Have you ever noticed that when something good happens, you immediately brace for it to disappear?

In this episode of The Embodied Empath Podcast, Valerie Lundgren explores why joy can feel unsafe after long-term stress, trauma, burnout, or survival mode—especially for empaths and highly sensitive women. When the nervous system is wired for protection, expansion can feel threatening. Instead of relaxing into happiness, the body anticipates loss.

Valerie breaks down the biology behind this response, including how chronic stress conditions the nervous system to expect danger, and why openness and vulnerability can trigger anxiety instead of ease. You’ll learn how to gently build your capacity for positive emotions without forcing yourself into toxic positivity.

This episode includes a simple somatic practice to help your body tolerate joy and expansion safely—so you can experience goodness without bracing for impact.

You are allowed to feel good without paying for it later.

Do you finally slow down—only to feel anxious, guilty, restless, or like something bad is about to happen?

In this episode of The Embodied Empath Podcast, Valerie Lundgren explores why rest can feel unsafe for empaths and sensitive women who have lived in long-term survival mode. Through a nervous-system-informed lens, she explains how chronic stress wires the body to associate productivity with safety, why slowing down can trigger anxiety instead of relief, and how rest often brings unfelt emotions to the surface.

You’ll learn why this isn’t a lack of discipline or desire for rest—but a protective response shaped by biology, conditioning, and identity. The episode includes a gentle somatic practice to help your nervous system experience rest in small, tolerable doses so safety can be rebuilt over time.

Rest is not something you earn. It’s something your body needs to heal.

If you’ve ever said yes when your body wanted to say no, felt responsible for other people’s emotions, or struggled to set boundaries without guilt, this episode is for you.

In this episode of The Embodied Empath Podcast, Valerie Lundgren explores people-pleasing through the lens of the nervous system and explains why it’s not a personality trait—but a survival response known as the fawn response. You’ll learn how the nervous system uses appeasement to stay safe, why empaths are especially prone to this pattern, and how chronic self-abandonment fuels anxiety, resentment, and burnout.

This episode includes a gentle somatic practice to help your body feel safe with boundaries—without forcing, explaining, or over-functioning. Healing people-pleasing starts in the body, not the mind.

Have you been feeling numb, exhausted, unmotivated, foggy, or disconnected from yourself—even when nothing looks “wrong” on the outside?

In this episode of The Embodied Empath Podcast, Valerie Lundgren explains the nervous system freeze response (also known as shutdown) and why so many empaths and sensitive women get stuck here after chronic stress, emotional labor, perimenopause changes, burnout, grief, or long-term survival mode.

You’ll learn how freeze is not laziness or failure, but a protective biological response shaped by the autonomic nervous system and the dorsal vagal pathway. Valerie breaks down what freeze looks like in daily life, why women often internalize stress until the body collapses, and how to begin gently “thawing” out of shutdown without forcing yourself into productivity.

This episode includes a calming somatic practice to help you return to presence, safety, and self-connection—one moment at a time.

Are These Feelings Even Yours?

Do you ever feel anxious, heavy, or emotionally drained without knowing why—especially after being around certain people or environments?

In this episode of The Embodied Empath Podcast, Valerie Lundgren explores emotional absorption through the lens of the nervous system and explains why empaths and highly sensitive women often carry emotions that don’t belong to them. You’ll learn how the body’s subconscious threat-detection system responds to emotional tension, why women are conditioned to over-attune to others, and how chronic emotional absorption fuels anxiety and burnout.

This episode introduces a somatic practice to help you differentiate your emotions from others, restore energetic boundaries, and return to a sense of calm and clarity—without shutting down your empathy.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your anxiety is actually yours, this conversation will help you listen to your body with compassion and confidence.

If you’ve felt more anxious, reactive, or emotionally raw during perimenopause—and wondered if something is “wrong” with you—this episode offers the context you were never given.

In this episode of The Embodied Empath Podcast, Valerie Lundgren explains how hormonal shifts during perimenopause directly impact the nervous system, lowering emotional thresholds and intensifying panic, rage, and sensory overwhelm—especially for empaths and highly sensitive women.

You’ll learn why these changes aren’t a loss of control but a biological and neurological recalibration, how emotional labor and identity shifts compound nervous system stress, and why rage is often a boundary signal—not a flaw. The episode includes a gentle somatic practice to safely release anger and regulate your system in real time.

This conversation is about understanding your body, not fixing yourself—and learning how to move through this transition with clarity and self-trust.

Anxiety isn’t caused by negative thinking or lack of willpower—it’s a nervous system response designed to keep you safe.

In this episode of The Embodied Empath Podcast, Valerie Lundgren breaks down the science behind anxiety and explains why mindset tools alone often fail to create lasting relief—especially for empaths and sensitive women. You’ll learn how the nervous system detects threat before conscious thought, why chronic stress keeps the body stuck in survival mode, and how regulation—not positive thinking—is the key to real healing.

If you’ve ever felt frustrated that you “know better” but still feel anxious, this episode will help you understand your body with compassion and clarity.

If you’ve tried mindset work, therapy, or pushing through anxiety but still feel overwhelmed, reactive, or disconnected, this podcast is for you.

The Embodied Empath Podcast is a nervous-system-informed healing space for sensitive, intuitive women navigating anxiety, perimenopause, emotional overwhelm, and life transitions. Hosted by Valerie Lundgren, this show blends neuroscience, somatic practices, hormone health, and spiritual insight to help you understand what your body is communicating—and how to feel safe within yourself again.

This is not about fixing yourself.
It’s about learning to listen.