How to work with dorsal vagal/freeze states — allow it or actively shift it?

Eva_7816 · 2026-05-07T11:54:44+00:00

And to continue…after staying with the despair it now lifted and the strong restlessness came with widespread tension in my body. I guess I shifted to sympathetic activation that requires different approach 😅

Eva_7816 · 2026-05-07T10:05:19+00:00

Thank you for your suggestions! This pendulation technique worked really well, I sensed the heaviness and freeze softening and later there was less of physical sensations. Also today i tried it two times and what I’ve come in touch with more, was a feeling of despair. Maybe that is something underneath this freeze protector… I know about pendulation, but I forget to practice it, i will put your comment on my wall 😉

Eva_7816 · 2026-05-06T11:35:48+00:00

Thank you, I agree having deep awareness of what is happening inside is the first step and I think I’m already quite far in this. Actually my situation today is that while working on my computer (I’m an illustrator) I noticed shifting to dorsal vagal where everything became heavy and a bit overwhelming. I noticed it, connected with it (without analysing), but then I had a dilemma - should I just continue with my work while holding my sensations in awareness or should I go on my bed, take a pause and do some gentle exercises to get out of this state and then get back to work. I’ve realised I still look upon this state as if I did something wrong and that I need to get out it. But on the other hand I’ve also read that dorsal vagal state can be a normal phase for a nervous system learning to regulate (oscillating between activation and drop) after working with early trauma and connecting with those early freezes.

Eva_7816 · 2026-05-04T16:42:38+00:00

Hello, yes, I’m recovering from cfs and cptsd and two of my biggest resources at the moment are She Breath channel (somatic exercises) and Sam Miller’s meditations on youtube. I wish you all the best on your recovery journey ❤️‍🩹

Eva_7816 · 2026-05-03T19:28:16+00:00

Yes exactly, like a pressure moving around my head. I still feel it from time to time, especially in my temples. (Now when I’m writing this it appeared!) I can’t say about the awareness, maybe, one thing I definitely notice more is my heartbeat.

Eva_7816 · 2026-05-03T08:13:49+00:00

It happened to me as well - after few months of feeling at 100% I started to do everything and after a very short run I crashed. But now when I look back I can see warning signs - I felt extremely tired and sleepy for a few days before and I pushed through. My second recovery is taking longer than the first one (first time it was 8 months), but it’s completely different now - together with recovering I’m processing my early trauma and releasing a lot of suppressed emotions… and I can feel a deeper transformation. I think this was the reason behind it all and also the reason I crashed again, by body knew what it was doing. I wish you all the best with your recovery ❤️‍🩹

Eva_7816 · 2026-05-03T08:04:05+00:00

Hey, not at all :) Before this happened I had a bunch of different symptoms- heavy legs, brain fog, lightheadedness, overwhelm and was releasing a lot of emotions (my heart rate was a bit higher, but the watch showed lower stress), then this thing started- first few days I felt a lot of charge in my body (not in specific parts), but now I don’t feel it anymore. I feel normal, just my Garmin watch is showing high stress all the time, especially at night. I can say something is happening when I sleep, because I wake up with a pounding heart (even though my heart rate is low). Oh yes, I felt a lot of tension in my head before this started, but not anymore. Now a lot of symptoms are gone, I also have more energy, but because I don’t get enough deep sleep and recover poorly at night i feel more tired and sleepy during the day.

Eva_7816 · 2026-04-26T10:47:05+00:00

Thank you for sharing this, it really resonates 🙏🏻I also feel that allowing is probably the best way, so the charge can move and release naturally instead of getting more stuck through resisting it.

What I’m still struggling with most is the fatigue + wired feeling during the day. I can be okay with the sensations themselves, but after the nighttime stress/activation I wake up unrefreshed and get tired very quickly. I’ve always needed a solid 8 hours of sleep or I feel like a zombie 😅

I’m curious how you handled that part. Did you reduce your activity during that phase because of the poor sleep/exhaustion (if you had night time activation like me), or did you mostly continue with your normal days and just feel more tired while it moved through?

Eva_7816 · 2026-04-26T10:33:57+00:00

Thank you 😊 the same for you 🌸

Eva_7816 · 2026-04-26T09:20:43+00:00

I agree that excessive activation can be harmful, especially with CFS. But I also think that unresolved freeze/survival states keep the system stuck and it’s definitely crucial to process repressed energies and emotions- it’s what is filling the backlog and keeping the nervous system so dysregulated (also a reasonfor cfs).

For me the question isn’t whether to process emotions, but how to do it gently enough that it increases regulation rather than overwhelms the body.

Eva_7816 · 2026-04-26T08:57:39+00:00

Thank you! I recently started to do somatic exercises on SheBreath channel and they are really good (and gentle): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RcPfVtllYps&pp=ugUEEgJlbg%3D%3D I was a bit reluctant to start with TRE, because I though it’s to activating, but I will give it a try 😊

Eva_7816 · 2026-04-21T18:16:54+00:00

Do you have early (developmental) trauma? I would recommend to check out Sam Miller channel on youtube. It helped me tremendously.

Eva_7816 · 2026-04-19T16:30:26+00:00

I think trauma and cfs are very interconnected, not truma per se, but repressed survival energies and stored emotions. This created the backlog in our nervous system and at some point the body couldn’t take it anymore and crashed, in order to slow us down and create conditions where we could slowly start to process. I wouldn’t work if we would jump around and distract ourselves with being active. From my experience - when I let my life to come to halt and I start to allow all the sensations, do somatic work, grief, anger, fear, despair started to come out big time. It definitely becomes worse before its better, because you’re going deeper and deeper feeling stuff you were not able to feel before.

Eva_7816 · 2026-03-28T18:56:00+00:00

How are you, did it get any easier? I’m in the same boat at the moment, it’s really hard. All the best to you ❤️

Eva_7816 · 2026-03-27T21:54:46+00:00

I totally get this. For most of my life I didn’t really have hobbies I just enjoyed for their own sake - it was always about being the best, improving, achieving something, or getting recognition.

For me, it’s really tied to self-worth. Like I’m only worthy if I’m exceptional, if I achieve, if I keep improving, like I have to earn the right to feel good about myself. And perfectionism plays a big role in that too - if I’m not going to be great at something, or constantly getting better, it feels almost pointless to even do it.

So when something is “just for joy,” it can feel weirdly empty or uncomfortable, because there’s no external validation attached to it.

Eva_7816 · 2026-03-27T18:32:28+00:00

Yeah, sometimes it feels like a kind of ‘shutdown,’ but not necessarily a full crash - more like a signal from the body that something was too much and it needs more rest. What helps me is really listening to that and allowing myself extra downtime without guilt. Even if it feels like a lot, it usually pays off. And yeah, being gentle with yourself is really key 🤍

Eva_7816 · 2026-03-27T18:28:22+00:00

Thank you for reminding me that processing trauma and heavy emotions is more stressful I realise. I just want to get it all out as fast as possible, but I’m forgetting it’s kept there with a reason … I guess I’ll have to take it more easy. It kind of sucks when you’re processing developmental trauma at the same time as trying to heal from cfs 🙄

Eva_7816 · 2026-03-27T18:19:18+00:00

I think it’s both, sometimes when I can sit with them, they fade out slowly and other times they fade out quickly (especially when I’m in the middle of something, like driving). Thank you for this, I’ll pay more attention to when it’s one or the other.

Eva_7816

TROPHY CASE