The Real Work of Nervous System Healing (And How to Begin)

Dec 10

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Healing your nervous system isn’t just about learning regulation techniques.

Sure, practices like breathwork and other somatic practices can help you feel calmer in the moment and definitely play a part in creating more capacity in the long term.

But true lasting healing requires more—an intentional journey into the core of your inner world.

If we don’t address the wounds, triggers, and patterns that stem from our past, they’ll continue running the show, activating our nervous system and influencing our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Regulation techniques are valuable, but they often serve as symptom management rather than addressing the root cause of dysregulation.

The invitation here is to shift from managing symptoms to uncovering the source of your struggles—to understand why you feel dysregulated, why you keep falling into the same patterns, and why certain situations trigger you.

Many of us start our inner work journey by reading books, journaling, or meditating. These tools are powerful, but there’s only so much we can uncover on our own. The truth is, we don’t know what we don’t know.

We all have blind spots—parts of ourselves we’ve suppressed or hidden, often without realizing it. These shadow aspects hold the keys to our deepest healing, but we can’t access them through sheer conscious awareness alone.

Think of your psyche as a vast castle. For much of your life, you may have believed you were confined to one room. Over time, you start to notice doors leading to other rooms, and even a dark basement you’ve avoided exploring. This is where the deeper work begins—opening those doors, shining a light into the shadows, and discovering the parts of yourself you’ve long ignored or forgotten.

To truly heal, we need tools and experiences that go beyond the conscious mind—tools that help us access the unconscious layers where old wounds and patterns reside.

Here are some powerful ways to explore these depths:

1. Working with a Somatic Guide or Therapist

A skilled somatic therapist or guide can help you navigate your blind spots and provide a safe space to explore the parts of yourself you might resist facing alone. Plus, since our woundings mostly happened in relationships, healing also needs to happen in connection with others.

I highly recommend working with someone trained in Somatic Experiencing, Somatic IFS, NARM or Hakomi.

2. Altered States of Consciousness

Dreams offer a window into your unconscious mind. By analyzing your dreams, you can uncover symbols and messages that reveal hidden aspects of yourself. (For more, check out Inner Work by Robert Johnson.)
Transformational Breathwork sessions using conscious connected breathing can help you access expanded states of awareness that enable the surfacing of suppressed memories or emotions, providing an opportunity for integration and healing.
In the right context and with proper therapeutic support, plant medicines and psychedelics can offer profound insights and healing by helping you access suppressed parts of your psyche and process unresolved trauma.

Ultimately, the purpose of this deeper work is integration. It’s about bringing the suppressed and rejected parts of yourself into the light of consciousness. Instead of rejecting these parts, you learn to understand, accept, and even love them.

This integration creates a sense of wholeness, leading to profound nervous system regulation and inner peace.

Real healing is not a quick fix or a one-size-fits-all process. It’s a brave, ongoing journey into the depths of who you are. And it’s absolutely worth it.

Are You Ready to Go Deeper?

This Sunday, I’m hosting our monthly deep dive transformational breathwork session designed to help you access these deeper layers of your inner world. Through intentional breathwork, you’ll connect with your unconscious mind, explore suppressed emotions, and take a powerful step toward integration and healing.

So if you’re ready to take this next step in your healing journey, reserve your spot here.

Let’s dive deep together and create the space for profound transformation.

👀 Recommended Resources 👀

📖 Book

Our Polyvagal World - How Safety and Trauma Change Us by Stephen Porges

If you’re looking for an introductory read on all things nervous system and trauma, I highly recommend this one. The book explains how the Polyvagal Theory reveals the nervous system's role in shaping our responses to safety, connection, and trauma. It highlights the biological basis of emotional regulation and offers insights for fostering resilience and healing in relationships and personal well-being.

📄 Study

The Power of Deep Rest and Regulated Breathing

Contemplative practices like meditation and yoga induce a restorative state called "deep rest," which helps the body recover from chronic stress by shifting it from threat arousal to parasympathetic dominance. This state conserves energy for cellular repair and enhances overall health by improving nervous system function, emotional regulation, and mitochondrial optimization. These practices not only reduce stress but also support deeper restoration, similar to the benefits of high-quality sleep.

“The most empirically supported way that contemplative practices confer their psychological and physiological benefits is by lowering threat arousal through shifting the autonomic nervous system to parasympathetic dominance via slowed and/or regulated breathing.”

Here is also a great little summary by a fellow breathing collegue.

🎧 Podcast

How to Process Emotions and Fully Heal

Dr. Tataryn is a long-time meditator (47+ years) and founder of the Bio-Emotive Framework. I’ve been following his work for several years and love his embodied approach to emotional processing. Definitely worth a listen.

🎥 Video

Bringing IFS + Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness Together

As you might know, I’m a big fan of parts work and integrate into my work with clients a lot. I have also gone through David Treleaven’s Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness training and am stoked to see the two modalities being combined.

This is a great little workshop exploring the integration of IFS and Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness (TSM) as complementary practices for healing and personal growth. It provides practical strategies for professionals working in mindfulness, therapy, and trauma-informed care.

🖊️ Article

What to Do When You Feel Anxious During Breathwork and Mindfulness Practices

Even though meditation and Breathwork are meant to help people regulate and relax, for some people who struggle with anxiety and hyper-arousal, this isn’t so easy. In this resource, I dive into the reasons behind this and what to do about it.

🌬️ Breathe With Me Live 🌬️

Breathwork for Emotional Release + Integration

Breathwork Alchemy's monthly/bi-monthly powerful signature deep dive session.

Date: Sunday December 15th
Time: 6pm CET Berlin / 5pm GMT London / 12pm EST New York
Where: Online via Zoom

Transformational Breathwork is an active meditation using conscious connected breathing. It is designed to:

release stress, tension and held emotion
improve mental clarity & focus
connect you to your inner wisdom, creativity & awareness
help repattern your nervous system and mind by completing emotional stress cycles to return back to homeostasis for increased self-regulation

So let's get together to heal, feel and release using the power of the breath.

In order to make these offerings as accessible as possible, I am offering sliding scale pricing for this session, so you can choose how much you can pay based on your financial resources.

👉 Register here!

🪐 What's Happening in My Universe 🪐

🌗 I've been diving deep into Dream Work and had a dream of mine interpreted by an absolute genius in the field. Mind-blowing.
📱 I recently jumped into Threads and am very active over there every day. The vibes are really wonderful and I've been connecting to some wonderful people. Come and join me!
I'm looking for some great fiction reads for the holidays - any recommendations? Hit reply and share!

Hi from Toni and I

Spent a long weekend with my family at Lake Achen in Austria recently. Epic!

I'm always curious to hear what you think about the ideas and resources I share with you in these letters. Do let me know what resonates and what you would like to see more of!

Keep breathing, keep feeling, stay awesome!

Conni. 🐋

PS:

Ready to finally get serious about a daily breathwork practice and regulating your nervous system? Get my course.