Why Trauma Lives in the Body - And What Your Nervous System Is Trying to Tell You
- Hannah
- Aug 18
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 11
You’re a Plant, not a Project
What you need to know:
Trauma isn’t just emotional—it’s biological. It rewires your brain, floods your body with stress hormones, and reshapes how you experience the world. If you’re living with chronic symptoms that defy explanation, it might not be “all in your head.” It might be your nervous system, still holding onto a story of danger.
This post explores:
How trauma embeds itself in the body (with insight from The Body Keeps the Score)
What chronic symptoms could actually be telling you
Healing is slow - but with intentional acts of compassion and healing it is smooth
Things that helped me heal my body
The Body Keeps the Score—And Mine Was Screaming
Seventeen years into my military career, I sat down with a stack of my own medical records.
And what I saw broke my heart.
From my very first deployment, I had been reporting PTSD. But over time, the symptoms kept multiplying: heartburn, migraines, hormonal irregularities, weight fluctuations. Every new base brought new flare-ups. I kept asking for answers, but the tests all came back the same: “Normal.”
Later, it was panic attacks. SVTs. Insomnia. Even irrational decisions—like spending over £1,000 to ship items overseas because I was terrified, I wouldn’t have what I needed. My body was already bracing before I even left North Carolina, and I couldn't understand it.
When I finally arrived in the UK, everything collapsed. Tremors. Hypervigilance. A 40-day PTSD facility. One SVT episode required two injections to stop and restart my heart. They told me most people black out. I didn’t because I wouldn't let my body's natural response win.
After treatment and a return to the UK, the symptoms evolved: chronic hives. Swollen joints. Fatigue. Mouth ulcers. Again, the tests said: “Normal.” But my body was screaming: “I don’t feel safe.”
Trauma Doesn’t Just Live in Your Mind—It Grows Roots in Your Body
As Bessel van der Kolk writes in The Body Keeps the Score, trauma isn’t just a memory. It’s a biological imprint. It alters your brain’s warning system. It keeps your stress hormones high. It changes how your body senses time, safety, and even pleasure.
Even when the threat is long gone, the body doesn’t know how to stand down.
This isn’t weakness—it’s biology. Survival is the strongest instinct we have.
Healing is Slow: but Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast
The military offered me structure, purpose, protection—but not healing.
Healing came through slowness. There's a saying in special operations - slow is smooth and smooth is fast. The intentional process of slowing down and listening to what is going on; in this case it was the signals that my body was sending, and I was trying to push through.
Here is What Helped me Heal
🩺 A doctor outside the system finally named it: trauma.
🧬A friend introduced me to Cellcore Biosciences. CellCore Biosciences offers a gentle path back to the body’s original intelligence—supporting healing at the root, not just the surface. Using plant-based binders and foundational tools, their approach helps the body release what no longer serves and replenish what it’s been missing. It’s less about quick fixes, and more about remembering how to thrive from the inside out.
🌸 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.
🧘🏽♀️ I ditched the high intensity workouts. Kristin's blog also helped me find Liz - The Workout Witch (no affiliation with witches it is just a name). I let go of intense workouts. Her 90-day somatic exercise program started helped me return to my body through somatic movement. Her motto is to heal in the laziest way possible. She also has an extremely informative Instagram @theworkoutwitch_ to learn more about healing chronic conditions and trauma through somatic movement. I still do weightlifting, Pilates, and yoga. But I don't send my body back into survival mode - both my nervous system and knees thank me for it!
🌻 I continued my work with my trauma therapist, a craniosacral therapist (Jade is in the UK but sets the standard for what you should look for in a craniosacral therapist) and physical therapist who all are trauma and somatic therapy informed.
This sounds like a lot when you look at it on paper. It wasn't, it was slow, intentional and calming and my body began to shift.
Not because I forced it. But because I finally listened.
Becoming a Plant (Not a Project)
I believe there is a reason we start to tend to plants and start sourdough terrariums when we are healing - they all resonate with gentle awareness and nurturing. There is no controlling them with force, only compassion and growth in their own time.
Because healing isn’t a timeline—it’s a turning inward. Plants don’t rush. They don’t “push through.” They respond to conditions. They adapt. They send signals—soft ones—when they need care.
So do we.
And like plants, we don’t heal because we’ve finally earned it. We heal when we’re safe enough to stop performing and start receiving.
What Your Body Might Be Trying to Tell You
If you’re dealing with chronic symptoms—hives, fatigue, panic, inflammation—and nothing explains it...It might be your body asking for safety, not solutions. And it might be time to stop fixing—and start listening.
Thoughts to Ponder:
What is your body trying to tell you—beneath the noise, beneath the “I’m fine”?
If your symptoms were signals instead of problems… what might they be pointing you toward?
Which part of you has been holding it all together—and what would it say if you finally listened?
What would it look like to treat your body not as a machine to fix, but as a garden to tend?
💜 Hannah
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.
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