For a long time, I assumed healing would look quiet.

Gentle releases.
Soft realizations.
Gradual improvement.

Sometimes it did.
But other times, healing was anything but subtle.

There were moments during fascial unwinding and jaw release when my body entered intense activation—shaking, heat, breath arrest, panic, deep sympathetic firing—because my nervous system was finally completing responses it had been unable to finish years earlier.

In those moments, I did not “just listen to my body.”

I had to use my brain.
I had to speak Truth.
I had to anchor consciously so my body could finish what it started.

Leaving this out would misrepresent my healing experience.

When Healing Means Completion, Not Calm

Trauma healing isn’t always about calming down.

Sometimes it’s about completion.

When the sympathetic nervous system has been interrupted by illness, fear, dissociation, or overwhelm, it holds unfinished survival responses (fight/flight/freeze/fawn).⠀When safety increases later, the body may attempt to complete those responses.

That completion can feel intense:

• shaking or trembling
• racing heart
• sweating
• labored breathing
• tight diaphragm
• fear without narrative
• the sensation of imminent danger

These moments are not imagined.
My body had experienced real danger.
Pain.⠀Illness.⠀Loss of control.⠀Unpredictability.

So when those sensations surfaced, my body wasn’t malfunctioning.⠀It needed something strong enough to meet reality.

Why Orientation Matters: Two Kinds of Feedback Loops

Before I can explain what helped, I need to define something clearly.⠀Our nervous systems operate in feedback loops, which are patterns where one response triggers the next.

A negative feedback loop looks like this:

• activation arises
• the body tightens
• breath shortens
• panic increases
• the body interprets this as more danger

Each step amplifies the next.⠀The system escalates.
This loop is common when the body has real memories of threat and no clear orientation back to safety.

A positive feedback loop looks like this:

• activation arises
• orientation via truth is introduced
• breath returns
• the nervous system completes the response
• safety is experienced
• trust increases

Each step reinforces resilience through safety instead of threat.

The system is the same.
The input determines the direction.

Why The Body Alone Was Not Enough

There’s a popular idea online that healing happens if we simply “listen to the body.”⠀That was not true for me.

My body held accurate memories of danger.
It had evidence for fear.
It had learned survival.

Left without orientation, intense sensations could push me straight into a negative loop.⠀So, I had to reorient without suppressing sensation.

This is where Scripture became essential.

The Moment the Loop Re-Engages

During the most intense moments when my jaw was unwinding, my diaphragm seized, and breath felt inaccessible, I did not try to override my body.⠀I asked it a question.

“If my Father is for me, what is there to fear?”

Sometimes I whispered it.
Sometimes I repeated it just to give my lungs permission to release air.

I wasn’t addressing my thoughts.
I was listening for my body’s reply.

What followed—the tightening, the tremor, the heat, the surge—was the answer.⠀Every sensation was information.⠀Every shift was communication.

This was not positive thinking.
It was not distraction.
It was Truth introduced directly into a perceived threat, and then received through sensation.

As the words landed, I tracked what changed.
My body did not shut down.
It did not escalate.

It moved forward.

Breath returned.⠀Tremors softened.⠀Heat dissipated.⠀My nervous system moved through the activation instead of staying stuck inside of it.

And when completion arrived, it was unmistakable:
a sudden, otherworldly peace that had nothing to do with effort and everything to do with receiving.

That’s how the positive feedback loop re-engaged.

Responsive Trust, Not Passive Faith

This process required effort, not to control, but to consciously participate.⠀There were moments when my heart and body could not lead.⠀My mind had to go first.

Scripture gave my mind something stable enough to stand on while my body finished what it was doing.⠀From there, my heart softened.⠀Then my body followed.

This is what I mean by responsive trust:⠀trust that emerges as Truth is introduced consistently enough for the body to confirm it through lived experience and interoceptive awareness.

Trust did not precede safety.
Trust emerged after interoception confirmed safety.

An Invitation to Take or Leave

If you don’t share my faith, I want to offer this as a thought experiment.⠀During moments of activation (physical, emotional, or nervous-system based) try grounding yourself in the strongest truth framework you already trust.

Notice what happens in your body.

Does your breath return?
Does the sensation complete?
Does your nervous system settle or spiral?

If it doesn’t settle—if the words feel hollow, fragile, or performative—pay attention to that.⠀The body is remarkably discerning.⠀It knows the difference between:

• truth and half-truth
• grounding and bypass
• authority and mimicry

I didn’t choose Scripture because I wanted a religious explanation.⠀I chose it because my body responded differently to it and over time, my body began asking for it.⠀Not out of obligation, but because my body said yes to it, physiologically.

The Loop Isn’t Always Gentle and That Matters

The positive feedback loop is not about bypassing danger.

It’s about meeting real danger with real truth, again and again, until dissociated fascial fibers holding psychosomatic tension begin to reintegrate, begin to remember what the rest of the body already knows about safety, coherence and belonging.⠀As those fibers reintegrate, the heart and mind align more fully with the spirit-integrated parts of the body—and through them, with the spirit itself.

That loop is still running.⠀And when healing inevitably becomes intense, I recognize the signs now and I know how to orient away from fear and toward hope.