You’re Not Broken – You’re Wired for Survival
- Brainz Magazine
- Jul 22
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 23
Dr. Jennifer Lefebre fuses over 20 years of psychological expertise with her own powerful healing journey, creating an electrifying non-clinical holistic approach to trauma recovery. She’s on a mission to help people rise from trauma and addiction, blending strength, resilience, and holistic practices to ignite lasting transformation.
When we’re triggered by trauma, it’s not our rational, grounded self in control; it’s the body’s automatic survival system. In an instant, our sense of the present disappears. The heart races, muscles tense, and breath becomes shallow. We feel disconnected or overwhelmed, not because we’re overreacting, but because our nervous system still believes we're in danger.
This isn’t a personal failure; it’s a protective strategy, a biological reflex rooted in the body’s deep intelligence.
For trauma survivors, especially those with complex or chronic trauma histories, this system may become dysregulated. The very mechanisms that once kept them safe begin to interfere with their ability to rest, relate, and feel fully alive.
The nervous system’s role in trauma
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulates essential involuntary functions, such as heartbeat, breathing, and digestion. It has two main branches:
The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) prepares the body to mobilize in response to danger; this is the well-known “fight or flight” response.
The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) helps us relax, recover, and restore, known as “rest and digest.”
In healthy functioning, the body shifts fluidly between these states depending on context. This flexibility allows us to engage with life, respond to challenges, and then return to calm. But trauma disrupts this rhythm.
In trauma survivors, the SNS may become chronically overactive, creating symptoms such as hypervigilance, anxiety, digestive problems, and sleep disturbances. Or the PNS may dominate in the form of a shutdown or dissociative response, leading to emotional numbness, fatigue, and disconnection.
Polyvagal Theory expands this understanding, identifying three key states of the nervous system:
Ventral vagal state: Calm, safe, socially engaged
Sympathetic state: Mobilized, anxious, defensive (fight or flight)
Dorsal vagal state: Shut down, numb, withdrawn (freeze or collapse)
The nervous system toggles between these states based on perceived safety. For survivors, trauma responses often activate in the absence of real danger; reflexes that once protected now feel like imprisonment.
Animal metaphors for survival states
To understand these trauma responses more intuitively, we can look to animal behavior:
Fight – Lion: Confronts threats head-on; may present as anger, irritability, or defensiveness.
Flight – Rabbit: Escapes danger; often seen in anxiety, restlessness, or avoidance.
Freeze – Deer: Motionless under pressure; manifests as paralysis, indecision, or overwhelm.
Collapse – Opossum: Plays dead; withdrawal, exhaustion, or depression.
Please & appease – Chameleon: Blends in to stay safe; people-pleasing, fawning, compliance.
Attach & cry for help – Octopus: Seeks safety through connection; clinginess, dependency, or helplessness.
Fool around & fidget – Wiggle worm: Distracts or disrupts; hyperactivity, playfulness, or impulsivity.
These behaviors are not character flaws; they are deeply wired survival strategies. The challenge arises when these states dominate long after the danger has passed.
11 ways to notice your nervous system state
Building awareness is the first step in healing. Here are 11 ways to begin recognizing which state you’re in:
Check your breath. Is it shallow, rapid, held, or flowing easily?
Notice your heart rate. Are you racing, calm, or barely aware of it?
Scan your body. Do you feel tense, frozen, or heavy?
Observe your posture. Are you upright and open, collapsed inward, or rigid and braced?
Listen to your thoughts. Are they racing, absent, obsessive, or curious?
Track your energy. Do you feel hyper-alert, sluggish, detached, or engaged?
Feel your emotions. Are they intense, blunted, scattered, or accessible?
Notice your facial expression. Is your face animated, blank, or tight?
Pay attention to your voice. Is your tone warm and steady, or flat, strained, or loud?
Monitor your social urge. Do you feel like isolating, clinging, or connecting?
Sense your gut. Are you nauseated, clenched, numb, or at ease?
These cues can offer powerful insights into which branch of your nervous system is activated and what it might need.
Healing through mind, body, heart, and soul
Trauma recovery is not simply about recalling or narrating the past; it’s about restoring flexibility to the nervous system and reconnecting to the present moment. This requires an integrated approach:
Mind: Learn the language of the nervous system. Psychoeducation builds awareness and agency.
Body: Engage in somatic therapies, breathwork, yoga, or movement to release survival energy and restore capacity.
Heart: Cultivate relationships that feel safe and supportive. Attachment wounds often require relational repair.
Soul: Express, create, and connect to something greater, whether through art, ritual, spirituality, or meaning-making.
Start here: Begin tracking your nervous system using the 11 cues listed above. Choose one or two moments each day to pause and notice, without judgment, what state you're in. Are you feeling mobilized, collapsed, or connected? Use this information not to fix or control yourself, but to gently attune to what your system is asking for. Maybe you need to move, rest, connect, have quiet, or take a deep breath.
By practicing this kind of compassionate self-check-in regularly, you begin building the internal map that trauma once disrupted. With time, you’ll learn not only how to notice your state but how to shift it, nourish it, and respond from a place of choice instead of survival.
We don’t heal by bypassing our instincts, but by honoring them—and slowly teaching the body that it’s safe to come home again.
Trauma once kept us alive. Healing now helps us fully live.
Read more from Dr. Jennifer Lefebre
Dr. Jennifer Lefebre, Holistic Wellness Coach
Dr. Jennifer Lefebre is a powerhouse of transformation, blending over two decades of expertise in trauma, psychology, and neuroscience with her personal journey of resilience and healing. Through yoga, strength training, and holistic practices, she empowers individuals to reclaim their lives after trauma and addiction. Her work spans from adaptive athletes to survivors of traumatic experiences, all fueled by a deep passion for guiding others toward profound healing. With specialized training in Strength Training, Yoga, Nutrition, Ayurveda, Reiki, and the Expressive Arts, Dr. Jenn offers an innovative, integrative, non-clinical approach that’s as dynamic as the people she works with—transforming lives, one powerful movement at a time.
