A Guide To Inner Calm: Understanding The Nervous System

This course is designed to help you understand the inner workings of your nervous system—especially the automatic patterns behind stress, anxiety, shutdown, and overwhelm. You’ll learn how your body responds to threat, why some people stay “stuck” in fight, flight, or freeze, and how chronic stress can affect everything from digestion to sleep to emotional wellbeing. With clear explanations, this course offers a simple yet powerful framework for reconnecting to your body’s natural capacity for healing. By the end, you’ll feel more empowered to recognize your nervous system state, support yourself through difficult emotions, and begin building a lasting foundation of inner calm and resilience. Note this is not a series of guided meditations, the focus is on education and deepening your understanding of your body.

Lección 1: What Is the Nervous System & Why It Matters

In this first lesson, I break down the nervous system in a way that’s easy to understand — showing how it affects everything from your pain and digestion to your sleep and emotional health. I’ll explain the difference between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, and why so many of us are unknowingly stuck in fight-or-flight. I’ll also share what I discovered in my chiropractic practice that changed the way I help people heal.

Lección 2: Fight, Flight, Freeze & Fawn Explained

In this lesson, you'll learn about the four main nervous system stress responses—Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn—and how they show up in everyday life. We'll explore how modern life can keep us stuck in these patterns, the physical, mental, and spiritual cost of chronic stress, and why some responses—like Fawn—are more common in women. By the end, you'll be able to recognize your own stress response and begin the journey back to balance.

Lección 3: Signs Your Nervous System Needs Support

This lesson will help you recognize when your nervous system is stuck in chronic stress, rather than moving through natural cycles of activation and rest. You’ll learn the difference between normal stress responses and long-term dysregulation, and how this shows up emotionally, physically, and in your relationships. Real client stories illustrate how these signs often go unnoticed but are actually your body’s way of asking for support. This lesson builds awareness and reminds you that you’re not broken — your system is simply trying to protect you.

Lección 4: Polyvagal Theory Explained

In this lesson, we explore Polyvagal Theory—a simple yet powerful way to understand how your nervous system shapes your emotions, behaviors, and energy levels. You’ll learn about the vagus nerve and how your body shifts between states of calm, fight-or-flight, and shutdown depending on how safe or threatened it feels. By recognizing these states, you can start supporting your nervous system to return to balance and resilience.

Lección 5: The Window Of Tolerance

In this lesson, we explore your Window of Tolerance—the emotional range where your nervous system feels stable, present, and regulated. Chronic stress or trauma can shrink this window, making it easier to tip into overwhelm (sympathetic activation) or collapse (dorsal shutdown). The good news is that with consistent practices, your window can expand, giving you more emotional resilience and control in everyday life.

Lección 6: Everyday Tools to Regulate Your Nervous System

In this lesson, you'll learn how to choose the right nervous system regulation tool based on your current state—whether you're frozen in shutdown or spiraling in overwhelm. We’ll explore simple, everyday practices like breathwork, grounding, movement, co-regulation, herbs, and nature, so you can start gently rewiring your baseline. The goal isn’t perfection, but consistency—daily micro-practices create lasting calm far more effectively than emergency fixes.

Lección 7: Trust Yourself

This final lesson explores how to gently rebuild trust with your body after experiences of stress, pain, or trauma. You’ll learn why consistency and kindness matter more than intensity, and how small daily choices can create a felt sense of safety over time. I close the course with my own personal story of healing, reminding you that reconnection is always possible.

Reviews

Really enjoyed the course and especially you sharing your own experiences… Bed rot lol I can relate. I appreciate you saying that.

Thank you Dr Kim, I found your course on the understanding of the nervous system super interesting and helpful! Looking forward to hearing more. ❤️🤗

Dr. Kim explains our nervous system responses in clear, laymanʻs terms in this beginner course. She also provides methods to regulate unwanted symptoms and real-life examples. Thank you for this excellent and informative course.

This was wonderful, I have started working with Michelle Spring & the AIP community, doing somatic movement and shaking and I feel better already. Thank you for helping me see that I needed that to shake all those stuck emotions off 🤗 I will be relistening, I’m sure to hear more on the second round. Thank you🙏

Another great course on Insight Timer! I had no idea I was stuck in survival mode. I found myself in all the symptoms flight mode my whole adult life. I can finally turn it off! I can't thank you enough. Love and light!

I enjoyed listening to this course and it's given me new perspective and insight into myself. It's long enough to learn from it and short enough to be repeatable. I highly recommend this.