How to Regulate Your Nervous System and Feel Better Fast with Liz Tenuto - Earn Your Happy Recap

Podcast: Earn Your Happy

Published: 2026-03-23

Duration: 3666

Guests: Liz Tenuto

What Happened

Liz Tenuto discusses how unresolved stress and trauma affect high-achieving women, often leaving them in states of fight, flight, or functional freeze. These states can disrupt energy levels, sleep patterns, and relationships, leading to feelings of overwhelm despite outward success.

Somatic exercises can release stored stress and regulate the nervous system, offering an alternative to traditional therapies. Tenuto explains how micro-movements, such as gentle hip rocking, can transition the body from a freeze state to regulation, helping to alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Tenuto's insights are grounded in her personal journey of healing from PTSD, which she attributes to the effectiveness of somatics. She discovered these methods through her ballet teacher and found them crucial for managing insomnia and chronic pain resulting from childhood trauma.

The somatic approach emphasizes completing the body's stress cycle through movement, which can be as simple as walking for bilateral stimulation. Techniques like ear pulling and vagus nerve stimulation play a role in calming the nervous system and addressing issues like digestive problems.

Functional freeze is common among high-performing women, who may appear efficient but crash in private. Tenuto offers accessible exercises such as forehead rubbing and knee tapping to help individuals manage stress and improve overall well-being.

Sleep positions can indicate stress levels, with positions like the T-Rex arms or fetal position suggesting unrest. Transitioning to more regulated sleep positions can be facilitated through somatic practices, supporting better rest and recovery.

Key Insights

• High-achieving women often experience a constant state of fight, flight, or functional freeze due to unresolved stress and trauma. This impacts their energy, sleep, and decision-making abilities.
• Somatic exercises, including micro-movements and bilateral stimulation, help release stored stress and regulate the nervous system, offering a practical alternative to traditional therapies.
• Liz Tenuto attributes her recovery from PTSD to somatic practices, which addressed her insomnia and chronic pain from childhood trauma. Her methods are inspired by her experiences with a ballet teacher.
• Stress-related sleep positions, such as T-Rex arms and fetal position, can signal unrest. Somatic exercises can help transition to more restful positions, improving sleep quality.