The Slow Train That Never Lets You Off

Trauma isn’t the story — it’s what your body still holds. Here’s why talk therapy feels like the slow train, and how healing starts in the nervous sys

Stuck on the slow trauma train? Your body’s still holding the ticket. Healing begins when your nervous system learns it’s safe.

You know that feeling when you think you’re finally making progress — you’ve talked it through, analysed it from every angle, even written it down until your pen runs dry — and yet… your body is still holding it?

It’s like boarding the slow train.
Same destination written on the board.
Different journey entirely.

You sit there, replaying the stops you already know by heart:

The memory that still hijacks your breath.
The conversation you keep having in your head, years after it ended.
The way your chest tightens before you’ve even said a word.

You can see the express train pulling past in the corner of your eye. But somehow, you stay in your seat. Because this is the route you know. The loop you’ve ridden so many times, it feels safer to keep circling than risk stepping off.

Talking about trauma can feel like that. The story gets told, but the body keeps paying.
Your nervous system holds the ticket — not your mind.
And until the body feels safe enough to process what it never got to finish, you stay on the slow train.

The truth? Trauma isn’t the story. Trauma is what’s left in your body after the story.

That’s why regulation alone feels like coping, not healing.
That’s why you can breathe yourself calm at night, and still wake up tight-chested in the morning.
That’s why you can “know better” and yet find yourself repeating the same patterns.

Because your nervous system doesn’t take orders from your intellect.
It takes cues from your lived experience.

Healing isn’t about riding the train longer, hoping this time it’ll drop you off somewhere new.
It’s about getting off. Teaching your body it’s safe to land.

That’s the work we do inside Self Elevation Coaching — my 6-month container for women ready to stop looping their pain and start living in safety, connection, and freedom.

If you’ve been sitting on the slow train, watching your life circle around the same tracks — maybe it’s time to step off.

👉 Click here to explore Self Elevation Coaching and book a call to apply.

Categories: : Life After Narcissistic Abuse, Nervous System & Trauma