a message.
You’re not weak for feeling too much – you’re wise for finally noticing.
The Real Cost of Suppression
Let’s be honest. There is a price to overriding your instincts – and it’s not paid in one dramatic blow. It leaks out in subtle, daily erosion: missed opportunities, chronic tension, emotional flatness, connection you can’t quite reach. And the worst part? You keep blaming yourself for it.
But what if the truth is, you weren’t meant to override these signals in the first place?
You thought you were procrastinating. You were really scanning for safety.
You thought you were indecisive. You were really running risk assessments on being rejected.
You thought you lacked discipline. You were really stuck in a trauma-coded loop of survival.
This is the real story of anxiety. And it’s why so many people end up stuck in lives they don’t love, jobs they can’t leave, and routines that drain the soul dry.
“This isn’t healing. It’s a hostile takeover of your life… in the best way.”
It’s not about waiting to feel ready.
It’s about refusing to keep calling your truth a disorder.
When people join our coaching franchise, they often arrive at the same emotional tipping point – they’re done performing, done shrinking, done apologising for the voice inside that won’t shut up. What they find, in our model, is a way to translate that fire into action. To build something meaningful, not just for others, but for themselves.
If you’ve been questioning whether the version of life you’re living is actually yours… this might be your invitation. Not to run away or break everything. But to stop collapsing for comfort. To stop confusing numbness with stability. And to finally feel what you’re meant to feel – fully, without shame.
Because here’s the truth that no one tells you:
The discomfort you feel isn’t a sign that you’re doing it wrong. It’s a sign that you’re doing something real.
The body never lies. And it’s time you stopped ignoring the truth it’s been carrying all this time.
Our coaching franchise exists for exactly this reason – to help people like you create meaning, movement, and self-led transformation out of the signals most others mislabel or ignore. And yes, that means becoming the one who stops numbing, and starts leading.
If you’re ready for that… we’re here.
by Gemma Bailey (with the help of Ai)
