09/02/2026
Have you ever felt like everything inside you is spinning?
Our thoughts race, our emotions take over, and sometimes that overwhelm spills out into our words, our relationships, and even our bodies.
In her latest blog, Susan explores what we call “spinning” at Healing Waters—how we recognize it, why understanding it doesn’t always stop it, and how awareness can help us interrupt the cycle and find our way back to balance.
Read Susan’s latest blog, “Spinning: How Awareness Helps Us Interrupt the Cycle,”
You may recognize a little of yourself in it.
Spinning: How awareness helps us interrupt the cycle
August 27, 2026
“Spinning” is a term we use at Healing Waters to describe what happens when something overwhelms our whole system.
Our thoughts begin racing. Our emotions seem to go in every direction. Our body may become tense, shaky, restless, or unable to settle. It can feel as though everything inside us is spinning at once.
When this happens, we often throw the spin outward. We may react toward other people, cry, become angry, repeat how overwhelmed we feel, or blame someone else for what is happening within us. Sometimes our bodies carry the reaction through tightness, trembling, pressure, or discomfort.
The mental, emotional, and physical pieces are difficult to separate because they are all part of the same experience. Once the spinning begins, we can often feel it moving through our whole self—if we are aware enough to recognize it.
When we aren’t aware, the spinning can become a pattern. We continue talking about what happened, replaying the story, blaming others, or repeating the same reaction each time we feel overwhelmed.
One of the most important ways to begin shifting the spin is awareness.
Understanding It Doesn’t Mean We Never Do It
Denise and I coined the term “spinning,” and we always found it interesting that even when we understood what it was, it still happened to us.
That is because we are human.
Lately, I have had a lot on my plate, and the other day I began spinning. I knew what I was doing, yet I was still throwing my overwhelm outward. I was telling myself I was overwhelmed, telling other people I was overwhelmed, and feeding the feeling with my words.
But something was different this time: I was tired of the pattern.
I think I even said aloud, “I’m tired of feeling overwhelmed.”
Sometimes we can recognize a pattern while we are still in it. Awareness does not always make the reaction disappear immediately. We may know we are spinning and continue spinning for a while.
That doesn’t mean we have failed.
Looking back, I can see that part of my overwhelm comes from not always being good at asking for help. Sometimes spinning is a sign that other people can step in and share the responsibility. Everything does not have to depend on one person.
I understand what happened, and I can give myself grace for it. I can also make a different choice the next time I feel the spinning begin.
If we do not recognize our patterns, we are more likely to repeat them. When we become aware of them—even after the fact—we create an opportunity to respond differently next time.
That is how we shift.
Finding a Way to Stabilize
Someone recently came into the center and had not heard us use the term “spinning” before. But as soon as I explained it, she immediately understood.
“I had that happen,” she said.
I asked her, “What did you do to stabilize your spin?”
She told me she went outside, took off her shoes, and walked barefoot on the ground. She felt so much better afterward.
She recognized that she was spinning and chose something that helped her stabilize.
We all stabilize in different ways. It may mean stopping for a moment and taking a slow breath. It may be changing our surroundings, going outside, walking, running, resting, asking for help, or looking at the situation from another perspective.
The purpose is to interrupt the cycle.
If we can interrupt the spinning while it is happening, it may break more quickly. Sometimes we do not recognize it until afterward, and that is okay too. Awareness after the fact is still awareness, and it can still change what happens next time.
If you find yourself spinning over something happening in the world, a relationship, an old story, or an event in your life, pause and ask yourself:
Am I spinning right now? What might help me stabilize?
One small change can interrupt the entire cycle, even if only for a few moments. If it helps, continue returning to it.
The situation may not disappear right away, and your emotions may still need time to move through you. The goal is not to force yourself to feel differently. It is to recognize what is happening, offer yourself grace, and make one choice that helps you return to yourself.
Sometimes that one small interruption is the beginning of the shift, in the flow.
Susan
