The Body Remembers Safety Through the Senses

Part 6 The Woman who Notices

We often try to heal through thinking.

We read the books.
We listen to the podcasts.
We repeat the affirmations.
We tell ourselves we are safe now.

And yet the body still flinches.

The shoulders still tense.
The jaw still tightens.
The chest still feels heavy for no logical reason.

Because safety isn’t a thought.

It’s a sensation.

The body does not organise itself around words.
It organises itself around experience.

If your nervous system learned danger through tone of voice, slammed doors, unpredictable energy, silence that meant “brace yourself,” then it learned through the senses.

Sight.
Sound.
Touch.
Smell.
Proximity.
Pressure.
Temperature.

Long before you had language, your body was taking notes.

And here’s the part that changes everything:

It can learn safety the same way.

Not through forcing calm.
Not through pretending you're fine.
Not through overriding your reactions.

Through repetition of safe sensory experiences.

• When you step outside and feel sunlight on your skin, your nervous system registers warmth.

• When you wrap yourself in something soft, your body registers containment.

• When you sit by the ocean and listen to the steady rhythm of waves, your system registers predictability.

• When you press your feet into the ground, you send a message:
  “I am here.”

The body believes what it experiences consistently.

This is why grounding practices work.

Not because they are trendy.
Not because they are spiritual.

But because they give the nervous system new data.

Trauma is not just a memory stored in the mind.
it’s a pattern stored in the body.

So healing must include the body too.

You cannot shame yourself into regulation.
You cannot logic yourself out of a stress response.

But you can gently teach your body that this moment is different.

That this room is not that room.
That this voice is not that voice.
That this present-day you are not the powerless version from before.

Safety becomes real when it is felt.

And it doesn’t have to be dramatic.

It can look like:

• Holding a warm mug and actually noticing the heat
• Taking off your shoes and feeling the ground
• Playing music that softens your breathing
• Lighting a candle that signals “we’re slowing down”
• Placing a hand on your chest and staying there for a full breath

Small things.

Consistent things.

Intentional things.

Over time, your nervous system begins to recognise these signals as cues.

Not cues to brace.
Cues to soften.

And this is where becoming her begins.

The version of you who understands that healing isn’t just mental work.

She doesn’t fight her body anymore.
She partners with it.

She realises that dissociation was protection.
Hypervigilance was protection.
Tension was protection.

But now?

Now she is building safety on purpose.

Through the senses.

Through presence.

Through repetition.

If you’re in a season of healing, start here:

What can you see right now?
What can you feel against your skin?
What sounds are in the background?
Is there warmth somewhere in your space?

You don’t need a breakthrough today.

You need a signal.

Something small that tells your body,
“We are safe enough in this moment.”

And when that becomes familiar
Your body will remember.

Not the chaos.

But the calm.