What “Overdrive” Really Means: Your Nervous System After COVID
When your body feels like it’s running on fumes
You’re exhausted but can’t fully relax.
You fall asleep but wake up alert, heart pounding, for no reason.
You startle easily, forget things, or find yourself tense even when life is calm.
If that sounds familiar, your body may be stuck in overdrive — the state where your nervous system keeps preparing for a danger that’s long gone.
After COVID, this happens more often than most people realize. The body’s internal wiring gets disrupted: the part that’s supposed to say “we’re safe now” doesn’t come back online right away.
The survival response that never shut off
During illness, your body goes into protection mode — raising alertness, tension, and inflammation to help you survive. That’s appropriate in crisis. But once the infection clears, the same protective circuits can stay active, like a smoke alarm that never stops beeping.
The result: fatigue, anxiety, dizziness, shortness of breath, or sudden crashes that seem unrelated — all signs of a body still trying to “save” you from something that’s no longer there.
Why the nervous system stays on high alert after COVID
The nervous system has two modes:
Sympathetic (“fight or flight”) — for action, danger, stress
Parasympathetic (“rest and repair”) — for recovery and healing
After COVID, many people’s systems lose their ability to switch between the two. The body stays in sympathetic dominance, pumping out low levels of stress hormones even in rest.
That constant “hum” drains your energy, weakens digestion, and makes the smallest stressors feel huge.
The chemistry of safety
When your body truly feels safe, your nervous system releases signals that lower heart rate, deepen breathing, and restore digestion. Cortisol and adrenaline drop; repair hormones rise.
It’s not just about being calm — it’s about your biology knowing it can stop defending itself.
The challenge is that you can’t think your way into that shift. You have to feel it — through sensory cues, grounding, breath, and gentle energy flow.
How energy healing helps your system remember calm
Energy healing works through the same networks that regulate safety — breath, rhythm, and subtle body awareness.
When the energy field quiets, the nervous system senses coherence.
Your body starts to remember the pattern of safety, and over time, that becomes its new default.
This is why clients often describe their first sessions as “deep rest for my whole system.”
It’s not sleep — it’s reset.
Simple ways to start shifting out of overdrive
You can start helping your body downshift right now:
Place a hand over your chest or abdomen and breathe slowly until your exhale lasts longer than your inhale.
Let your shoulders drop and feel gravity holding you.
Look around your room and quietly name five things you see.
Want a practice you can try right now? This 5-Minute Reset gently guides your body out of high alert.
Each small act tells your nervous system: I’m safe. It’s okay to soften. Healing begins the moment your body remembers it’s no longer in danger.
Ready to retrain your body’s rhythm?
Try one of the grounding techniques in the free mini guide — 3 Ways to Calm Your Body’s Overdrive — or explore The Reset (4-Week Program) to start working directly with your system’s natural rhythm.