What your thoughts reveal about your nervous system

Your thoughts reveal more than you think—are they signaling stress or regulation? Here’s how to decode them and shift toward more ease.

Feb 12, 2025

I’m now over a week into this nervous system regulation experiment (read post 1 here and post 2 here), and something stood out to me recently.

Sarah Baldwin, a somatic practitioner, said that while checking in with your body is crucial to understanding if you feel safe, paying attention to your thoughts is just as important. Our nervous system shapes our thinking, and thoughts can give us better clues about whether we’re feeling regulated or not.

Noticing the Patterns

This got me thinking—what kind of thoughts do I have when I’m dysregulated? She outlined a few common ones, and wow, they hit home. If you’re in a fight or flight state, you might think:

It has to get done now, or it won’t happen.
I can’t take a break—there’s too much to do.
If someone else is upset, I should be too.

On the other hand, a shutdown state (dorsal vagal response) can sound like:

It’s never going to happen for me.
Everything feels impossible, so why try?
I just want to hide and be alone.

And then there’s freeze, a mix of both, where thoughts might be:

I’m falling behind and need to go faster—but I feel stuck.
I want to take action, but it feels impossible.
I know I should respond, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

Shifting into Regulation

The good news? Just like we recognize dysregulation, we can also notice when we feel safe and grounded. Regulated thoughts sound more like:

I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.
Even when things are hard, I know it’s going to be okay.
There’s always enough time.

Just reading those feels like a deep breath, right? I realized today that I’ve had moments of these thoughts, maybe more often than I noticed before. And now that I can name them, I can work on shifting toward them intentionally.

So, here’s my focus: continuing to add small, regulating habits—things that make me feel calm, safe, and supported—before worrying about “fixing” anything. As James Clear says, adding before subtracting helps habits stick.

What about you? Do any of these thought patterns sound familiar? Hit reply and let me know—I’d love to hear your experience!

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