The Somatic Approach to Feeling Tired but Wired: How Body Awareness Can Help
Have you ever felt like your mind just won’t turn off, while your body is completely drained? You’re exhausted, yet your system feels like it’s still running on high alert, making it nearly impossible to fully rest. If you’ve been feeling “tired but wired,” you’re not alone.
In today’s fast‑paced world, constant stress and stimulation keep many of us in overdrive. When stress and anxiety don’t let up, they keep the body in a heightened state of alertness, disrupting the natural rhythms that allow for deep rest. In this post, we’ll explore how body awareness through somatic therapy can help you move from feeling restless and depleted to calm and re‑energized.
Understanding the Wired and Tired Cycle
This “wired but tired” state happens when your body is stuck in “fight or flight.” Stress activates the nervous system into a kind of constant readiness—as if you need to be on guard—even when there’s no immediate danger.
Over time, this state uses up enormous amounts of energy, leaving you feeling fatigued while still unable to relax. You may find yourself lying awake at night, mentally drained but physically restless. It’s a draining cycle, but the good news is that it doesn’t have to stay this way. With support, your nervous system can learn how to find balance again.
What Is Somatic Therapy? A Body‑Centered Approach to Healing
Somatic therapy is a body‑centered form of healing that focuses on the connection between your mind and body. Instead of only talking through emotions, somatic therapy helps you notice the physical sensations where stress and anxiety may be living, allowing you to gently release tension and reconnect with a sense of calm.
When we’re stressed, the body often holds tension in places like the shoulders, jaw, or stomach. Somatic therapy helps you recognize these patterns and create space for your body to soften. Practices may include gentle movement, breathwork, or body scanning, all designed to help reset your nervous system and move you from a state of tension toward relaxation.
It’s a gentle, supportive approach that lets your body naturally release what it’s been holding.
The Science Behind Somatic Therapy: How Body Awareness Calms Your Nervous System
When the nervous system spends too much time in survival mode, it hasn’t yet learned that it’s safe to stop working so hard. Somatic experiencing therapy works by helping you tune in to your body’s signals and guide it back toward balance.
Body awareness practices like deep breathing, grounding, and body scanning send messages to the brain that it’s safe to relax. Over time, these signals help restore your body’s natural rhythm, so you can experience more calm, steadiness, and energy.
This is what makes somatic therapy so powerful: it works with your body, not against it, to gently regulate the nervous system.
Practical Somatic Techniques to Try
If you’re feeling wired and tired, here are a few simple somatic techniques you can start practicing today:
Deep Breathing
Slow, steady breathing (specifically the extended exhale) helps activate your body’s parasympathetic system (the “rest and digest” state). Try inhaling through your nose for four counts, holding for seven, and exhaling slowly through your mouth for eight. Repeat for a few minutes, noticing your body begin to settle.
Body Scanning
Lie down or sit comfortably. Bring your attention slowly from your feet upward, noticing areas of tension. When you find a tight spot, breathe gently into it and invite softening on the exhale. This helps you reconnect with your body and release tension gradually.
Grounding Techniques
The 5‑4‑3‑2‑1 method can help anchor you in the present:
5 things you see
4 things you feel
3 things you hear
2 things you smell
1 thing you taste
This practice brings your focus back to the here and now, calming both mind and body.
Long‑Term Benefits: Restoring Energy and Balance
Somatic therapy isn’t about quick fixes. It’s about helping your nervous system relearn what safety and rest feel like. With regular practice, you may find it easier to relax, sleep more deeply, and restore the energy that stress has been draining from you.
Over time, these practices don’t just ease symptoms, they build emotional resilience and strengthen your connection to yourself. Many clients share that they feel more grounded, more present, and better able to handle life’s stressors without becoming overwhelmed.
Start Your Journey Toward Feeling More Rested
If you’ve been stuck in the cycle of feeling “tired but wired,” somatic therapy offers a gentle path back to balance. Through body awareness and practical somatic counseling techniques, you can begin to break the cycle of chronic stress and rediscover what it feels like to be calm, steady, and energized.
Start small with the practices above and give yourself patience as your nervous system learns to settle. If you’d like more support, I’d be honored to walk alongside you as you explore how somatic therapy can help restore both rest and resilience.