Be Still, My Heart.
Nervous System Healing, Faith, and the Work We Avoid
“Be still.” We quote it. We post it. We cling to it when life feels loud. But stillness is not passive. Stillness is practiced.
As a therapist, I see this constantly. People are incredibly insightful. They can name their trauma, list their triggers, and articulate their attachment wounds beautifully. And yet their nervous systems are still living in survival mode.
Awareness is important. It is not the finish line.
Healing requires more than acknowledgment. It requires choice.
Your Nervous System Is Always Paying Attention
Your body remembers what your mind tries to move past too quickly. Long after the situation is over, the nervous system is still scanning, bracing, preparing.
This shows up as hypervigilance, shutdown, irritability, people pleasing, overthinking, emotional numbness, or feeling constantly on edge for no clear reason.
From a clinical standpoint, this makes sense. The nervous system’s job is protection, not logic. From a faith standpoint, it also makes sense. Scripture reminds us that we are embodied beings. What happens in the body impacts what happens in the spirit.
You cannot bypass the body and expect peace to settle in your soul.
Faith Does Not Cancel the Nervous System
This is where I see a lot of spiritual burnout.
People love God deeply but feel frustrated that prayer alone is not calming their anxiety or regulating their emotions. They start to believe something is wrong with their faith.
Nothing is wrong with your faith.
God does not override your nervous system. He partners with it.
“Be still and know” is not just a spiritual instruction. It is a physiological one. Stillness requires slowing your breath, grounding your body, and interrupting the constant internal threat response.
Regulation is not a lack of faith. It is stewardship.
Healing Is a Daily Practice, Not a Moment of Insight
Real healing asks uncomfortable questions.
What are you doing consistently to support safety in your body?What patterns are you aware of but unwilling to change?
Where are you waiting on God to move when you are being invited to act?
Healing does not happen accidentally. It happens through repeated, intentional choices.
Choosing rest over constant stimulation.
Practicing breathing or grounding when anxiety rises instead of pushing through.
Attending therapy and actually doing the work between sessions.
Setting boundaries even when guilt shows up.
Ending cycles you keep calling lessons.
Discipline is not punishment. It is devotion.
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Discipline is not punishment. It is devotion. 〰️
Stillness Is a Decision, Not a Mood
Being still does not mean nothing hurts. It means you stop rehearsing the danger.
When the body feels safer, the mind settles. When the mind settles, the spirit can hear more clearly.
Regulation creates space for discernment. It allows faith to move from survival mode into trust.
Be still, my heart.
Not because everything is calm.
But because I choose to tend to what is not.
This is what true healing looks like.
This is faith with follow through.
This is nervous system care as sacred work.
And it is work worth doing.
