The Gap Between Knowing and Doing – Why Your Body Can't Access What Your Mind Already Knows
- Brainz Magazine
- Nov 3
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 5
Marie Keutler is a psychotherapist, yoga instructor, and retreat facilitator, specializing in holistic wellness. Through therapy, yoga, and breathwork, she helps individuals shift from stress to balance. Her retreats and wellness programs are designed to inspire meaningful, lasting transformation.
As a psychotherapist, I've witnessed a pattern that repeats across boardrooms, therapy sessions, and leadership teams. Intelligent, capable people who know exactly what they should do in moments of stress, yet find themselves completely unable to do it.
They know they should breathe. They know they should pause. They know they should stay present. And still, in the moment it matters most, none of it is accessible. This isn't a failure of knowledge or willpower. It's neuroscience.
When your nervous system is overwhelmed, the part of your brain responsible for rational thought, planning, and self-regulation, your prefrontal cortex, goes offline. What remains is your survival system, reactive, narrow, and designed only to get you through the next sixty seconds.
This is the gap where most of us live. Not because we don't care. Not because we haven't tried. But because we're attempting to think our way out of a biological response that bypasses thinking altogether.
When the tools you know stop working
I've spent years helping people regulate their nervous systems so they can think clearly, communicate from a grounded place, and move through stress without getting swept away by it.
And even with all that training, I've found myself in moments where my mind knew exactly what to do and my body simply couldn't follow.
I watched the same pattern with clients and teams. They had the tools. They understood the concepts. But when pressure hit a difficult conversation, an unexpected crisis, or mounting deadlines, those tools became unreachable. The gap between knowing and accessing felt insurmountable.
What I learned, both personally and professionally, changed everything. "You can't think your way out of stress. You have to move through it somatically."
Your baseline is where choice lives
Your baseline isn't about being calm all the time. It's about having access to the part of your brain that chooses instead of reacts.
When you're at baseline, you're capable of:
Staying present in a heated conversation without snapping
Returning to focus after an interruption, not spiralling into overwhelm
Functioning even when you're worried or tired
Making decisions from clarity rather than panic
Feeling like yourself again
When you're away from baseline, everything shifts:
A simple question empties your mind
You snap over something small because your system was already overloaded
You lie awake with your brain racing, sleep shallow and unsatisfying
You know what you should do, but your body won't cooperate
You watch your life instead of living it
Most of us live somewhere in between, dipping in and out of regulation throughout the day. That's human. But the less access we have to our baseline, the higher the cost for our performance, our relationships, and our well-being.
The real cost of dysregulation
The cost of staying away from baseline shows up everywhere:
In meetings, we fumble because we can't think clearly
Interruptions that derail our entire afternoon
Rest, we can't claim even when we desperately need it
Decisions that seemed urgent in the moment but unraveled later
Conversations where we say things we immediately regret
In leadership, the stakes are even higher. When you're dysregulated, your team feels it. Your decisions carry it. Your culture reflects it.
Yet most workplace wellness programs focus on long-term strategies, meditation apps, mindfulness courses, and wellness retreats. All valuable. None is designed for the moment your nervous system is hijacked and you need to get back online in the next two minutes.
What actually works in real time
Through hundreds of client sessions and my own experience, I discovered something critical, the right somatic technique, delivered in 60 to 180 seconds and matched to your current state, can shift everything.
Not theory. Not later. Right now. Suddenly, clarity returns. The body settles. Decisions get easier. Conversations soften.
This isn't about adding more to your plate. It's about having a way back to yourself when you need it most, during the meeting, before the difficult conversation, after the unexpected news, in the middle of decision fatigue.
State-matched support means the intervention meets you where you are. If you're wired and overwhelmed, you need something different than if you're foggy and shut down. If you're distracted, your system requires a different approach than if you're fatigued.
Generic breathing exercises don't account for this. Neither does telling someone to "just relax."
Introducing Baseline: Body-first support for real moments
This understanding led me to build something I wish I'd had years ago. Baseline is a body-first micro-tool app designed for real moments of overwhelm, distraction, pressure, and fatigue.
No scrolling through endless options when your prefrontal cortex is offline. No "choose from 20 techniques" when you can barely think straight.
Just a 30-second check-in that assesses your current state, followed by a 1-3 minute guided somatic reset that brings your nervous system back online so choice, clarity, and calm become available again.
Built from neuroscience, somatic therapy, and real-world patterns from hundreds of sessions, Baseline is designed for real days, not ideal ones.
Why this matters now more than ever
We're living in an era of constant activation. Economic uncertainty, workplace pressure, information overload, and the blurring of work-life boundaries keep our nervous systems in a perpetual state of alert.
Traditional wellness approaches, while valuable, often require time, space, and a level of regulation you don't have access to when you're in the thick of it.
What's missing is real-time support. Something that works in 90 seconds. Something you can use during your workday without stepping away from your desk. Something that doesn't require you to be calm enough to remember what tool to use.
This is where Baseline fits, not as a replacement for deeper work, but as the bridge that gets you back to a place where that deeper work is even possible.
Who this is for
If you're someone who:
Leads a team and needs to stay regulated under pressure
Works in high-intensity or fast-paced environments
Supports others' well-being (HR professionals, coaches, therapists, managers)
Simply wants more access to your calm, clarity, and capacity throughout the day
This is for you. We're also selecting a handful of teams to test Baseline for free. These pilot partnerships will help us understand how nervous system regulation impacts team dynamics, communication quality, and decision-making capacity in real workplace environments.
What comes next
We're preparing for early access. The first version of Baseline is nearly complete, and we're intentionally keeping this round small so we can listen, learn, and shape the experience together.
This isn't about perfection. It's about building something that actually works when people need it most.
If you've ever found yourself in that gap, knowing what to do but unable to access it, you're not alone. And you're not broken.
Your nervous system is doing exactly what it's designed to do. It just needs the right support, at the right time, in the right way.
Here's to more of us finding our way back to baseline. Ready to join the early access list? We can't guarantee a spot, but you'll be the first to know when it opens. Click here.
Leading a team? We're selecting pilot organizations for 2026. Reach out to explore whether your team might be a fit for our free testing program.
Marie Keutler, Psychotherapist & Somatic Therapist | Yoga & Breathwork Teacher
Marie Keutler is a psychotherapist, yoga teacher, and wellness retreat facilitator dedicated to helping individuals reconnect with their minds and bodies. She combines evidence-based therapy, yoga, and breathwork to create accessible, science-backed tools for stress relief and well-being. Marie’s innovative programs, including the Pocket Reset Toolkit and Overdrive to Balance, provide practical self-care practices for busy lives. She also hosts transformational retreats in Greece, Portugal, and Africa, offering immersive experiences to foster deep healing and connection.
