Your Nervous System Isn’t Broken—Your Story Is
How Trauma Stories Hijack Your Nervous System... and How to Take It Back
You think you’re just stressed.
But what if stress was just the echo of a story you never rewrote?
What if the anxiety, the numbing, the overworking, the shutdown...
…wasn’t you... but a pattern your body rehearsed to survive?
This is the real reason your nervous system feels hijacked.
It’s not just your vagus nerve.
It’s the trauma script still playing in the background of your life.
And until you reclaim that story... you will live the same day over and over again, calling it your personality.
The Big Idea
Your nervous system doesn’t act alone.
It listens to the stories you’ve told yourself since childhood.
It feels the emotions you never got to process.
It obeys the beliefs you didn’t choose... but adapted to in order to survive.
That’s the CPNEI system... your Consciousness-Psycho-Neuro-Endocrine-Immune network.
It’s not simply biology. It’s also your biography (the story, history and conditions of your life).
And unless you interrupt it, you will keep living from your M.U.D.... your Misguided Unconscious Decisions.
These show up as what I call Stress Tracks... patterned reactions to pain that become coping identities.
You think it’s just stress… but it’s also a trapped identity.
That is something you can’t meditate your way out of. You must first unearth what’s underneath it.
The Breakdown
M.U.D.: Where Patterns Begin
M.U.D. stands for Misguided Unconscious Decisions... those split-second meaning-making moments from your past when you were hurt, confused, or scared… and decided something about yourself.
“I’m not safe.”
“I’m not enough.”
“I have to earn love.”
“If I feel this, I’ll die.”
These decisions become beliefs.
Those beliefs become emotions.
And those emotions get etched into your nervous system… becoming Stress Tracks.
This is why you keep reacting the same way in love, in conflict, in uncertainty.
It’s programming.
But that programming isn’t permanent.
The 4 Stress Tracks (Coping Identities)
These tracks aren’t just physical.
They’re full-spectrum survival identities wired into your CPNEI system.
1. Self-Soothing Track (Freeze/Fawn)
You numb. You scroll. You please. You disappear.
Underneath?
A story: “If I disappear, I won’t get hurt.”
An emotion: Fear of abandonment. Shame of being “too much.”
A belief: I’m only safe when I make others happy.
This is your nervous system trying to be invisible enough to survive.
It’s not laziness. It’s trauma-driven appeasement.
Of course it is not simply shrinking and hiding, it is also acquiescing and pleasing.
If you make others happy
If you are nice and sweet and kind… then you are safe (so you think).
2. Striving Track (Fight/Flight)
You control. You work. You overachieve. You optimize.
Underneath?
A story: “If I can just do enough, I’ll finally be worthy.”
An emotion: Panic. Rage. Desperation. Anxiety.
A belief: Love is earned, not given. I must prove my worth.
This is nervous system activation as protection.
You’re not ambitious... you’re hypervigilant.
It’s not just drive... it’s also dread.
3. Shock Track (Feign/Shutdown)
You collapse. You dissociate. You vanish into your own head.
Underneath?
A story: “It’s not safe to feel. It’s not safe to exist.”
An emotion: Overwhelm. Grief. Terror.
A belief: I’m powerless.
This is the body pulling the emergency brake.
System override. Biological freeze. Emotional exile.
4. Focus Track (Strength & Purpose)
You breathe. You center. You choose meaning.
This is the track of earned resilience.
Underneath?
A story: “My pain can be my teacher.”
An emotion: Grounded courage.
A belief: I have agency.
This is not “positive thinking.”
This is integration.
This is nervous system + narrative + emotion aligned.
This is healing.
CPNEI: The Real Nervous System Model
Most trauma work starts and ends with the body.
But Next Level healing demands you understand that your nervous system is downstream from consciousness.
CPNEI = Consciousness → Psychological meaning → Neurological patterning → Endocrine response → Immune function
Stress isn’t just physiological.
It’s a meaning-making system.
It’s your soul’s autobiography getting stuck in your cells.
And the real medicine?
Is not just somatics.
It’s story work.
Rewriting the Pattern: The 3 Rs of Identity Recovery
To escape your stress track, you need to heal on three levels:
1. Rewrite the Unconscious Story
Uncover the M.U.D.
Ask: What belief did I form when I was hurt?
Challenge it. Choose again.
This is not easy. This is hidden in the unconscious. You must use techniques to meet it there.
2. Rewire the Emotional Holding Pattern
Let yourself feel what you never got to feel.
Use BEEP breathing. DEEP sessions. Express and alchemize.
This is also extremely difficult… emotions are tied to the story.
3. Retrain the Nervous System
Once you’ve shifted the narrative and integrated the emotion... then work on regulation: cold exposure, breathwork, movement, safety priming.
Notice this is where people being and end… this is the last step and the least important.
Practical Takeaway
Next time you feel triggered or shut down…
Don’t ask, “What’s wrong with me?”
Ask:
What track am I on?
What story am I living?
What emotion have I exiled?
What belief am I proving true?
Then: Breathe. Feel. Reframe. Move.
Stress is not the enemy.
Unconsciousness is.
Yes, this is far easier said than done.
Yes, this is why Next Level Human exists… our Human Architects are trained to help you do this.
Closing Thought
You are not broken.
It’s not weakness.
You are not “losing your mind.”
You’re just running a pattern built for survival, not expansion… and the current health model has not evolved far enough to help.
But you’re also not alone
You are not here just to survive.
You’re here to evolve.
To become a Next Level Human.
And that means going beneath the nervous system... and rewriting your source code.
There is a way to heal from this… it’s just different than what you have been told.
PS: If you’re ready to clear the M.U.D.... reclaim your nervous system... and become the kind of person who leads from clarity instead of coping, explore the Next Level Human Architect program today. Spots are limited... don’t wait. 👉 http://www.nextlevelhuman.com/human-coaching