The Real Work with Maggie Sterling

Get my nervous system sensitization course
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Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz.
 If you have chronic insomnia, or you wake up at 3am and can't fall back asleep, there's a good chance your nervous system is sensitized and stuck on high alert. In my experience this is rarely a sleep problem. In this video I cover how your nervous system gets in the way of something your body already knows how to do on its own, what not to do when you're lying awake in the middle of the night, why I part ways with a lot of what CBT-I teaches, and how medication and medication withdrawal can factor into all of it. I also answer the four questions I get asked most about insomnia: How do I stop fearing not sleeping when the consequences are so real? Is this fear, or is it something physical? What if the thing keeping me up isn't fear? What if I recovered and I'm suddenly back to all nighters, am I at square one?

Get my nervous system sensitization course
Take the nervous system sensitization quiz
Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz.
If you've had anxiety for a while, there's a good chance you've been making it worse without knowing it. It happens automatically the second a symptom shows up, and it's the reason your nervous system keeps sounding the alarm no matter what you try. In this video I break down the most common way people respond to anxiety, what that response has actually been doing to your nervous system this whole time, and what to do instead. This applies whether your anxiety shows up as racing thoughts and rumination or as a racing heart and shortness of breath.

Get my nervous system sensitization course
Take the nervous system sensitization quiz
Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz.
Anxious thoughts, intrusive thoughts, and rumination are symptoms of a sensitized nervous system, the same way physical symptoms are. In this video I explain why your thoughts get so loud, so dark, and so convincing when your system has been stuck in threat, and why you can't think your way out of them. I go into why your brain zooms in on one problem at a time, why quieting one thought just makes room for the next one, and what actually keeps the whole loop running.

Get my nervous system sensitization course
Take the nervous system sensitization quiz
Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz.
Your nervous system won't regulate, and the tool you picked isn't the reason. Meditation, breathwork, supplements, cold plunges: if you've tried all of it and still feel anxious and wired, there are three things underneath it that nobody put on the list. I go through all three in this video, including the one signal your system is actually reading every day while you're busy trying to fix it.

Get my nervous system sensitization course
Take the nervous system sensitization quiz
Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz.
Nervous system regulation doesn't work for everyone, and the reason has nothing to do with how hard you're trying. If you've done the breathing exercises, the cold plunges, the vagus nerve tools — and felt nothing — there's something happening underneath that almost nobody in this space talks about. In this video I'm breaking down the difference between a dysregulated nervous system and a sensitized one, why that difference changes everything about what actually helps, and what to do when the tools everyone recommends aren't touching your symptoms.