#37 Clearing Up the Confusion Between the Subconscious & Nervous System

You’ve probably heard the words nervous system and subconscious used interchangeably lately — they’ve become the healing world’s favorite buzzwords.
But the truth is… most people have no idea what either of them actually does, let alone how they work together.

And because of that, a lot of the information out there is completely backwards — leaving you confused and focusing on the wrong things for your healing.

If you don’t understand the relationship between these two systems, you won’t understand what actually needs to change.

In this episode, we’re clearing up the confusion once and for all. By the end, you’ll know:

• The real difference between the subconscious and the nervous system
• Who’s actually in charge of your symptoms
• Which one you need to stop obsessing over if you want real, lasting healing

If you’re tired of mixed messages and surface-level advice, this episode will finally make everything make sense.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the Rebellious Healer, where we ditch the fear, decode the symptoms, and heal at the root. I'm Jenny Peterson, former holistic practitioner, turned mind-body rebel. For 20 years, I've helped people get to the root of chronic symptoms by changing the subconscious patterns behind them. If you're done chasing protocols, done outsourcing your power, and ready to get to the root of what's actually driving your symptoms, you're in the right place. You've probably heard the words subconscious and nervous system thrown around a lot lately, often in the same sentence. They've become the buzzwords of the healing world. But the truth is, most people have no idea what either of them actually means, let alone how they work together. And because of that, the healing world has gotten a lot of things backwards, which only creates more confusion for you as someone trying to heal. If you don't fully understand this relationship between your subconscious and your nervous system, you won't understand what actually needs to change to heal. So today we're clearing up the confusion once and for all, because getting this right is one of the most important things you can do for your healing progress. By the end of this episode, you'll understand the difference between the subconscious and the nervous system, who's really in charge of your symptoms between these two, and which of these you want to ditch your focus on if you truly want to heal. Let's talk about some of the things you've probably heard about your nervous system or your subconscious, usually from people who decided to slap nervous system coach in their bio last week. Let's start with a few of the big myths. The body tells the subconscious what to do. Or my nervous system is sending messages that my subconscious reacts to. And the classic, your nervous system holds trauma. Are these really true? Biologically, no. Not even close. It's not how we're designed. Which is exactly why this kind of bullshit needs to be cleared up. Because if you don't have a clear understanding of how your body actually works, you will get fooled by this kind of information. And you don't need to be a doctor to understand how your body is designed. You just need someone who's willing to tell you the truth. So here's how your biology actually works. Your subconscious interprets your world. It's scanning constantly for patterns, safety, familiarity, threats, association, memories, and meaning. It's the command center, the place where your decisions are made, your perceptions are formed, and how you perceive the world is based on all this data that it has collected and saved for future use, for interpretation of your life and your world. And based on that interpretation, the subconscious sends a signal to the autonomic nervous system. This signal determines which branch of the autonomic nervous system gets activated. Either it's going to be the sympathetic or it's going to be the parasympathetic. And the autonomic nervous system does not choose these states on its own. It reacts to the subconscious message it receives. So if the message feels like it's not safe, it's going to activate the sympathetic. If it feels safe, nothing's going to be done, and the body will be able to stay in a parasympathetic state. This is all going to be based on the perception and the message from the subconscious mind. So then the body is going to express that message based on what nervous system is activated. The heart rate will change, your digestion will shift, breathing will change, muscle tension changes, your energy distribution changes. All of that is going to change depending on what nervous system gets activated, sympathetic or parasympathetic. And none of this begins until after the subconscious has interpreted the situation. This is the hierarchy. This is the biology. This is the order in which your biology responds. And it's happening so quickly, you are most likely not seeing all of this. I want you to think of it like a fire call. The subconscious is the one deciding whether there is something that's a threat. And the nervous system is the fire crew that is responding. And the body is the sirens, the lights, and the movement that you notice, right? And here's the part most people miss. You're not going to blame a firefighter for the fire, right? And you wouldn't say the firefighters showed up. They must have caused this. Of course, you wouldn't say that. They're simply responding to the alarm. And your nervous system works the exact same way. It's not the problem, it's the responder. Yes, your body sends sensory data upward, but raw data isn't meaning. Raw data isn't interpretation. Raw data isn't safety or danger. Your subconscious is the one deciding. Is this familiar? Is this safe? Is this threatening? What does this mean? What needs to happen next? All of that is happening on a subconscious level based on all the proof it has stored from your entire life, primarily between the ages of when you were in the womb, all the way to the age of seven. Okay, so we've been programmed up to the age of seven, and all of that programming is going to be what our subconscious is referencing in how we filter out the world and respond and determining what feels safe and what doesn't feel safe. Your nervous system does not get to make these decisions. And here's where people get confused: you feel the body's response faster than you consciously register the subconscious interpretation. So it feels like the body responds first. It feels like the nervous system initiated the reaction. But what actually happened is this your subconscious interpreted the situation milliseconds before you consciously noticed anything and sent the command. You're simply becoming aware of the physical response afterward. This is why so many people will say, Well, this is happening in my body and nothing happened. I feel completely safe. And this has nothing to do with you feeling consciously safe or not. It's subconsciously something was triggered, and your body responded from that. It's not the opposite. There's only a physical response based on the command that was given. So let me give you some examples of this. I want you to think about the last nightmare you had or a bad dream that you had, and you were asleep, you were unconscious, you were completely safe. But you woke up with your heart racing, your muscles were tense, you were sweating, and you snapped awake with this full-on fight or flight. And that's all because your subconscious interpreted something as danger, and that something was your dream. Your conscious mind wasn't awake, your body wasn't reacting to anything real, but your subconscious created the meaning from that dream, and your nervous system obeyed, even when you were unconscious. This explains how the subconscious tells the autonomic nervous system, which then tells the body, always. And let's do another example just for fun. And this one is kind of hard to do because obviously this is audio, you can't see anything. But I want you, if you have a good imagination, to imagine a lemon in front of you. Like you cut a lemon and you can see and smell the lemon. You smell the that stitchy smell. And let's say you pick up that slice of lemon in your hand and you put it up to your mouth. Now, again, you're just pretending you're doing this, but you in your mind know what a lemon looks like, you know what a lemon tastes like, and you're putting it up to your mouth. Here's the deal. I'm just talking about it right now, and I'm already salivating in my mouth, but there's no lemon. And my body isn't reacting to reality. I'm imagining it. It's reacting to the meaning and association that my subconscious has already stored about the lemon. And you didn't come out of the womb with this knowing that a lemon was sour. It wasn't until you actually experienced at some point in your life what this lemon tasted like and it created an association in your subconscious and said that thing is sour. So as soon as you see that, your subconscious is giving the clue already to your body to salivate or whatever. Some people's jaw clinches, you might get that, you know, sour taste in your mouth. That's how powerful your subconscious interpretations are, and how programs are created in your subconscious mind that create a bodily biological response. And they can create a physical response with no real stimulus, just a simple message. And now that's through imagination. And now think about it when you actually have a situation that happens and how that's even amplified even more. Your imagination versus what is actually happening in reality. There is no difference on a subconscious level, right? Because it does the subconscious doesn't know what's real or what's not real. All it knows is its programs and what is connected to it and what it knows. It's the proof that's in the files. So if the subconscious is the boss and the body is the follower, the nervous system work can never be a long-term solution. It might help you feel calmer in the moment, it might activate your parasympathetic state for a few minutes, it might give you temporary relief, it might be a tool in your toolbox to help you start on your healing journey, but it's not going to be something that takes you all the way. And it cannot rewire the subconscious patterns that are creating the symptoms in the first place. Let's see how this plays out in real life. Jane grew up in an environment where speaking up led to something negative. Maybe it caused conflict, maybe she saw someone explode, maybe it led to being punished, dismissed, or shamed. It created tension she learned to avoid at all costs. So her subconscious created a core rule, a core belief. Speaking up isn't safe. My needs create problems. Stay quiet to stay safe. Now fast forward to adulthood. Jane's coworker crosses a boundary, her friend asks for something she really doesn't have the bandwidth for. And instantly, before she even thinks the thought, her stomach drops, her chest tightens, her throat constricts, her mind goes blank. This isn't her body dysregulating. This is her subconscious saying, warning, don't speak. Speaking equals danger. So if Jane was to be doing nervous system work, she's gonna feel the tightness in her chest and she might breathe through it. She might notice the lump in her throat, and maybe she does some tapping or vagus nerve exercises, and then she feels the panic, so she does some type of body movement. And yes, these things calm her in the moment and also help move the stress out of her body. But ten minutes later, the boundary still needs to be set. The uncomfortable conversation still needs to happen. The truth still needs to be spoken. And again, the physical reaction will hit. Why? Because the subconscious belief of speaking up is dangerous has never changed. She's trying to soothe the fire alarm without addressing the reason it keeps going off. This is why nervous system work becomes a lifetime job, because the underlying interpretation still says don't. It's not safe. Even if she recognizes this pattern once she feels it in her body, it's still too late. It's already been triggered in the subconscious. But here's what would happen if Jane would work on the subconscious level. Instead of obsessing over the sensations in her body and realizing that it's just a biological response to something within her subconscious, she starts to see the pattern behind the situation. And she realizes the panic isn't the problem. The problem is the old belief that using my voice creates danger. So she works on that belief, the memory, the association, that internal rule her subconscious has been protecting her with for decades. And once that belief shifts, once she makes the connections and tells her subconscious, this is not scary anymore, the subconscious is no longer going to interpret speaking up as a threat. Once the subconscious is told, okay, we no longer need to believe this, and we remove that belief and rewire with something different. Her subconscious is no longer going to interpret speaking up as a threat. Her entire biological response will change in her body because her perception changes. Her underlying belief of how she perceives the situation will change by changing that core belief. And the next time someone crosses a boundary, her chest won't clamp down, her stomach doesn't drop, her throat doesn't close. She may still feel uncomfortable because growth is uncomfortable, but she doesn't go into a biological stress response. The subconscious changed the meaning, and the nervous system simply followed the new command. This is the difference between managing your body forever and resolving the pattern that's making your body react in the first place. Nervous system work helps you handle in the moment. Subconscious work changes your entire experience of the moment. One keeps you coping and the other moves you into healing. Hey, I want to pause here for a second because this is usually the part where those that are listening start to realize, oh shit, this is why nothing I've tried has worked. If that's hitting you right now, if you're suddenly connecting the dots and seeing that your healing has been focused on the wrong system, this is exactly why I created the eight-month mind-body rewire program. MBR is where we stop chasing the body and start working directly with the patterns that are actually running everything behind the scenes. If you're ready for structure, support, and a step-by-step path to shifting this on a subconscious level, you can apply for the eight-month program anytime using the link in the show notes. All right, let's keep going. So let's talk about why knowing this matters for your healing. This isn't just information that's just quote unquote interesting. It is literally everything. Because if you believe the nervous system is the boss or toxins are the boss or whatever you want to blame, or that your body decides your emotional state, or that your body is sending messages, your subconscious obeys, then you will spend your entire healing journey doing the wrong work, focusing on the wrong things. You're going to try regulating yourself all day, staying calm at all costs, or trying to avoid being triggered. You're going to try and manage the sensations of your body or try to monitor all of your symptoms, or you're going to try and catch every single thought and perform the safety ritual that you've been told you need to do perfectly, because if you don't do it perfectly, it's you're not going to heal. You're going to prevent emotional activation, things that trigger you. You might judge yourself when you fail at doing what you're told to do and blame your body when symptoms return. That's just some of the things that happens when we put our energy towards the wrong things for healing. And none of that changes the subconscious instructions. None of this external work or nervous system work rewires the patterns. None of that fixes the root cause. And none of that heals chronic symptoms. And I know this because I've worked with clients. I've done this work myself. Our entire team has done this work. And all we have done for ourselves and our clients is focus on subconscious patterns. And we have all completely healed and resolved our chronic symptoms, living normal lives, even better than normal lives, because of that. And I'm here to say I've been free of my symptoms for seven years. It wasn't a short-term thing, it was a long-term result because I worked on the root cause. I'm sure you can hear my passion about this, but it really hurts me to see people misunderstanding who's in charge and spending years of money and time chasing their body instead of healing their patterns. And when you finally understand that the subconscious leads and the nervous system follows, you stop trying to control your state of mind minute by minute, your body minute by minute. And your healing does become simpler, it becomes clearer, and you're going to feel much more calmer and more grounded just simply because you're focusing on what matters and everything else goes away. And you'll stop thinking that you're broken because it finally makes sense why your body's doing what it's doing, or that your body is malfunctioning, or when you react to something, you get mad at yourself because, oh, there I go again, something's wrong with me. I can't regulate myself, or I'm reacting the same way I did before, and I know that it's wrong and this ain't working. These things all go away because you realize my subconscious is just running an old safety pattern. And that can be rewired. This understanding gives you back your power. It turns confusion into clarity, it stops fear-based healing and protocols, and it shifts you out of symptom policing and into real change. This is why the distinction between the subconscious and the nervous system matters. It's the difference between performing healing and actually healing. So, what actually creates healing biologically? Well, healing happens when you shift these subconscious patterns that include your fears, your association, your beliefs, all the patterns that you have formed throughout your life that you are literally running off of every single day, when you shift the ones that are keeping your body feeling not safe, that's when everything changes. Because when the subconscious changes its interpretation of safety, then what happens from there, based on what I've explained here, is the autonomic nervous system activates differently. The sympathetic nervous system isn't going to be constantly activated and having your body to adapt because of that activation. Now, that does not mean that your sympathetic will never be activated. That is a healthy body when you can go from sympathetic to parasympathetic. That's naturally how we're designed to go up and down. But when we somebody has chronic symptoms, you are in a chronic cycle of jumping from sympathetic to parasympathetic and back and forth, and it never completes the healing process. And when you change the patterns within the subconscious, that back and forth stops. And your body stops having to adapt for this threat that it's getting, and all of a sudden your symptoms resolve. And it's not because you're fixing your body, it's because you're updating the software your body listens to. So here's what I covered today. Your subconscious is the one in charge. It interprets your world, decides what's safe or unsafe, and sends the message your body responds to. Your nervous system is the responder, not the decision maker. Nervous system work can only take you so far. You can activate your parasympathetic nervous system by doing whatever that you're being told to do, but none of that rewires the patterns that are actually keeping symptoms alive. Are those things helpful for being in your toolbox? Absolutely, but they are not long-term solutions. And your body heals when your subconscious feels safe. When the safety interpretation changes, the autonomic nervous system shifts automatically and symptoms change from the inside out. Healing becomes easier, calmer, and more predictable because the right system is finally being addressed. Understanding this is what ends all of the confusion, it ends the fear and ends the constant micromanaging of your body. And this is what allows real healing to happen. Not because you're forcing anything, but because you're finally working with the part of you that runs the show. So if you're listening to this and realizing I've been focusing on all the wrong things, I've been working on my body when I should have been working on my patterns, then you are exactly who the eight-month mind body rewire program is for. This is where you stop chasing symptoms and finally address the subconscious patterns that have been running, your healing, and your life. Inside the MBR program, you don't just learn this work, you are guided through it step by step, day by day. You rewire the patterns that keep your body stuck. You shift the fears, associations, and beliefs that keep your subconscious in protection mode. You learn how to create actual internal safety so the body can do what it's designed to do: heal. And you get the structure, direction, and support most people never receive with other programs. This is the deepest, most life-altering work that you can do, and it's designed for who are ready to stop performing healing and start leading it. If that's you, you can apply using the link in the show notes. Your subconscious is ready for a new story. Your body is ready to follow it. And you're ready to become the healer you need to be.