Your Trauma Isn’t Just in Your Head—It’s in Your Gut, Your Blood, and Your Breath

Let’s cut the fluff.

You can talk about healing all you want, but if your body still feels heavy, tight, numb, or off… you’re not done.

A lot of people leave therapy thinking they’ve healed because they feel mentally lighter. But then they go back to their life and wonder:

“Why does my body still feel like it’s bracing for something?”

“Why can’t I feel anything—good or bad?”

“Why do I still feel disconnected, tired, inflamed, or stuck?”

That’s the moment you realize:

Trauma isn’t just a mental loop. It’s stored in your nervous system. It lives in your gut. It hijacks your breath. It shapes your posture, your hormones, your digestion, your immune system.

Trauma lives in the body.

Here’s how it works in plain English:

When you go through something overwhelming—loss, neglect, abuse, humiliation, betrayal, whatever—and your nervous system can’t process it in the moment… your body walls it off.

It protects you.

But at a cost.

You go into fight, flight, or freeze—and often stay there for years without realizing it. That’s where the chronic tightness, numbness, fatigue, and “something’s off” feeling comes from.

And that’s why talk therapy alone doesn’t always cut it. You can reframe the thoughts, but your body still remembers.

The gut is a trauma sponge.

Want to know one of trauma’s favorite hiding places?

Your gut.

Trauma jacks up your vagus nerve tone—your body’s main switchboard between the brain and the digestive system.

That means:

• Slower digestion

• Bloating, gas, constipation

• Weird food sensitivities

• Mood swings (because 90% of your serotonin is made in your gut)

• That feeling of being emotionally flatlined after eating
  
  

If you’re chronically anxious, stuck in freeze mode, or emotionally dissociated, your gut is likely running in low power mode too.

Fixing your nervous system fixes everything else.

Here’s what actually helped me (and what science backs up):

1. Environmentally Stress the Body—Gently at First.

I started training in heat and humidity. Over time, my blood plasma volume increased. That means my body could carry more oxygen, regulate temperature better, and handle stress more efficiently.

Result? I became more resilient.

Not just physically—emotionally. My body could process more without flipping into panic or shutdown.

2. Ketogenic/Low-Carb Eating

When my brain wasn’t running on a sugar rollercoaster, I could actually feel things again. Less inflammation. Less brain fog. More access to emotion and presence.

3. Breathwork, Not Just Mindwork

Your breath is the steering wheel of your nervous system. Shallow, chest-based breathing = fight or flight.

Deep, diaphragmatic breathing = parasympathetic (rest + digest).

Start paying attention. Change your breath, change your state.

4. Trauma-Informed Somatic Work

Not all movement is healing. But slow, intentional, body-based practices like somatic experiencing, nervous system regulation training, cold exposure, and trauma-informed breathwork are gold.

You can’t out-supplement or out-think your trauma.

If your nervous system is fried, your hormones are wrecked, your gut is inflamed, and your cells are swimming in cortisol, you’re not going to optimize anything—not sleep, not recovery, not focus, not mood, not muscle.

And here’s what most people don’t want to hear:

If your body is still stuck in a trauma loop, your entire health optimization plan is built on a shaky foundation.

You’re trying to build a mansion on a swamp.

Your Challenge

This week:

1. Track your breath 3x a day. Are you breathing deeply or shallow? Are you holding your breath without noticing?

2. After every meal, check in: do you feel more grounded… or more disconnected? That’s your gut-brain axis speaking.

3. Commit to one somatic practice. Could be 2 minutes of cold water, a walk in 90° heat, 5 mins of breathwork. But do it consistently. The body responds to rhythm.
   
   

Want a deeper protocol for nervous system healing and gut restoration?

Text us. We’ll break it down based on where you’re at.

We’re not here to make you feel good.

We’re here to make you feel everything again.

Formulation Factory

For Alphas Who Want to Feel Alive Again.