The Real Work with Maggie Sterling

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Your exhaustion isn't laziness—it's your nervous system running survival operations 24/7. In this video, I explain the two hidden energy drains keeping you depleted and why the beginning of healing feels the hardest (even though it gets easier). For years, I believed I was just a low-energy person. I needed 2-3 hour naps every day and could barely make it to dinner without collapsing. I thought something was fundamentally wrong with me. But the real problem wasn't my energy—it was where that energy was going.

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Take the nervous system sensitization quiz

You didn't develop chronic anxiety from one traumatic event. You got stuck in a sensitization loop—where your nervous system learned to stay vigilant even when the threat was gone. In this episode, I break down what sensitization actually is, how it happens gradually (not dramatically), and why understanding this changes everything about how you heal. This isn't about finding the "root cause" or reliving your past. It's about seeing how your nervous system learned this pattern—and why acceptance, not fixing, is what helps you get unstuck.

In this episode, Dr. Brad Fanestil—a medical doctor with 30 years of experience—explains how chronic pain and anxiety can actually be healed, not just managed. If you've been told you just need to "learn to live with it," this conversation will challenge everything you thought you knew about healing.

About Dr. Brad Fanestil Dr. Brad Fanestil is a board-certified Internal Medicine doctor with 30 years of primary care and hospital experience. Throughout his career he saw patients come into his exam room and into his hospital with problems that didn't always respond to medications and procedures. 'In 2018 he started reading about the new neuroscience and discovered that anxiety, chronic pain and many other hard-to-treat medical conditions are nothing more than learned behaviors in the nervous system - habit loops in the neural circuitry of the brain.' Most of his patients have seen dozens of doctors and other healthcare practitioners without relief. Now, using the tools of Mind Body Medicine, Dr. Fanestil offers online and in-person classes to teach people how to rewire the neural circuitry of anxiety and chronic pain.

Connect with Dr. Brad Fanestil: https://www.bouldermindbodymedicine.com

YouTube - ‪ @Dr.Fanestil  ‬

TEDx Talk: https://youtu.be/Nv-Ol3l4QX4?si=ljn_bXPN2Cer14kJ

Most nervous system advice is missing something critical — and it kept me stuck for years.
If you've tried everything (the breathing exercises, the tapping, the vagus nerve resets, the meditation) and nothing seems to work… you're not broken. You might just be using the wrong tools for where your system actually is.
In this episode, I'm breaking down the difference between a dysregulated nervous system and a sensitized nervous system — and why that distinction changes everything about how you heal.
Take the quiz to find out if your nervous system is sensitized or dysregulated
Get my nervous system sensitization course

Get my nervous system sensitization course
You're doing all the "right" things — the breathing exercises, the meditation apps, the journaling — and you're still anxious. Still wired. Still can't relax. Here's the thing: some of the habits you think are helping are actually keeping your nervous system stuck in survival mode. In this video, I'm sharing 3 things to stop doing if you actually want to feel calm. These aren't obvious mistakes. They're the subtle patterns that keep you in the loop of trying to fix yourself — which is the exact energy that keeps your nervous system on high alert. If you've tried everything and nothing seems to work, this might be why.