Uncover The Causes Of High Functioning Anxiety & Master Effective Management Techniques
- Jun 11, 2024
- 5 min read
Heidi Hadley is a Certified Clinical Somatic Educator & Somatic Movement teacher. She started her career in mainstream medicine in the field of Neurophysiology. In 2001, Heidi started her private clinical practice in health, wellbeing & movement.
We live in a fast-paced society, that requires our attention 24 hours a day. We have become conditioned to notifications on our phones, computers, and watches. As a result of these conditioned behaviours, our nervous system is highly sensitized and stimulated. Simply being in the moment and not being occupied by a mobile device can feel uncomfortable. For some people, it has become a pacifier for them.
How have we allowed our daily habits and societal trends to dictate how our nervous system influences our health? Have you noticed a change in people’s moods? Have you noticed people are hypersensitive to comments and discussions? Have you noticed people are almost looking to find fault or be offended about a subject? Have you ever considered how being unaware of what state your nervous system is in can create these behaviours? Have you noticed an increase in burnout and musculoskeletal issues, such as headaches, lower back pain, neck pain, dysfunctional breathing, and poor sleep patterns?
Let’s consider what is happening inside your body.
As we considered in my previous article (Click here to read it), our brain is a pattern creator. If we expose ourselves to regular habits, behaviours, stimuli, movements, and posture, our brain will adapt our biomechanics (how we move), nervous system state, hormonal secretions, breath rate, and posture to its ‘new normal’ state.
In recent years, people have become highly stressed from world events and it has continued to hold them in highly stressed or sensitized states. Our nervous system fluctuates throughout the day. It is dynamic, life-saving, and malleable. However, if a person doesn’t know how to regulate their nervous system, their nervous system can become ‘stuck in time’ and continue to hold a stress response. In many cases, we can see high-functioning anxiety being a nervous system state in which people are being held hostage.
Within Total Somatics, I teach people how to create resilience, flexibility, and capacity within their nervous system. This allows them to experience the full spectrum of feelings and sensations from their nervous system, rather than being ‘stuck’ in a stress response. Teaching people how to self-regulate and develop many embodiment practices with Pandiculation allows the person to learn how to return to a state of balance or homeostasis. *To learn more about Self-regulation, click here to read my article and free resource on this subject.
If you can sense & feel it, you can change it
To change something, awareness, and insight are crucial. Many people, however, have lost this skill. I would like to share how living with a stress response can show up in how we move, stand, and behave.
When people suffer from high-functioning anxiety, they become incredibly skilled at managing many activities and challenges. However, underneath, their nervous system is hyper-alert.
This hyper-alertness can come from many reasons, such as stress and trauma, many people find their coping mechanism is to work through their stress and push emotions down. If they keep busy, smile to the world, and not focus on the issue, they hope it will disappear. However, over time, living life at full throttle is not healthy. At some point, something will ‘give.’ In many cases over the years, I have seen people’s health decline. It can range from burnout to inflammatory issues, autoimmune diseases, and neuromuscular health conditions, just to name a few.
In many cases, a person has ‘numbed’ out or disconnected from the sensations in their body. They are no longer listening to the feedback from their body. If they are not able to sense and feel, they are unable to change their current state.
When their nervous system is highly stressed, their neuromuscular system will prime them for impending danger. As a result, their brain, being a pattern creator, will contract muscles through the back of their body, to flee or fight a situation. Weight transfer is held predominantly through the heels of their feet, causing increased muscle tension through their calves, hamstrings, glutes, lower back (creating an increased lower back arch due to it being overly contracted), mid back tightness, neck and jaw rigidity.
This postural stress response was exhibited with our early ancestors, as a survival response. However, nowadays, we still have the same brainstem postural stress response, yet our lifestyles have changed. We cannot flee or fight, as in the caveman era! We must deal with ongoing stress in the modern era. Unless we know how to regulate and recalibrate our nervous system, we will continue to stay braced for flee or flight. Creating dysregulated nervous system states.
This is a common posture seen with people exhibiting the fight/flee postural reflex looks similar to this:
This stress posture can create the following issues:
Plantar fasciitis
Calf and hamstring issues
Sciatica
Lower back pain and herniated discs
Mid back tightness and pain
Neck and jaw discomfort
You will often hear a person before you see them with this posture because they strike the floor heavy through their heels. After all, most of their weight transfer is through their heels.
Pandiculation: Master effective management techniques
Using the process of pandiculation helps to gently and effectively release stress postures that have been created from their stress response. From my previous article on Pandiculation (Click here to read)
You will notice that by practicing this natural, innate movement process, you are accessing the sensory and motor portions of your brain. When you wake these areas up and break the immobilized effects of stress, trauma, and poor habits created in your neuromuscular system, you can re-introduce efficient muscle memory. Remember, if you can sense and feel it, you can move it. So, to wake up the sensory and motor regions of your brain with pandiculation, you are improving the practice of sensing, feeling, and creating efficient, natural movement.
To experience Pandiculation firsthand, click here to receive a free gift. It is a 33-minute Pandiculation & Clinical Somatic Movement session with me. Notice my cues and how gently you are working to release chronically tight muscles. Discover the Power of Pandiculation with this movement sequence.
Heidi Hadley, Certified Clinical Somatic Educator
Heidi Hadley is a Certified Clinical Somatic Educator & Somatic Movement teacher. She started her career in mainstream medicine in the field of Neurophysiology. In 2001, Heidi started her private clinical practice in health, wellbeing & movement. She is the founder & creator of Total Somatics International®, an online membership designed to reduce pain, improve posture, increase mobility, develop mindfulness and allow you to resume or continue with the activities you love to do. She is the presenter of the podcast, Somatic Movement & Mindset. Delving into the fields of neuroscience, pain, mindset, mindfulness, habits and how to use your brain and body to create lasting healthy changes.
