Your Body Can Feel Safe Again When You Learn To Notice Bracing

Your jaw clenches, your shoulders climb, your belly stays tight, and even on a “good day,” you can’t fully relax. That isn’t a weakness. It’s bracing, and it’s often your nervous system trying to protect you long after the original stress has passed.  

In this episode, we start by breaking down what bracing is in somatic terms and why it shows up beyond the classic fight-or-flight response. We talk about the freeze response as trapped survival energy, why settling can sometimes bring a rush of sensation, and how titration helps you go slowly enough to stay with your body. 

If you’ve ever tried to relax and felt worse, this is a gentle reframe: nothing is wrong with you, and you don’t have to force change.  

Then we move into a guided somatic healing session using a 222 Hz tuning fork in the energetic field, paired with breathwork and a head-to-toe body scan. We spend time around the crown and forehead, where hypervigilance often lives, then track down through the jaw, throat, heart, diaphragm, belly, pelvis, pelvic floor, legs, and feet. 

You’ll get cues for grounding, softening, making sound on the exhale, and letting your body release in small, honest increments.  

If this practice helps you feel even 1% more spacious, share it with someone who’s been living in survival mode, and subscribe so you don’t miss the next healing session. After you listen, leave a review and tell us where you noticed bracing most in your body.

Sign up for my free course, Nervous System Embodiment for Real Life. https://leahmcquade.com/resources/

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Want 1:1 support? Book a virtual Sacred Somatic and Intuitive Healing Session here: https://leahmcquade.com/sacred-somatic-intuitive-healing/

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Transcript

Welcome And Settle In

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Somatic Self-Healers Podcast. This is a space for people who are tired of living in survival mode and are ready to start feeling safe in their body again. I'm your host, Liam McQuaid, and here we don't just talk about nervous system healing. We experience what it actually looks, what it feels like to come back to yourself in real life. Through somatic practices, breath work, and guided energetic healing sessions using sound. These episodes are designed to support you in shifting out of survival mode and into a deeper sense of presence, connection, and aliveness. So wherever you are, take a moment. Let this be a place you can soften and slow down. Take a nice big deep breath in. Settle in and let's begin. Hi and welcome to Somatic Self-Healers. I'm so excited that you're here. And if you're noticing some tension, some tightness, some bracing in your body, maybe you're holding and not even realizing it, this episode is for you. So this doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. This protection that your body is doing is helping you. It's protecting you. And so we're gonna explore today what this bracing is, why it happens beyond just the fight or flight response. And then I want to offer you an experience of giving your body some space to listen, to soften in its own way. So we'll start with just a few more minutes of education and teaching about the nervous system and somatics. And then we'll drop into our healing session. And today I'm gonna use the 222 hertz fork, tuning fork, in your energetic field, and we'll do a body scan, a full body scan from head to toe, just dropping in, listening. And we'll be here for about 30 to 45 minutes together, just so you kind of have an idea of what to expect and what you're getting yourself into here. So bracing, bracing is stored stress. So our body prepares for something to happen in a bracing position. So even if we notice that nothing is happening, like maybe you are in your car or in your bed or on your couch, somewhere that you notice you're safe, right? So even though you're safe in this moment, there's a part of you that's still bracing and holding onto something, stressors, traumas, something in your body is still holding, right? And so what we're gonna just talk about today and continue to work here today is how can you begin to uh notice this bracing and this constriction in your body? You might notice it in your jaw, your shoulders kind of coming up to your ears and tightening. We hold a lot in our traps. Your stomach might be clenched or tight. So there's this subtle holding that can happen. It may not be obvious. And oftentimes when we first settle our system, uh, and if we're we've if we're holding a lot, that first little bit of letting go and settling, lots can come flooding to the surface. So if that's you, and the moment you kind of have a few minutes and you drop it in and you get flooded with a lot of sensation, know that you get to go slowly and gently. You get to titrate or go into this process slowly taking small steps, right? And the thing that I also want to mention about bracing, right, is that it's not just a fight or flight response. So that makes sense when we're running or fighting a threat. But the freeze response is also fight or flight energy, but it's not as mobile, right? Because that fight or flight energy is there in the freeze response, but it can't mobilize, right? Because the point of the fight, the the point of the freeze response is to pause us and stop us from moving. Because if we fight or if we go into a flea response, that's not going to be helpful. And essentially we might die, right? So our body is protecting us by stopping the fight or flight energy in our body and freezing it. Yeah. Uh yeah, so that internal constriction, that body holding still to keep us safe. It's still that holding to keep us safe. It's just less of a mobilization. So the first step in this process is really just to notice, right? Not fixing or chasing or uh trying to change. We're really just creating a container, which we do here in Somatic Self-Healers, to help you just begin to notice. Because noticing is the first step in this process. It's not about pushing, it's really about giving yourself a little bit of spaciousness to drop in and just notice what's there. Because if we want to complete some of these patterns that our body is holding, we need to first notice and then be an acceptance of what we might be carrying. It's like having a lot of tabs open on the computer. So we start to notice and accept, and then we can start to close out some of these tabs that are open on the computer because if there's a lot of tabs open, the computer is going to be really wonky, it's not going to run as efficiently. Right? And so that's what I offer today in our healing session is an opportunity to just notice what you notice about your body and start to open up to acceptance and possibly, maybe not fully today, but possibly closing out some of those tabs, those stress tabs that are open, and you can complete the stress response. So taking a moment, settling into where you are, maybe you flutter your lips, maybe you roll your shoulders, just arriving how you are, sighing it out, maybe tapping your body, tapping your belly, your chest, your arms, cup your hands. Maybe your kidneys and adrenals, give them a little pat, your low back. Your body just a little bit of love, some release, some discharge, anything that's sitting on the top. Gets to be released, gets to let go. A few more sighs. And when you're ready, I'm just gonna grab the fork here. We'll go ahead and begin our healing session. So take a moment, look around your space. Connecting with something in your space that feels safe, something that feels grounding. I always like to look out my window at the oak tree. Maybe just moving your head side to side, letting whatever's underneath you support you. And then we're gonna start with the crown of the head and just begin to slowly and gently without forcing or rushing. Just letting your awareness drift to right above your head. This is the energetic center where we have relationship to time. There might be a good chance that your mind's telling you all the things you should be doing besides pausing, relaxing your body, doing these practices, this down regulation. And if that's the case, just take a nice big deep breath. Ah, sigh it out, let it go. Maybe you have a little bit more wiggles or shakes or release in you to help you. Just soften here, do that. You're worth taking this time. Then we'll scan from the top of the head. You're just noticing what you notice. The top of the head. Maybe you notice your hair. Your scalp. Moving now with your awareness, just noticing what you notice about your forehead, the back of your head. Maybe you can allow your head if you're in a space, to allow your head to soften back and be held. Maybe you place your head on your hands, just using your hands as support. We'll pause right here at the space between the third eye and the crown. Sending some harmonizing tones with the tuning fork here. This is where I've found in this work that our hypervigilance can live. So it's that state of the nervous system that is always scanning for threat. I find in myself that I create problems or don't really create problems, but I think of problems before they're actually problems. It's kind of how my hypervigilance comes through. So in this work, you'll hear me breathing a lot. That's how I move the energy. And so I invite you, if I take that nice big deep, it inhale and exhale. With that sigh, I invite you to do the same thing. Just pausing and noticing that space right there between the crown and the third eye. So right there at the forehead, just noticing what you notice. Bringing some coherent sound, some settling to that hypervigilance, that scanning the environment for threat or that part of us is on a lot. So if we have that as our system, in our system, part of our nervous system can be on a lot. So a few more rounds here of sleding the sound of the fork bring some coherence. Some settling, some okayness. The hypervigilance in the mind. Once again, you might settle the head, rest it even more. We'll start to scan down to that third eye. That space between the eyebrows. That occipital lobe. So you might find that ridge in the back of your head. Give it a little squeeze. So just rub your hand, run your hand down the back of your head. And when you find that ridge where the brain meant meets the brain stem, you might give that a little squeeze. We'll start to scan down the nose. Continuing down the neck. The high part of the neck there. Down the chin, the jaw. Just noticing what you notice, and we'll pause here as you catch up. Maybe your jaw needs to soften. Maybe you do one of those numbers, right? Where you release your jaw. Maybe a a yawn. Ah, stretch open. Ah your mouth. And then moving now to the throat. And you're just noticing what you notice. Seeing if your body would like some support. Moving down to the upper back. That space where the throat and the heart meet. This can be also another really beautiful place to begin to soften. Maybe your shoulder blades pull gently away from the ears and melt down your back. Moving right there to your heart. Hello, heart. Just noticing what you notice about your mid back. The low heart space, the sternum. Moving now to the diaphragm, a lot of us can carry lots of tension in our diaphragm. Oftentimes when we've had that fear response, the right, our diaphragm sucks in. So I'm just encouraging you here to breathe into the diaphragm. Let your breath be rhythmic. And really expand the diaphragm and the rib cage out wide. So east and west. Always encouraging you to make some sound. Right above the belly button. Notice if your belly is tight or clenched. And breathe down into that belly. Allow the belly to rise and fall. Noticing the back of the body as well. Part of the belly button, the small intestines, the pelvis, the hips. Once again, just noticing what you notice about your body. By your low back, your hips, your pelvis. And remembering that numbness is still a sensation. So a lot of us can hold some numbness in this part of our body. That's it. Just breathe full deep inhales and exhales. We'll keep going now to the first chakra. The tailbone. So you might just imagine that breath goes into the tailbone. Staying with any sensations in your body, although we're doing a body scan and we're at that tailbone. If other parts of your body are speaking and they are asking for support, maybe some movement. Maybe just allowing your space to be more comfortable. That's totally fine. Just noticing what you notice and inviting in a little bit more softening into your body. Maybe just one percent or five percent. Maybe you unclench the pelvic floor. Relaxing it, soften, softening it. And then moving now down your legs. Going at your own pace, your own breath, your own rhythm. Noticing what you notice about your upper thighs, your hamstrings, your knees. Scanning down your shins and your calves. Just gathering some information, not because you need to fix how you are, but just staying curious about how your body is showing up in this moment. Scanning your feet. Each one of your toes one at a time. Maybe you notice the arch of your feet. Good. And I'm gonna let you do that scan if you would like one more time of your whole body while I just stay in the energetic field with the tuning fork. Just noticing any subtle shifts in your body, in your tension or tightness or bracing. That's it. About another minute here, going as slow as you would like. However, you are staying curious, noticing inviting in a completion of whatever you might be carrying and holding. That can come in the form of ah that exhale that softens the shoulders a little more. That could come in that brief moment of the belly unclenching the pelvic floor softening the butt cheeks spreading. Ah sigh that allows the whole body to press into the support underneath you.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

That's it.

Closing Support And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Just a few more strikes of the fork here, taking a moment to let the fork the sound of it, the vibration. Let it just wash over you from head to toe. And if you've got the space and the time to keep dropping in to yourself, building that relationship, that connection, that inner listening. Feel free and know I'll be back. I update this every two weeks for right now. Maybe I'll do more down the road right now. Every two weeks, we'll do a new topic, a new healing session. So stay tuned and sending you so much love. Take care. Thank you for being here with me today. And if something in this episode resonated, don't feel like you have to change anything right away. Or at all. Just take a moment, notice what landed, what's alive for you and your body. Let that be enough for right now. And if your body is asking to go deeper, I would love if you checked out my free online program Nervous System Embodiment for real life. You can find that in the show notes. In this course, you'll learn how to regulate the nervous system, release towards survival energy, and build a foundation for embodied living. And if you want one-on-one support or you want to join my somatic self-healers community, you can find all of that in the show notes as well. Until next time, my friends, take care of yourself gently and gracefully.