Anxiety is a b!tch

I thought I was DYING…

Curled up on the floor of my friend Rachel's bathroom, losing my sh!t.

"I need to go to the emergency room," I told her. "I think I'm having a heart attack."

Forty minutes later, I was hooked up to an EKG machine. The doctor checked the results, looked at me, and said, "You're fine. You had a panic attack."

"What?" I thought. "A panic attack?"

I didn't get it—I wasn't an anxious person. In fact, I was coaching people on overcoming anxiety. But my panic attack told a different story.

Check Mate

My panic attack was in 2018.

Life was good (so I thought). I was coaching 20+ clients a week, feeling good about the results I was getting them.

But what I didn't realize at the time, was that the body is always registering, communicating, and holding onto the energy it's exposed to—it records every experience in your tissues, cells, and nervous system.

It's working on a level (mostly) beyond our conscious awareness and mine was trying to tell me something: SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY WRONG.

My body was trying to communicate what my rational brain refused to see: I was in a state of overflow, pushing past my natural limits while ignoring all the warning signs.

Leaving the hospital, I reflected on a therapy session I had 5 years earlier.

I was attending a wilderness therapy program, sitting in my therapist's office shaking—tremors that made me sit on my hands.

"I'm doing everything right," I insisted.

Meditation? Check. Therapy? Check. Journaling? Triple check. And yet, I felt horrible.

That's when my therapist asked the question that stumped me for years:

"Brian, WHERE do you feel the anxiety?"

I started rambling about intrusive thoughts and negative self-talk. She stopped me.

"No. Not what you THINK. What do you FEEL? In your body, right now?"

That hit me like a brick wall.

The cluster headaches, the tangled knot in my stomach, the restless legs.

None of these were thoughts. They were physical sensations. In my body.

Learn From My Mistakes

For years, I had been throwing mind solutions at a body problem.

And I wasn't alone.

Most people think anxiety lives in their thoughts. That if they could just "think positively," "stay present," or "control their mind," everything would magically get better.

But here's the truth that transformed my life:

Your body physically stores every stressful experience you've had.

Every panic attack… every emotional wound… every trauma response…

It's all there. Locked in your nervous system.

Harvard researchers call this homeostatic overload—a system flooded with unresolved stress. Imagine a glass filling up drop by drop. Eventually, even tiny triggers cause it to overflow…

That's what happened to me.

Our brains evolved in layers—reptilian for survival, limbic for emotion, and neocortex for rational thought.

When we experience stress, it's not just a "thought"—it's neurochemicals flooding our system and muscles contracting for fight-or-flight.

The problem? In modern life, we don't complete that stress cycle.

We don't run. We don't fight. Instead, we push it down and disassociate.

And our bodies hold onto all of it.

I thought my anxiety was a thinking problem when it was actually a body problem.

No amount of positive affirmations will flush cortisol from your system.

That's why traditional "talk therapy" often hits a ceiling with anxiety and trauma. You're trying to solve with your newest brain (prefrontal cortex) what's happening in your oldest brain (brain stem and limbic system).

What I needed wasn't more journaling or cognitive exercises.

I needed to learn how to speak the language of the body.

Good News

Your body has a built-in "release valve" to empty this cup.

Mammals (including humans) have a built-in mechanism to release deep layers of bodily stress.

This can be done without medication and it's available to everybody.

You can literally "reset" your nervous system and overcome chronic anxiety and trauma, naturally.

So what is it...?

This process is called discharging.

It's an autonomous function of the nervous system and mammalian brain (an older, more primitive aspect of our brain).

Watch this video of a polar bear discharging the stress of being hunted down and tranquilized.

All the movement you see is completely involuntary, the bear's nervous system/mammalian brain takes over to release the trauma.

I know, the shaking is weird, it almost looks like a seizure.

But, it's one of nature's greatest healing agents, and experiencing it yourself is one of the best feelings ever.

The Invisible Influence

Many of us operate from what Dr. Peter Levine calls a "trauma vortex"—caught in patterns of hyperarousal (anxiety, panic) or hypoarousal (depression, dissociation).

These states are often triggered by cues our conscious mind doesn't even register.

I was hypervigilant and hyperattuned to everyone around me—reading rooms, anticipating needs, managing perceptions—all while believing I was perfectly fine.

But my body knew better and when I finally started listening to my body:

• I tracked physical sensations instead of just journaling

• I created regular "discharge" practices

• When emotions arose, I asked "where do I feel this?"

• I replaced cognitive techniques with somatic experiencing

The transformation wasn't instant, but it was fundamental. I never had another panic attack. The chronic headaches disappeared and that persistent knot in my stomach?

Gone… all because I finally addressed where they truly lived.

This journey changed everything for me—and I want to share what I've learned with you.

I've created a 6 step guide on using the body to navigate anxiety. It contains some of the practices that helped me move from panic attacks to profound peace.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed creating it for you.

With love and healing,

Brian Maierhofer (Professional Human)