@stef_ganong
Like many people with chronic illness, I really suffered from health anxiety. It was so easy to set me off and so hard to bring me back to logic once I’d already started spiraling. When we are in a heightened emotional state (fear) the logic center in the brain shuts off. This is so we react out of survival, instead of wasting time thinking. From a survival standpoint, it’s brilliant. From a modern day, overstimulated, hyperaroused nervous system standpoint, it gets old. I remember arguing with my husband that I knew it didn’t seem logical, but it felt like such a real fear to me. Whether it was a tumor, a blood clot, a heart attack. The symptom felt real enough to trigger an emergent response in my body, and even if my brain knew it wasn’t likely, it didn’t matter. My nervous system had been conditioned to feel like I was always in danger. It wasn’t only things around me (environment, food, people) that set it off, it was also my own symptoms that would set it off. I know what it’s like. And I also know the way out of it. Reprogramming the nervous system to switch back into rest & digest, while addressing the subconscious triggers is what got me out of being stuck in fight/flight/freeze. In the moment, I would use these: Sour candies (think warheads), deep breathing exercises (in for 4, out for 8), and blocking my sternum and diaphragm, it helps me focus my breath. You want to do things that get you out of your mind and into your body. You need to feel grounded. And yes- hugs and weighted blankets help too! My waitlist for “Fearless Freedom Formula” is open for 4 more days! If you’re ready to leave anxiety behind and change your life, sign up in my bio!
☀️Discomfort isn’t fatal. ☀️Maybe that sounds obvious, but most of us go way out of our way to avoid any type of discomfort. ☀️For some reason, we believe that if things are going well, our life will be comfortable. And if there is discomfort, that means something is wrong. And this is not the case. ☀️Discomfort is part of the experience of being human. Sure, it can be unpleasant, but it doesn’t mean there is something to fear. It doesn’t mean we should arrange our lives around avoiding it. ☀️ Discomfort is not fatal. It is part of life, and an essential part of growth. If we stayed comfy all the time then we would never be pushed to grow or become better. Discomfort is a tool that we can use. ☀️So if you want your life to change, get comfy with being uncomfortable! ☀️ My waitlist for “Fearless Freedom Formula” is open for 5 more days! If you’re ready to leave anxiety behind and change your life, sign up in my bio!
🌷Your subconscious mind does not want you to change. It won’t respond to reason, it has made its mind up and will do everything in its power to prove itself right over and over. 🌷This means that if it is convinced that going out in public is unsafe, the hyper vigilance will allow panic attacks to be easily triggered in order to remind you that you shouldn’t be in public, it is unsafe. 🌷The way through this is by making and keeping small daily promises to yourself in order to build trust. If your subconscious says it’s unsafe to be in public and threatens with a panic attack, you find a safe way to be in public for a short period of time, reminding yourself that you’re safe. As often as it takes. 🌷With driving, this required me to take small steps. Sit in the car until it felt safe. Then drive around the block. Then drive into town, but take back roads that were less crowded. Small, intentional steps to prove that I am safe, and that my subconscious can trust my judgment. Listening to and singing my favorite music (LOUDLY) really helped regulate my nervousness. 🌷Consistency will help you regain trust with your subconscious mind and will make it easier to make changes in the future. It just needs to realize it’s not right. 🌷 I’m not special. If it’s possible for me, it’s possible for you too. Send me a message or go to my bio and sign up for my waiting list for “Fearless Freedom Formula” if you’re ready to change your own life this same way!
🌷Every time that you listen to the fear and do what it wants, you reinforce what it already thinks it knows.
🌼Anyone with a history of chronic illness knows exactly what I’m talking about. We start off with scary and unexplained symptoms, and then get another spike of fear as we face life with a disease that has a name. 🌼We are told to eliminate gluten. Dairy. Nightshades. Do an elimination diet. Buy a new device. Take more supplements. 🌼We start viewing our body as broken, that we need to fix it. Our nervous system is getting the message over and over again that symptoms are a threat, gluten is a threat, dairy is a threat, nightshades are a threat. We end up with a big list of threats for our subconscious to be watching out for. Its main job is survival, after all. 🌼So then you subconsciously make an enemy out of what you’ve eliminated. Your system stays ramped up in search of these threats day and night. Sleep issues start, symptoms increase, so we start looking for “what else?” Add them to the threat list! 🌼I am not saying that these things aren’t harmful, of course they can be- I’m saying that living in fear of them is often creating more problems than they are! Every time we add something else to this list of things to fear, we amplify the hyper-vigilance and before we know it, we are living in a world of fear. Everything is dangerous. Everything is out to get us. And the symptoms just continue to amplify and evolve. 🌼Our subconscious is convinced that our life is in danger 24/7 and we start this incredibly harmful cycle of chronic stress and fear. I am guilty of falling prey to this too, but I have learned so much from my mistakes! 🌼Focusing on what we fear makes our nervous system react in bigger and bigger ways. The way out is finding those triggers and rewiring the brain around it! 🌼 Learn how to do this and more in my new course “Fearless Freedom Formula”! Waitlist is in my bio- Sign up to get a discount on the first round to go through!
☀️Changing nothing changes nothing. ☀️Maybe it sounds simple, but is it? I mean, it is estimated that 95% of our decisions are subconscious, meaning that they are automatic. ☀️That means that we only have conscious control over 5% of the choices that we make daily. So we are essentially automated computers walking around, making the same choices, having the same thoughts, and doing the same things day after day. Those thoughts, patterns, and choices are wired deeply into our brain, because we have made them so often. ☀️The science of neuroplasticity refers to bringing some of those thoughts to your conscious mind, so that they can be changed. Because you can’t change what you don’t know is there. ☀️So back to your life- if you are running the same programs every day, then you are set up to live the same day over and over again, with very minor changes. Is that your dream? Does that light you up with joy? ☀️If not, then the way out of the automation is to make changes! Do something different. Can be something big or something small. Pick up a new hobby, take a different route to the store, choose a different coffee shop, or read on the porch instead of in bed. Every change you make begins to wire new pathways in the brain. ☀️So if you want your life to change, do something different! ☀️If you’re ready to reclaim your joy and live life on your own terms, join the waitlist for my “Fearless Freedom Formula” course and unlock the power of regulating your nervous system, eliminating triggers, and finding true fulfillment and joy!
.
.
.
audio: @leaandriola
🌻Anxiety and excitement feel exactly the same in your body. 🌻The same sensations show up in the body for each of those emotions. The difference is how we are interpreting the sensations. 🌻When we start living more in a state of fear and begin to program the nervous system to be hyper aroused, then it becomes easier and easier to mistake excitement for fear. 🌻This causes you to focus more on fear and lose the fun that comes with excitement. 🌻If this is something you struggle with, you can begin reprogramming these responses. 🌻It may seem silly to talk to yourself, but you have to remember, your brain is getting input from everything around you. It should be getting input from you too! 🌻Learn how to do this and more in my new course “Fearless Freedom Formula”- Waitlist is in my bio- Sign up to get a discount on the first round to go through!
1. are you safe? If so, you can tell yourself you are excited and not anxious.
2. Smile and laugh to help convince the subconscious. Fake laughing releases the same endorphins as real laughter.
3. Even if you need to smile through saying to yourself “I am excited. This is uncomfortable, but I am safe. This is what excitement feels like!” I do this often, and it sounds simple, but with time, it becomes easier to believe.
👏🏼For real though, I used to get panic attacks on the regular. I had trained my subconscious to fear everything, and the more I feared, the less I did, which reinforced the fear in my mind. 👏🏼Grocery stores have always been a trigger for me since this part of my journey started. I remember having a massive panic attack out of the blue in Costco and it was traumatizing. 👏🏼Anxiety comes from a combination of fear and powerlessness. So what is making you fearful, and like you have no power? 👏🏼Standing in lines, being in crowds… these used to be instant triggers for me. And now, since I’ve done nervous system regulation and brain retraining, I no longer get them. 👏🏼Just last week I went to my first concert in 18 years and had an amazing time! Crowds, lines, fragrances, LED lights, and not a single moment of panic. 👏🏼So what can help in the moment? My favorites are: Sour candies (think warheads), deep breathing exercises (in for 4, out for 8), and blocking my sternum (@blocktherapy) and diaphragm, it helps me focus my breath. Even something as simple as scratching up and down your forearm over and over. You want to do things that get you out of your mind and into your body. You need to feel grounded. 👏🏼I’m not special. If it’s possible for me, it’s possible for you too. Send me a message or go to my site and sign up for my waiting list if you’re ready to change your own life this same way!
🌿Maybe our bodies aren’t broken. 🌿Maybe they don’t need endless treatments and supplements and protocols. 🌿Maybe they are doing what they need to do and we are the ones interpreting it wrong. 🌿Maybe our symptoms are messages and not something to fear. 🌿Maybe we are getting in the way instead of helping it along. 🌿Maybe our bodies need our trust instead of our criticism. 🌿All I know is that once I learned to trust and surrender, things began to calm down. Clear up. Make sense. And I want to help you find the same peace in surrender 🌿follow along to learn more about how to listen to what your body is saying!
Being symptom free was my end goal. I was holding off on living my life because I still had symptoms. “I can’t go, I don’t feel well.” “Sorry, I can’t, I might have a panic attack.” “I’m too anxious, I’m sorry, maybe next time.” Why did I think my life was not worth living if I didn’t feel perfect? Most people don’t feel perfect. I had set this impossible standard for myself based out of perfectionism. Because of this, I passed on events, get together, game nights, and days out. I said “no” way more than I said “yes”. And I missed days. And then weeks. And then years of my life. I was causing myself to miss my own life because I didn’t see myself worthy of living it if I didn’t feel amazing. And then I’d end the day full of regret for not being the mom, wife, friend, and person that I desperately wanted to be. You can’t change the symptoms and stay the same person. You have to change the person to change the symptoms. I can show you how, and it all starts with awareness. You can’t change what you aren’t aware of. Learn how to do this and more in my new course “Fearless Freedom Formula”- Waitlist is in my bio- Sign up to get a discount on the first round to go through!
🌻My nervous system used to be so hyper vigilant that the thought of doing anything new would have sent me into a panic spiral. I avoided going inside stores as much as possible and hardly left my house. 🌻You see, our subconscious wants to keep us alive. Thats its only job. So once it has been shown that things are unsafe, it will cause discomfort in your body (like anxiety and panic attacks) to reinforce its stance that these things you are doing are indeed not safe. Even if it’s just going to a store. Because it’s not something we do often, all the subconscious sees is new=danger. 🌻In order to get to the other side of this, we have to take the position of showing our subconscious that these things are safe, and that it is mistaken. 🌻I used to not be able to drive at all without having panic attacks. Then when I started driving again, I would have panic attacks at a certain bridge and would have to plan my route with extra time so I could go out of my way to avoid it. 🌻It took a lot of intentional practice of me actually making the drive over that bridge before my body calmed down and decided it wasn’t a big deal anymore. And sometimes it still tries to creep back up! But brain retraining and nervous system regulation gave me my life back. 🌻Waitlist for the Fearless Freedom Formula is in my bio! Sign up to get a discount on the first round to go through!
🪷Healing means feeling. 🪷We don’t like to feel uncomfortable things. Honestly, most of us are in the habit of shoving them deep down without even acknowledging them. 🪷But when feelings and emotions are left unprocessed, they build up in the body, causing tension, illness, and dysfunction. 🪷But here’s the thing. The best way through whatever you’re going through- it’s straight through it. Not backtracking, not going around, not pretending like it’s not happening. 🪷Feel the grief, the pain, and the discomfort. Breathe through it. Move through it. Dance through it. Process it. Take your time. Repeat as necessary, sometimes it will take weeks or months, but it will move. And then when it’s ready, let it go.
👉🏼You can’t control other people. You can’t make them like you. You can’t make them act the way you want. You can’t make them want to grow or change or heal. 👉🏼You can’t control the external circ*mstances of your life. You can’t control illnesses or injuries or symptoms. You can’t change the past and you can’t predict the future. 👉🏼So what can we control? Our thoughts. Our perceptions. Our growth. Our decisions. Everything else, let it go. We aren’t controlling it, and the continual attempt is keeping us in fight/flight/freeze because our subconscious feels like it’s unsafe. 👉🏼 This is what I do. I guide you in developing awareness of your emotions, fears, and perceptions. I highlight areas where you may be feeling stuck or overlooking important behavioral patterns. 👉🏼I support you in recognizing self-sabotage and help you in uncovering the lies you’ve embraced as truths. And I help you rediscover the joy of simply living, regardless of chronic symptoms. These subconscious beliefs may be holding you back from living the life you truly desire! 👉🏼My waitlist for “Fearless Freedom Formula” is now open! If you’ve been feeling like you need to make a change and rediscover joy, then this is for you! Link is in my profile!
🌺We all have a window of tolerance, where we are essentially in our comfort zone and know what to expect, and therefore know how our body and nervous system will react. 🌺When pushed outside of our window of tolerance, that is when we experience symptoms of discomfort, whether they are anxiety, panic attacks, disassociating, etc. 🌺So what do we do? Obviously, we try to stay in our window of tolerance. This helps us to become predictable, safe, and small. However, it doesn’t stop here. 🌺Constantly staying in our window of tolerance often keeps shrinking our window so we can tolerate less and less. We end up in a prison of our own making. A tiny cell, which we cannot leave, or we will suffer the punishment of nervous system hyper arousal. 🌺What is the solution to this? At the risk of oversimplifying because I only have so much space- pushing our comfort zones. Expanding our window of tolerance. Getting comfy with being uncomfy! It builds resilience, which is the goal. 🌺Learn how to do this and more in my new course “Fearless Freedom Formula”! Waitlist is in my bio- Sign up to get a discount on the first round to go through!
👉🏼You can’t control other people. You can’t make them like you. You can’t make them act the way you want. You can’t make them want to grow or change or heal. 👉🏼You can’t control the external circ*mstances of your life. You can’t control illnesses or injuries or symptoms. You can’t change the past and you can’t predict the future. 👉🏼So what can we control? Our thoughts. Our perceptions. Our growth. Our decisions. Everything else, let it go. We aren’t controlling it, and the continual attempt is keeping us in fight/flight/freeze because our subconscious feels like it’s unsafe. 👉🏼 This is what I do. I guide you in developing awareness of your emotions, fears, and perceptions. I highlight areas where you may be feeling stuck or overlooking important behavioral patterns. 👉🏼I support you in recognizing self-sabotage and help you in uncovering the lies you’ve embraced as truths. And I help you rediscover the joy of simply living, regardless of chronic symptoms. These subconscious beliefs may be holding you back from living the life you truly desire! 👉🏼My waitlist for “Fearless Freedom Formula” is now open! If you’ve been feeling like you need to make a change and rediscover joy, then this is for you! Link is in my profile!
👉🏼When we are having a hard time feeling joy, or imagining the future, this is because our subconscious has been wired to only look for fear. It just wants us to be safe- that is the primary purpose of our subconscious mind… survival. 👉🏼So when we are primed to only see fear and danger, and our nervous system is stuck in fight/flight/freeze, then there is no room for joy. The subconscious won’t allow it. It thinks “we don’t have time for this nonsense, our survival is at stake!” 👉🏼This is why we stop laughing. Stop even finding things amusing. We stop doing things that are fun. And we create a prison of fear in our own minds, and lock ourselves up. Unintentionally, of course. 👉🏼This is why it is so important to learn how to feel joy and have fun WHILE you are still feeling ill. It becomes about proving to your subconscious that it is wrong, and that you are not in danger. It takes time, but it is very possible, and I am proof. 👉🏼Also, my waitlist for “Fearless Freedom Formula” is now open! If you’ve been feeling like you need to make a change, get rid of anxiety and rediscover joy, then this is for you! Link is in my profile!
🌷Your subconscious mind does not want you to change. It won’t respond to reason, it has made its mind up and will do everything in its power to prove itself right over and over. 🌷This means that if it is convinced that going out in public is unsafe, the hyper vigilance will allow panic attacks to be easily triggered in order to remind you that you shouldn’t be in public, it is unsafe. 🌷The way through this is by making and keeping small daily promises to yourself in order to build trust. If your subconscious says it’s unsafe to be in public and threatens with a panic attack, you find a safe way to be in public for a short period of time, reminding yourself that you’re safe. As often as it takes. 🌷Consistency will help you regain trust with your subconscious mind and will make it easier to make changes in the future. It just needs to realize it’s not right.
🌷Every time that you listen to the fear and do what it wants, you reinforce what it already thinks it knows.
🌻My nervous system used to be so hyper vigilant that the thought of doing anything new would have sent me into a panic spiral. 🌻You see, our subconscious wants to keep us alive. Thats its only job. So once it has been shown that things are unsafe, it will cause discomfort in your body (like anxiety and panic attacks) to reinforce its stance that these things you are doing are indeed not safe. Even if it’s just going to a new grocery store. All the subconscious sees is new=danger. 🌻In order to get to the other side of this, we have to take the position of showing our subconscious that these things are safe, and that it is mistaken. 🌻I used to not be able to drive at all without having panic attacks. Then when I started driving again, I would have panic attacks at a certain bridge and would have to plan my route with extra time so I could go out of my way to avoid it. 🌻It took a lot of intentional practice of me actually making the drive over that bridge before my body calmed down and decided it wasn’t a big deal anymore. And sometimes it still tries to creep back up! But brain retraining and nervous system regulation gave me my life back. 🌻Waitlist for the Fearless Freedom Formula is in my bio! Sign up to get a discount on the first round to go through!
🪻The journey of overcoming a chronic illness is exhausting. I went from doctor to doctor, practitioner to practitioner. Supplement to supplement and modality to modality. I spent so much time chasing the next “thing” that would help. 🪻It happened one day at a time, and then all at once. I suddenly realized that nothing I was doing was making a lasting impact. Sure, some of the stuff was helping maintain me where I was. But where was the healing? Where was the actual progress? Was there an end to the road of neverending treatments? 🪻I realized that maybe my journey was less about racing to the “finish line” (or some arbitrary goal of perfection, meaning having zero symptoms) and more about surrendering to where I was and learning how to live in the Now. 🪻I realized I spent so much time putting things off because of how I felt, or planning things around flares, and eventually I didn’t feel good enough to do anything. I stopped enjoying every day that I was gifted. I let the symptoms control my mood and emotions and even time spent with family. 🪻And then the biggest realization of all hit me- I was the one in control of my day. I could choose to play a game even if I didn’t feel well. I could choose to laugh or participate, even if I was in pain. I was the one choosing to let my life pass me by. So I made a different choice, and it led me to so much more freedom than I ever expected. 🪻I realized everything would be ok if I continued making different choices than the ones that led me to where I was stuck. It needed to love myself, I needed to stop drowning in shame, and I needed to take an active role in my healing journey instead of sitting around and expecting it to just find me. 🪻if you’re ready to take control of your healing journey, head to the link in my profile where my waiting list for “From Fear to Freedom” is! Sign up to be notified first when the doors open - the first round will be getting a 20%discount code!
🐓We moved to the country because I wanted a slower pace of life. I was starting over with nervous system calming and knew that moving out of the city would help me to regulate. 🐓We got chickens because I was so excited to try mini-homesteading, and farm fresh eggs were the easiest place to start! 🐓I knew having a hobby would help with my brain rewiring by giving me something to do to keep busy, and learn something new! 🐓But four years later, our chickens turned into turkeys, guineas, pigs, emus, lambs, goats, rabbits, dogs, and cats. Whoopsies. 🐓Be careful what hobbies you choose! 🤣 🐓But seriously- find a new hobby and start retraining your brain! I’m not special. If it’s possible for me, it’s possible for you too. Send me a message or go to my site and sign up for my waiting list if you’re ready to change your own life this same way!
Anyone else? 🫣 👏🏼For real though, I used to get panic attacks on the regular. I had trained my subconscious to fear everything, and the more I feared, the less I did, which reinforced the fear in my mind. 👏🏼Grocery stores have always been a trigger for me since this part of my journey started. I remember having a massive panic attack out of the blue in Costco and it was traumatizing. 👏🏼Standing in lines, being in crowds… these used to be instant triggers for me. And now, since I’ve done nervous system regulation and brain retraining, I no longer get them. 👏🏼Just last night I went to my first concert in 15 years and had an amazing time! Crowds, lines, fragrances, LED lights, and not a single moment of panic. 👏🏼I’m not special. If it’s possible for me, it’s possible for you too. Send me a message or go to my site and sign up for my waiting list if you’re ready to change your own life this same way!
Load More Follow on Instagram
