How is cortisol affecting you?

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Right, so I’ve been noticing something really interesting with my body lately, and it’s got me thinking about how our physical bits are basically a walking diary of our stress history.

I’ve been on this journey of getting back to who I am, and somewhere along the line, a switch flipped. I just started caring about myself a lot more. Part of that has been losing some weight—very slowly, very gradually, and very sensibly.

But here’s the fascinating bit. When I was younger, I never put on weight on my stomach. Never. But as I got older and the stress piled up, that’s exactly where it all went. I ended up with what I now know is a classic "cortisol belly."

Lately, though? I can feel my stomach shrinking. It’s where I’m losing all the weight at the moment.

And I reckon it’s because of the nervous system work.

I’ve spent so much time doing the practices and getting myself back into a level, regulated area. I’ve finally got myself to a place where my body actually feels safe.

When your system is stuck in survival mode, it hangs onto that belly weight for dear life because it thinks it's under threat. No amount of white-knuckling a diet will shift it. But once you create genuine, internal safety? The body goes, "Oh, okay. We can let this go now."

I think a big part of that safety came from getting my ADHD and autism diagnosis, too. It allowed me to just go, "Ah, that’s okay," and finally accept how I’m actually wired instead of fighting it. That alone dropped my stress levels massively.

The wildest thing is that I’ve got a lot going on right now—I'm mid-decorating, the house is a bit of a zone, and life is busy. But it’s not stopping me from feeling calm and okay. I’m not calm because my life is perfect; I’m calm because I’ve learned how to access that safe state more often, even when things are messy.

It’s just beautiful to realize that the internal work we do eventually becomes externally visible. Your body believes you when you tell it it's safe.

If this resonated and you want to start doing the work to release the stress come and join me in The Somatic Yoga Collective. It is just $7/m and you can try it out with a 7 day Free Trial.

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How is cortisol affecting you?