I am not willing to pretend that what we are seeing right now is normal.
I am not willing to accept that waking up anxious, living on edge, snapping at people we love, and feeling chronically exhausted is just “modern life.” I believe we have normalized a state of nervous system activation that the human body was never designed to sustain. And then we act surprised when illness follows.
Your nervous system is not weak. It is not dramatic. It is not broken. It is doing exactly what it was designed to do — protect you. The problem is not the system. The problem is the environment it is responding to.
I have come to believe that nervous system regulation is one of the most overlooked foundations of real health. We talk endlessly about supplements, detoxes, food plans, protocols, biohacking. But if your nervous system believes you are unsafe, none of that will land the way you hope it will. Biology always wins.
Chronic Activation Is Not an Accident
We are living in a culture that keeps the body braced. Constant stimulation. Financial instability. Medical uncertainty. Relational strain. Chemical exposure. Digital noise that never shuts off. I see it everywhere. I see how quickly people move into reactivity. I see how exhaustion has become a personality trait. I see how inflammation is treated like an inevitability instead of a signal.
And I will say this clearly: chronic activation benefits certain systems. A population that is anxious, inflamed, and dysregulated consumes more interventions. It seeks relief constantly. It reacts instead of reflects. I addressed this directly in https://avoiceforchange.com/when-pain-becomes-profit/ because I refuse to separate biology from structure. When pain becomes profitable, stress is not simply unfortunate — it becomes useful.
But your body is not a business model. It is a living system that requires safety.
The Body Stores What the Mind Tries to Override
Trauma is not always dramatic. I am not only talking about catastrophic events. Trauma is anything that overwhelms your ability to cope and leaves your nervous system unresolved. Ongoing uncertainty. Financial fear that never lets up. Repeated medical dismissal. Cultural instability that keeps you scanning for what’s next. The body stores that.
And when the body stores it long enough, it adapts.
I am deeply concerned about how early we are seeing breakdown now. Hormonal disruption in younger women. Autoimmune conditions rising. Digestive disorders becoming standard. Burnout in people who should be in their prime. I wrote about this pattern in https://avoiceforchange.com/why-are-people-getting-sick-younger/ because I cannot ignore the acceleration. We are not just getting sicker. We are getting sicker sooner.
A nervous system that never feels safe will eventually manifest symptoms. That is not theory. That is physiology.
What Nervous System Peacekeeping Looks Like
I do not mean spa days or surface-level self-care. I mean deliberately, consistently signaling safety to your body until it relearns that it does not have to brace for impact.
I believe in long, slow exhales because they directly engage the parasympathetic response. I believe in orienting — physically looking around your environment and letting your eyes soften — because the brain must register safety before it will release tension. I believe in stabilizing the body through simple grounding, like pressing your feet into the floor, because physical stability calms internal alarm. I believe in reducing digital noise because constant input keeps the nervous system scanning.
And I believe in rhythm. Predictable morning light. Consistent sleep timing. Small daily rituals that create reliability. Rhythm builds safety. Safety builds regulation.
None of this is flashy. That is exactly why it works.
Fixing and Reversing Chronic Activation
If you want to begin reversing chronic activation, start with the basics and take them seriously. Protect sleep. Stabilize blood sugar with whole foods that do not spike and crash your system. Reduce inflammatory inputs where you can — chemical, emotional, digital. Build relationships where your body feels calmer, not more guarded. Seek trauma-informed support if your history requires deeper repair. Practice regulation daily, not only when you are already overwhelmed.
I refuse to accept that living in survival mode is normal. I refuse to accept that anxiety and inflammation are just the price of being alive right now. We can build internal stability even in unstable environments.
Your body is not broken. It is protective.
And I believe that when we stop fighting our nervous system and start working with it, we reclaim something powerful — clarity, resilience, sovereignty over our own biology.
That is where healing begins.
With love and truth,
—Donna 💚
Sources & Further Reading
1. National Institute of Mental Health – Coping with Traumatic Events
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/coping-with-traumatic-events
2. Cleveland Clinic – Vagus Nerve: What It Is and Why It Matters
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22279-vagus-nerve
3. Yale Medicine – Yes, Stress Can Hurt Your Heart: 3 Things to Know
https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/stress-affects-your-heart
4. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration – Trauma and Violence
https://www.samhsa.gov/trauma-violence
5. Harvard Health Publishing – Understanding the Stress Response
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response
