When Your Body Remembers What Your Mind Tries to Forget
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Working in emergency medicine in Santa Fe, you see trauma long before the patient even speaks. The body keeps score. At 37, I go by they/them, and after years of self-educating in metaphysics, I’ve realized trauma release isn’t mystical—it’s deeply somatic. I’m a college dropout who reads way too much philosophy for my own good, but honestly? The most useful insights aren’t in dusty textbooks. They’re in the nervous system.
Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing and Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory map perfectly onto what I see on shift. When the autonomic nervous system gets stuck in sympathetic overdrive, trauma doesn’t leave—it lodges in the fascia, the lungs, the gut. Gentle somatic practices help the body complete the stress response cycle. It’s less about “manifesting” and more about physiological regulation. Breathing, grounding, and micro-movements literally help discharge trapped energy. Don’t ask me to cite sources like I’m in a lecture hall, but the science is solid.
I often look to the Tarot not for fortune-telling, but as a psychological mirror. The Tower isn’t just a disaster card; it’s the exact moment the body finally releases what it’s been holding. The Moon reflects the fog of anxiety, while The Hermit reminds me that healing requires quiet, consistent attention to the nervous system.
I’m a massive Alan Watts fan—he understood that consciousness isn’t something you control, it’s something you experience. I actively roll my eyes at Crowley’s whole “do what thou wilt” mantra. Look, I’m not here to sell you crystals or tell you to just “breathe through it.” I’m just a tired ER worker who learned that sometimes the fastest way out of a panic attack isn’t a deep breath—it’s shaking, humming, or literally letting your knees buckle until the tension drains out. The body remembers what the mind tries to forget, but it also knows how to let go. You just have to stop fighting it. Anyway, that’s my two cents from the front lines. Let me know if you’ve found similar somatic tricks that actually work when the alarm bells are ringing.
(There's a deeper dive on this in our wiki: Tarot Spreads: Celtic Cross, Three-Card, and Beyond | Mystic Wiki.)
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