Mind-Body Healing for Weight Loss Over 40

What is Nervous System Regulation and How Does it Affect Pain?

If you scroll social media these days, you’ve probably seen phrases like “nervous system regulation” or “somatic healing.” They sound technical, and maybe even a little intimidating, but they’re actually simple concepts that can completely change how you understand your pain and your health.

As someone who helps women heal pain, lose weight, and reduce inflammation through mind-body approaches, I want to break this down in a way that feels approachable and digestible. Because once you understand how your nervous system works, you’ll see that your pain isn’t random and you have a lot more control over it than you’ve ever been told.

What is the Nervous System?

Think of your nervous system as the operating system of your body. Just like a computer can’t run without its operating system, your body can’t function without your nervous system. It’s made up of your brain, spinal cord, and a vast network of nerves that control:

• Pain and sensory perception

• Muscle tension and movement

• Emotions and thoughts

• Digestion and energy

• Hormones and stress response

At its core, your nervous system has one main job: to keep you alive.  Your body is wired to prioritize safety and survival, even at the cost of happiness, gratitude, and even comfort.

Why the Nervous System Creates Pain

Here’s the part most people don’t realize: pain is not only a physical sensation, it’s also a protective message from your nervous system.

If your body senses threat (real or perceived), your nervous system may respond by creating pain (or other symptoms like fatigue) to slow you down, stop you, or push you to get safe. For example:

• Anxiety response (fight/flight): Your heart races, breathing becomes shallow, muscles tighten, and your body gets ready to run.

• Anger response (fight): Your jaw and core tighten to prepare for confrontation.

• Depression or freeze response: Your body collapses into fatigue or heaviness when it feels there’s no way out.

These patterns aren’t “bad.” They’re survival strategies. But when your nervous system gets stuck in survival mode, the protective pain can become chronic, even when you’re not in immediate danger.

Childhood Stress and Pain Patterns

Research shows that people with difficult or stressful childhoods are more likely to experience chronic pain, fatigue, or illness later in life. Why? Because their nervous system adapts to stress at a young age. It develops around it, and this is much of what we call "personality traits" or symptoms like depression or anxiety.

If, for example, you were yelled at often, you may have learned to “fawn” (appease) to stay safe. Or maybe you learned to rebel and fight. Or maybe, you would run to your bedroom to hide. These patterns of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn get wired into your nervous system.

As an adult, something as simple as a coworker’s tone of voice or speaking up in a meeting can trigger the same old protective responses: muscle tension, shallow breathing, or even pain.

Nervous System Regulation: What It Means

So what does it mean to regulate your nervous system? At its simplest, it means teaching your body how to come back to safety.

Instead of staying stuck in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, you learn to notice the triggers (or situations that cause the response), move through the emotions, and return to balance. Some people even call nervous system regulation “emotional regulation”. Emotions and body responses are deeply connected.

When you can do this consistently, your body starts to:

• Lower unnecessary muscle tension

• Improve blood flow and digestion

• Balance stress hormones like cortisol

• Reduce inflammation

• Send fewer “danger” signals to the brain, which results in less pain and symptoms

Why This Matters for Pain (and Weight)

Chronic pain is exhausting. But here’s the piece many women don’t realize: when your nervous system is constantly on high alert, it also affects metabolism and weight.

Long-term stress can keep cortisol levels high, signaling your body to store fat “just in case” there’s a famine. On top of that, the fatigue and tension that come with pain often make exercise and healthy routines harder to stick with.

The good news? When you regulate your nervous system, you’re not only reducing pain, you’re also supporting your body’s natural ability to release weight, have more energy, and restore balance.

Nervous System Regulation and Mind-Body Healing Can Cure Chronic Pain

Your pain is not “all in your head.” It’s your nervous system doing its best to protect you. But if it’s overreacting, you don’t have to stay stuck in the cycle.

By learning nervous system regulation, you can teach your body that it’s safe again, which reduces pain, calms symptoms like fatigue or anxiety, and even makes weight loss feel easier.

Healing doesn’t come from pushing harder or ignoring your body. It comes from listening to and understanding its language of body sensations, and showing your nervous system that it’s finally safe to relax.