Why the Nervous System Remembers What the Mind Forgets
When people begin therapy, they often say things like:
“I don’t know why I feel this way.”
“Nothing that bad happened.”
“It’s just how I’ve always been.”
But their body tells a different story.
Tight shoulders, a clenched jaw, chronic fatigue, or a racing heart in seemingly calm situations. These are not signs of weakness. They are signs of memory—not stored in words or images, but in the nervous system.
Trauma Is Not Just What Happened—It’s What the Body Held On To
We tend to think of memory as something cognitive: remembering dates, names, and events. But the body has its own form of memory—somatic memory. This is especially true for trauma, particularly early or developmental trauma where the brain’s ability to encode narrative memory wasn’t fully developed.
The nervous system—particularly the autonomic nervous system—remembers the sensory and emotional residue of what happened. When something in the present feels like a past threat (even unconsciously), the body responds as if it's happening again.
The Role of the Autonomic Nervous System
Your autonomic nervous system (ANS) has one main job: survival.
It scans for safety or danger constantly, even without your awareness.
It remembers patterns to keep you out of harm’s way.
It triggers fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses when it perceives threat.
If your past included neglect, chaos, or threat, your ANS may have learned that hypervigilance or withdrawal is “normal.” Even if your adult life is now stable, your body may still be reacting from a nervous system shaped by past events.
Why the Mind Can’t Always Remember
There are several reasons the mind may forget while the body remembers:
Pre-verbal trauma – Before language, the brain encodes experience through sensations, not stories.
Dissociation – A common protective mechanism during overwhelming events; it “splits off” awareness.
Chronic overwhelm – Long-term stress can make the brain deprioritize memory encoding.
Social conditioning – We’re taught to minimize or dismiss our pain, especially if it doesn’t look like traditional trauma.
Signs Your Nervous System Remembers
Overreactions to minor stressors
Chronic tension, pain, or fatigue
Panic without clear cause
Emotional numbness or shutdown
Relational patterns that feel compulsive or hard to explain
Healing Happens Through the Body, Too
Talk therapy can be transformative—but for deep trauma healing, we often need to involve the body. Modalities that support nervous system regulation include:
Somatic Experiencing (Peter Levine)
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (Pat Ogden)
Polyvagal-informed therapy (Stephen Porges’ work)
Yoga and breathwork
TRE (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises)
Mindful movement or trauma-informed bodywork
Final Thoughts: The Body Is Not the Enemy
It can be confusing to feel anxious, reactive, or frozen with no clear reason. But your body is not betraying you—it’s trying to protect you.
Understanding that your nervous system remembers what your mind forgets is the first step in trauma healing. It shifts the question from “What’s wrong with me?” to “What happened to me?”—and eventually, to “How can I support myself now?”
Healing doesn’t mean erasing the past. It means creating enough safety in the present that your body no longer has to stay on high alert.
And that’s when real freedom begins.
