Most people believe that calming the nervous system is the key to healing. Meditation, breathwork, relaxation exercises—they all sound like the perfect formula and let’s be honest, they can be beneficial in some ways. But here’s the surprising truth: simply relaxing your nervous system could actually backfire and keep you stuck in pain, fear, or illness.
In this episode, Brandy Gillmore breaks down the hidden risks of focusing only on nervous system regulation and why true healing requires more. You’ll discover:
If you’ve been working on your nervous system but still feel stuck—or you’re searching for a deeper way to heal your body and mind—this episode will show you what’s missing and how to finally move forward.
Do you have questions about self-healing? Do you want to know how self-healing works? If so you can simply reach out to us at [email protected]
Watch Brandy's TEDx Talk on mind-body healing: https://brandygillmore.com/tedx
If you have found yourself asking any of these questions such as:
Welcome to Heal Yourself, Change Your Life. My name is Brandy Gillmore, and after recovering from my own life-changing injury, it’s become my mission to share with others the same discoveries I made that changed my health and my entire life. Our minds are truly incredible. The placebo is proof of this.
Each week I will take this simple awareness to a whole new level. I’ll even coach live callers to free themselves of physical pain using only their mind, and then I’ll provide you with a combination of practical and spiritual insights that you can use to master your mind, your emotions, and your energy to help you heal your health, yourself, and your life.
Let’s begin.
Hello and happy beautiful day. Today I want to talk about relaxing the nervous system and how it can be, of course, beneficial—but how it can also backfire and keep you stuck. And by the way, I see this all of the time, so I want to dive into the details just because, of course, when it comes to self-healing, so many people think, “Okay, well, let me just relax my nervous system. If I just get my nervous system to relax, my body will heal itself.”
That is so common for people to think that way. So they’re doing the meditation, the positive thinking, but also just the relaxation, the theta state, the delta state, and whatnot.
But think about this for a moment: if all it took was relaxation, then anybody, unfortunately in hospice or in a coma would suddenly heal. They wouldn’t stay sick—they would heal because the body is so relaxed. And so it’s not just about a state of relaxation. It takes more than that. It’s different than that.
And so, the thing that you’ll want to know is this: you’ll hear me say all of the time, it takes a real, real change to heal. Ultimately, what we want to do is identify the specific issues and shift them.
Now, as far as relaxing the nervous system, a lot of the problems that I’ll see are this: I’ll see people relaxing and calming the nervous system, putting in positive emotions, and so often what they’re doing is they’re also simultaneously losing the feelings of courage, of strength, of confidence, of empowerment. Because they’re just focused on calming, calming, calming the nervous system.
But in healing, it does take a certain level of courage to change. It takes stepping into your strength. It takes a certain level of confidence. It takes a feeling of empowerment. So ultimately, we want to, of course, get rid of the negative but also step fully into the positive—to feel alive, to feel empowered, to feel our strength. That is key.
It’s very common for me to see people who have been calming their nervous system and then trying to program in positive manifesting and positive thinking all day. But at a deeper level, a lot of times their fear is growing. They’re just getting better at suppressing it.
So it’s there—if they look for it, it’s there—but it’s just suppressed. And that’s not really helping to get the real changes.
There are so many complexities when working with the mind. Another thing that can happen is people can try to suppress emotions—just calm, calm, calm—because they still feel fear. Or there’s a buildup of fear or upset that eventually someone triggers them and they get really reactive.
So that also can be an issue. And I wanted to bring this up because so often people message in or they ask, “How is your video course different from calming your nervous system?”
I wanted to answer that not only for that reason—because I get that question so often—but because I know it keeps a lot of people stuck. They feel like they’re starting to make progress, they’re calming and calming, and then they get reactive or they lose their sense of confidence.
They’re losing their sense of real empowerment, strength, courage to make a change in their life. And so in some ways, while they’re simultaneously feeling more spiritual and aware and more mentally empowered—they understand that thoughts help create our lives—they also become emotionally less empowered.
Or in some cases, people have never felt their strength, and that would be part of healing as well. Of course, stepping into strength—in a positive way, with confidence, feeling alive, feeling empowered to live life to its fullest. Because ultimately, healing lives there.
When we can really identify the negative and get rid of it, and step into more and more of the feeling of confidence, happiness, aliveness, and courage to live fully, then everything feels good.
Think about it like this: a five-year-old who’s afraid of everything—who’s insecure—can feel fearful of everything. But a five-year-old who feels confident in life and a sense of strength, everything can just feel blissful.
It’s not like we have to walk around and exude strength and confidence, but when we’re living from a place of strength and confidence being the norm, then we can love life and show up in each moment fully—and feel safe.
So, if you’ve just been working on calming your nervous system, I invite you to do it differently. Get specific with your mind. Step into not just calming the negative—but really rewiring it so it’s no longer even in the subconscious mind. And then also amplify and step into strength in a beautiful way that feels alive and safe.
One more thing I want to point out: sometimes people think courage means you’re fearful. But when courage is just a part of you—the courage to just speak up, to say something, to do something—it just becomes the norm.
It’s not about fear always being present. It becomes natural to just be you. To step up to life, to feel like, “Oh, I can do that.” So it becomes a norm.
Just food for thought. Creating that real, real change is key.
And of course, if you are someone who’s new and would like to understand healing at a deeper level, I do have a free training, and I’ll have my team put that in the show notes so you can check it out.
And for anybody else—if you’re getting it and you’re understanding it—I invite you to take this and see if you can apply this to your own life.
As always, please take just a quick moment to hit the share button on this episode. Share it with someone you love, someone you care about, or even someone you don’t know. Because the more every single person in our world is happy, healthy, loved, and loving, the better this world is for all of us.
Please do have an incredible rest of your day. I look forward to connecting with you on the next episode. We’ll see you there.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We understand that some may believe mind-body healing is impossible. Therefore, if you would like to see images of individuals using their minds to relieve pain, you can check out this medical journal. It includes images from some of Brandy's case studies. If you want to learn how to use your mind to heal yourself, you can check out the training on Brandy's website. Each week, Brandy publishes a volunteer episode where she coaches a volunteer to heal themselves using their own mind. In addition, Brandy shares a quick IQ episode (Insights and Questions) where she answers listener questions or delves deeper into insights on working with the mind for healing. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for psychiatric or medical care.
If you struggle with negative thoughts, chronic pain, or chronic health issues, please continue seeing your doctor as recommended. Think of self-healing and mind-body healing as ways to partner with your doctor—keeping them informed and working as a team—so you can feel empowered in your health journey and fully embrace what’s possible through the power of your mind, emotions, and energy. Genuine change and consistent follow-through are key. Please enjoy this self-healing podcast.
© Brandy Gillmore / Human Potential Revolution, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Please remember that genuine change and follow-through are key for self-healing results. If you struggle with negative thoughts or have a chronic health issue or chronic pain, please do not avoid seeing your doctor. Instead, your goal with self-healing should be to continue to see your doctor as recommended and blow their mind with what you are capable of with your mind and with the power of mind-body healing. Please enjoy this self-healing podcast.
Disclaimer: This podcast is for inspirational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Do not stop, start, or change any medications or treatments based on this content. Always consult your licensed healthcare provider before making any medical decisions. By listening, you agree to our full Terms of Use at brandygillmore.com/podcast-terms. This content is for individual use only and may not be copied, reproduced, or used for training purposes, including artificial intelligence (AI) training.
