7 Ways to Answer Your Body’s Cry for Care

Skip doing too much, just do the right things (they are simple!)

What you need to know:

Trauma doesn’t just live in the mind—it lives in the body. Even after my inner world began to heal through therapy, my body still whispered (and sometimes shouted) its need for care. I dealt with chronic hives, gum issues, fatigue, and more until I listened to my body and started treating it with tender care. Just like plants we can learn to 'hear' the signs that something is wrong and respond with compassion and in simple ways.

Over the years, I discovered practices that didn’t just talk to my mind—they spoke directly to my body’s language. These are seven ways I’ve learned to answer when my body cries for care.

This post explores:

• How trauma is stored in the body and signs your body may still be holding stress

• Seven effective somatic healing practices for nervous system regulation

• Daily self-care techniques to calm anxiety and release tension

• The mind-body connection in trauma recovery and emotional resilience

• How movement, breath work, and mindful nutrition support long-term healing

• The benefits of creative expression and sensory tools for emotional balance

• Trusted resources and free guides to help you reconnect with your body

1. Somatic Exercises: Completing the Stress Cycle

Somatic movement helps the body finish what stress or trauma started. It bridges the gap between body and mind, complementing talk therapy and other mental health models.

For me, 90 days of intentional somatic work transformed my baseline. My thoughts had already softened through inner work, but my body still carried the old alarms. Slowly, movement became a way to soothe my nervous system until calm felt natural again.

I recommend The Workout Witch (no actual affiliation with witches). Liz Tenuto’s programs are both science-backed and intuitive, offering deep insight into how trauma shows up physically. If you want to learn more about how the body stores trauma and somatic healing her reels on Instagram are super informative @theworkoutwitch_

Supports: Completing fight/flight loops, shifting freeze responses, restoring introspection.

2. Yoga: Rebuilding Safety in Stillness

When my body was already in survival mode intense workouts amped up the signals that things weren't safe. I had to let intense workouts go and learn to move with more intention and care. I have practiced hot yoga for years but had to move into cool and slower yoga flows to help my body start to trust everything was okay.

It’s not about flexibility. It’s about befriending the body you live in.

Supports: Regulating vagal tone, calming hyperarousal, rebuilding body trust.

3. Nutrition: Food as Feedback

My body was missing nutrition it needed to heal itself. Food became more than fuel—it became feedback. Thoughtful, earthy nutrition supported my gut repair, soothed inflammation, and nurtured adrenal recovery after years of stress. I introduced tinctures and adrenal cocktails to help overcome chronic hives and extreme fatigue.

I recommend: Sassy Holistics helped me support my nervous system instead of punishing it. I discovered Sassy Holistics when I was frantically searching for anything that would relieve my chronic hives and swollen joints. Kristin delivered on her promise of empowering people in their own health and wellness. I learned from her histamine intolerance article and The Holistic Nervous System Healing page simple things that I could do to support my system. I also appreciated that she supports doing simple things and not trying to do too much.

Supports: Gut-brain connection, cortisol balance, emotional steadiness.

4. Breath work: Reclaiming Your Breath

During panic or stress, our bodies tense and our breath becomes shallow. This cuts off oxygen to your brain, your prefrontal cortex stops working and your survival instincts kick in. Breath work helped me reclaim the full expansion of my lungs and allow my brain to stay fully online - giving me the ability to self-lead with clear decisions and calm my body. Simply by listening to it instead of fighting it.

I recommend: Leandra Rose of Sovereign Success — her free breath work course is a powerful entry point and she is a Master guide for nervous system reset.

Supports: Parasympathetic activation, releasing stored tension, re-patterning breath rhythms.

5. Gentle Detox: Supporting Your Cells

After doing deep inner work at a PTSD facility and returning to the UK I dealt with chronic hives, gum infection, and fatigue that doctors couldn’t explain. One of my friends and physical therapist recommended Cellcore Biosciences because it's not just detoxing the body - it's supporting healthy cells and immune support. You can't flush out toxins without giving the body the strength to repair the damages that were done.

I recommend: CellCore Biosciences for a natural, whole-body approach to detox and cell strength that rebuilds resilience from the inside out.

Supports: Cellular health, immune function, long-term restoration.

6. Expressive Arts & Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)

The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), created by Dr. Stephen Porges, is a gentle, evidence-based way to help a stressed or trauma-shaped nervous system remember what safety feels like. Using specially filtered music to stimulate the vagus nerve—the body’s pathway for connection and calm—it invites a shift from fight, flight, or shutdown into presence and regulation.

Paired with the Sensory Mosaic of Healing®, an art-based, polyvagal-informed approach by Ana do Valle, the process becomes more than listening. As the music sends signals of safety, painting gives your body a wordless outlet—turning sensations and emotions into shapes, colors, and textures.

Healing unfolds quietly, without force, as your system learns to trust safety again.

In my own five-day journey through SSP and the Sensory Mosaic of Healing®, I painted what I felt while listening to the music—no prompts, no rules. Later, I learned these watercolors mirrored standard visual narratives used to understand nervous system shifts. I could see my own transformation: tension softening, colors brightening, forms opening. It was one of the few therapies where the inside story became visible—a before-and-after I could hold in my hands.

Supports: Vagal tone, embodied presence, relational repair.

7. Tapping: Gentle Re-connection

When panic steals rhythm and stress tightens every muscle, tapping becomes a way to signal safety to the body. It helps reconnect to the present moment.

How to Tap:

1. Name what you’re feeling.

2. Tap key points (cross your chest like a trust fall, or place hands on your thighs).

3. Describe your surroundings out loud—remind yourself you are safe.

4. Repeat while breathing slowly.

Supports: Parasympathetic activation, emotional release, nervous system re-patterning.

Listening to Your Body’s Cry

Pain is not weakness leaving your body - it is your body's cry for help. A signal to respond with tenderness too. Believe me your body will have the final say- so listen when it's a whisper and not a scream.

You don’t need to do all seven of these at once. Just begin with one small act of return.

The Best Place to Begin - the Inside

Before you can calm your body, you have to calm the chaos, trauma, and stress that is on the inside. Download my free Lead Your Inner Team guide to start building self-leadership from the inside out.

💜 Hannah

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