What happens when the world feels overwhelming—and your nervous system won’t settle?

In this episode of Healing Is My Hobby, Jessica Colarco explores what it really means to stay regulated in a dysregulated world. Through personal reflection and therapist-informed insight, Jessica shares how our nervous systems respond to stress, uncertainty, and perceived threat—even when danger is indirect.

Using a recent personal experience as a touchpoint, this episode gently unpacks the difference between survival mode and intentional regulation, reminding listeners that frustration and gratitude can coexist. You’ll learn why feeling overwhelmed makes sense, how grounding supports the nervous system, and how small, practical tools can help you feel steadier when life feels chaotic.

This episode offers reassurance, perspective, and simple practices to help you care deeply—without carrying everything at once.

Key Takeaways

1. Healing can be playful and woven into daily life.
2. It's normal to feel overwhelmed after unexpected events.
3. Both frustration and gratitude can coexist.
4. Our nervous systems react to perceived threats, even indirectly.
5. Regulation means supporting your body, not ignoring reality.
6. Grounding techniques can help shift our nervous system back to safety.
7. The 5-4-3-2-1 grounding method engages the senses for regulation.
8. Small moments of grounding can accumulate to create stability.
9. Caring deeply does not mean carrying everything at once.
10. Noticing when you're in survival mode is key to regulation.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Healing and Personal Growth

01:57 Navigating Trauma and Growth Mindset

04:51 Understanding Nervous System Responses

09:16 Grounding Techniques for Regulation

10:05 Conclusion and Resources for Support

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mental wellness, personal growth, nervous system, grounding techniques, trauma recovery, emotional regulation, self-care, mindfulness, therapy, coping strategies

Welcome to Healing Is My Hobby, the podcast where we explore the tools, practices, and curiosities that support mental wellness and personal growth.

I'm Jessica Colarco a licensed clinical social worker. I believe healing doesn't have to feel heavy or clinical all the time. It can be something we play with, explore, and weave into our everyday lives.

Before we get into today's topic, I want to share something personal. I was recently in a car accident and while I'm okay physically and incredibly grateful for that, I noticed something really human come up for me afterward. There's a part of me that wants to slip straight into what I like to call victim mode, where I'm just focusing on the pain, the frustration, the inconvenience, dealing with insurance, going to urgent care, not having my car for a while. All of the disruption

that comes with something unexpected like that. And I wanna be clear, there's nothing wrong with noticing that reaction. It makes sense when something sudden happens, our nervous system wants to protect us, and sometimes that looks like narrowing our focus to everything that feels unfair and overwhelming. But I also noticed another option available to me, a growth mindset, or maybe a regulated mindset that didn't ignore the frustration, but didn't let it take over either. That mindset sounded more like, thank goodness I'm alive,

My car is still drivable. I am safe. And what stood out to me was this, both perspectives are true. The frustration is real and so is the gratitude. The difference was which one my nervous system lingered in. And that's actually a perfect doorway into today's episode because when the world feels chaotic or when something unexpected happens, whether it's a personal accident or global events that we are witnessing,

we often oscillate between feeling overwhelmed and trying to find meaning or steadiness again. Today, we're going to be talking about staying regulated in a dysregulated world, not by pretending hard things aren't hard, but by learning how to support our nervous system so we can respond intentionally instead of staying stuck in survival mode. Lately, so many of my therapy sessions and conversations outside the therapy room have been centered on how heavy the world feels.

the news, the uncertainty, the constant urgency. If you've been feeling anxious, angry, numb, or overwhelmed, I wanna start by saying this clearly. Nothing is wrong with you. Your nervous system is responding to collective stress. This episode kicks off our February theme, staying regulated in a dysregulated world. We're going to talk about why world events impact us so deeply. What's happening in the nervous system?

and how to begin finding steadiness again.

Our nervous systems are wired to detect threat. This is actually one of their most important jobs to keep us safe. The challenge is that our bodies don't always distinguish between direct danger and indirect threat.

if what we're seeing is happening far away or to people we don't personally know, our nervous system still responds as if we might need to prepare for impact. When we're exposed to images, stories, and headlines that signal danger,

injustice or instability, the body reacts with increased alertness, tension and anxiety. And when that exposure is constant, when the news cycle never really turns off, our nervous system doesn't get the signal that it's okay to stand down. Instead, the body stays in survival mode. And survival mode can look like feeling on edge or irritable, having difficulty sleeping or relaxing.

trouble concentrating, emotional numbness or overwhelm, a sense of urgency or helplessness. None of this means you're doing something wrong. It means your nervous system is doing exactly what it was designed to do, respond to perceived threat. This is where regulation becomes so important. Regulation doesn't mean ignoring reality or pretending things aren't happening. It doesn't mean disengaging from the world or not caring.

Regulation means supporting your body so you're not living in a constant state of alarm. When your nervous system feels even a little safer, you're able to respond more intentionally. You can think more clearly. You can choose when to engage and when to step back. You can care deeply without your body carrying constant stress.

In other words, regulation creates space between what's happening in the world and how much of it your body has to hold at once. And that space matters. So before we talk about tools or boundaries, I wanna start with something simple. Helping your nervous system recognize that in this moment, you are safe.

Let's have a gentle reflection. Notice where you feel tension in your body as you listen.

just noticing. And you'll notice we do that a lot in the episodes. Not judging, not trying to fix it right away, just starting out noticing.

We're going to engage in a gentle grounding practice, but first I just wanna explain grounding a little bit to you. Maybe you hear it a lot and you don't really know what it means, but grounding is any practice that helps bring your attention back into the present moment and into your body. When your nervous system is activated, it's often because your mind is pulled into past experiences or future worries, especially through news, images, or constant information.

Grounding works by gently reminding your body that right now, in this moment, you are safe. It helps shift your nervous system out of survival mode and back toward regulation. When we ground, we create a pause between what's happening around us and how much our body has to carry. Even small grounding moments, like noticing your breath, your feet on the floor, or

the sounds around you can signal safety to the nervous system. Over time, these pauses help reduce overwhelm, improve clarity, and make it easier to respond rather than to react. I like to think of this too because it's very ⁓ symbiotic with mindfulness. And so sometimes we're not going to necessarily feel like we're just zen all of the sudden, right?

But like I'm saying, over time, these pauses help reduce, overwhelm, and improve clarity. So I wanna introduce to you the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding method. I find this so helpful in my personal life with my clients. My children have used them. Even when one of my children was as young as four, when he was four.

We use five, four, three, two, one, and that got him through a tantrum. And so you can even introduce this to your children or any children in your lives. So with grounding, with five, four, three, two, one grounding, we're really tapping into the five senses. So you're going to list five things you can see. I'll do it with you. I see my microphone. I see my pen, my journal. I see cactus pictures on the wall. And I see a plant in the corner of my room. Four things you can feel.

I can feel my hair, I can feel my necklace, I can feel my desk, and I can feel my jeans.

things you can hear. I can hear my voice, I actually can hear someone I'm recording in my office, I can hear someone in the other room, and I can hear the creaking of my chair.

Two things you can smell. This is when it's great to always have aromatherapy with you or something like that so I can smell. I've got like a, protein coffee right here. It smells kind of coffee and vanilla-ish. And I can smell my hands. I just put lotion on so I can smell vanilla on my hands. One thing you can taste. I'm gonna have a sip of my iced coffee.

Again, this is great, tell clients, you can have fidgets, little fidget in your pocket. ⁓ Now they have all kinds of fidget jewelry, keeping mints, gum around you, and even just choosing one of the senses to focus on, like I'm going to just focus on touch and I'm going to grab this tissue packet on my desk and I'm going to feel it and look at it and focus on it. That helps you as well. So I also tell my clients with 5-4-3-2-1 grounding, it is five things you can see, four things you can feel,

three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. But as long as you're doing some of the senses and you get them all mixed up and you're tasting five things and smelling four things, it doesn't really matter, right? It's just to bring you to the present moment.

If today's episode is really resonating with you, I want you to know that I created a free resource called the Collective Calm Toolkit. It includes grounding practices, media boundaries, journaling prompts, and a values-based way to care without burning out. You can download it by signing up for my newsletter. The link is in the show notes. You can go to healingismyhobby.com to sign up for the newsletter, or you can go to Jessica Colarco LCSW to sign up.

Next week in our Therapy is My Cardio segment, we are talking about doom scrolling. What happens, how it hooks the nervous system, and how to reset without guilt. If you've ever said, I'll just check one more thing, then this episode is for you.

As we wrap up today, I wanna leave you with this reminder. Regulation isn't about getting it right all the time. It's about noticing when your nervous system has been pulled into survival mode and offering it a little more support. If the world has been feeling heavy, if you've been feeling on edge, overwhelmed or exhausted by it all, there's nothing wrong with you. Your nervous system is responding to uncertainty and stress in a very human way.

You don't have to disconnect from what matters. You don't have to carry everything at once. Small moments of grounding, small boundaries and small pauses add up.

I will see you next week when we talk about doom scrolling. Until then, be gentle with yourself. Caring deeply is not the same as carrying everything. You're doing the best you can and that's enough. If you would like to read my blog, find out more about me, you can go to healingismyhobby.com. You can find me on social media,

YouTube and Instagram at healingismyhobby. And if you want,

To learn more about my clinical practice, you can visit jessicacolarcolcsw.com or you can find me on Instagram at jessicacolarcolcsw. Thank you and have a great day.