When Your Mind Runs Ahead Because Your Body Was Left Behind
Aug 17, 2025
(and how to bring them back into rhythm with somatic practices)
Have you ever wondered why it feels so hard to stop?
Why slowing down when you have so much on the go feels like you’re failing, falling behind or flat out unproductive. And why resting brings guilt, or even when you do take a break, it never seems to be enough?
There’s a reason. And it has nothing to do with discipline, laziness, or mindset.
It has to do with your body.
The Part of You That Took Over When It All Felt Too Much
There was likely a time when the emotions inside you felt too intense to handle. Maybe anger that would’ve been too loud, a hole of sadness that felt like if you dove into it, it would never stop, grief that was never given the opportunity to be felt, or fear that didn’t feel safe to express itself.
And back then, you didn’t have the tools to know how to safely express, feel, and process those emotions because no one taught you. So instead, your brilliant mind stepped in to protect you and it always stayed two steps ahead; planning, organizing, achieving, trying to control every scenario.
It learned that if it could keep moving forward, maybe it wouldn’t have to feel all that was left behind.
And that strategy worked. Until now.
The Cost of Living in Forward Motion
Eventually, that pace becomes exhausting. You long for rest but don’t trust that you can fully let go.
You crave a break but can’t enjoy it. You fantasize about disappearing for a month just to breathe, but even that feels like it wouldn’t be enough.
And if you’re the one always keeping it together for everyone else (the caretaker, the planner, the responsible one) then you’ve likely never had the chance to ask:
“But who takes care of me?“
The hardest thing to see if that this answer isn’t in doing more but in feeling more.
This is the turning point.
This is where you begin to rebuild the relationship with the part of you that learned to outrun the past.
No more shaming or judging that part, but actually thanking her little by little, showing her she’s safe now.
Relearning Safety in the Body
Peace isn’t something you force or desperately try to find outside of yourself. I searched for it everywhere from wrapped up in my cozy blanket in the winter with my tea and favourite movie, or on a tropical vacation, or even once I checked off the last item on my to-do list at the end of the week. Peace is not the feeling you get when you leave work on a Friday afternoon. That’s freedom hiding behind relief.
Peace though, is something you learn to create space for and it all starts with reuniting your body with your mind.
This is where somatic work comes in.
As Bessel van der Kolk says in The Body Keeps the Score, trauma isn’t just the experience stored in the mind, it’s a story stored in the body.
We can’t think our way out of a survival state. You can logically understand what’s happening and put it aside until a later time, but if you don’t return to it and allow yourself to truly feel it, that freedom you’re after will forever feel out of reach. No matter how many affirmations or positive people we surround ourselves with, our sense of safety only comes when we choose to understand why we have developed certain patterns of thinking and observe the lens through which we have been seeing the world.
When you’re ready to do that, you begin to move through it slowly, compassionately, and creatively :).
That’s where somatic practices like yoga, breathwork, and therapeutic art can begin to support your return because this journey isn’t about becoming someone new, but about coming home to yourself.
Try This: One Art Exercise + Two Yoga Practices
Let’s meet your body where it is without pressure to fix, just space to feel what is there.
1. Art Exercise: “The Protector”
🖌️ What you’ll need: paper + something to draw or write with.
- Draw the part of you that keeps going. The one who stays busy, plans everything, holds it all. Use shapes, colours, or lines to express it.
- Then close your eyes for a moment and ask yourself : What was this part protecting me from?
- Gently draw another figure beside her. This is the version of you that just want to rest. What does she need?
- Let the two figures connect. A line, a symbol, a bridge, whatever feels right.
You don’t need to analyze it. Just let the image speak. It’s okay if it brings up emotions. That means you’re reconnecting.
2. Yoga Practice: Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani)
A simple, deeply regulating pose. Lay on your back with your legs up a wall for 5-10 minutes.
Let your breath deepen naturally. This pose invites your nervous system into parasympathetic rest and helps regulate stress.
Did you know? Bessel van der Kolk often recommends yoga as a powerful somatic practice for trauma healing. It gives the body a way to speak and release what words cannot.
3. Yoga Flow: Child’s Pose to Cat-Cow (Gentle Awakening)
- Begin in Child’s Pose: forehead to the mat, arms stretched or by your sides.
- Slowly rise into Cat-Cow: inhale lift the heart (cow), exhale round the spine (cat).
- Move between the two for 2-5 minutes, syncing breath and movement.
Let your body guide you to whatever movement it needs. There is no wrong way to go about it because it’s about presence.
A New Relationship With Time Begins Here
This way of living, of staying ahead, staying busy, staying strong was never meant to last forever. It served you when you needed it and now, you get to build a new way.
One where peace and success can coexist. Where you begin to understand and see how slowing down isn’t failure, but it’s actually freedom. Where you’re no longer surviving the day, but creating it :).
Your nervous system may not yet know that rest is safe. But it can learn how and so can you.
You are not broken. You are becoming. You have always had the wisdom within you. You’re just now creating space to hear it.
And that is where your peace begins to bloom 🌱
Join us inside Creative Paths to Peace, a 12-week journey that brings together art, movement, mindfulness, and nervous system healing designed for women who are ready to create a life where they no longer have to choose between achievement and peace.
With love and creativity,
Katherine 🤍
