We Don’t Experience the World, We Experience Our Nervous System

“Have you ever noticed how the same situation can feel completely different depending on the day?

For example, your work, or relationships.

One day, life feels expansive, people seem kind, and everything flows.
Another day, the world feels heavy, irritating, exhausting, hard, or unsafe. It’s as if the whole world is very different. Or you may lose confidence, or feel fearful, like you just can’t get it right.

But the truth is… it hasn’t.
You have.

This quote by Eknath Easwaran (neuroscientist) in his Bhagavad Gita introduction explains:

“We never really encounter the world; all we experience is our own nervous system.”

This simple sentence captures something profound about healing.
Our nervous system is the filter through which we see, feel and experience reality.
When it’s calm and regulated, life feels open, effortless, and possible.
When it’s in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, life feels dangerous, chaotic, hard, hopeless, stressful. Even when nothing externally has changed.”
– Justine Lloyd, Somatic Therapy and Energy Healing Practitioner

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(Embodied Processing is the somatic therapy I studied.)