Stop Trying to Feel Better — Get Better at Feeling: Heal Anxiety from the Body Up with Dr. Russell Kennedy
6/22/20261 hr 21 min
If you've tried therapy, medication, journaling, and every mindset tool available — and you're still anxious — this episode is for you. Dr. Russell Kennedy, physician, neuroscientist, and certified trauma therapist, makes the case that anxiety doesn't start in your mind. It starts in your body, as a physiological alarm that's likely been there since childhood. And until you address the alarm directly, you're only ever managing symptoms.
Dr. Kennedy explores why perimenopause turns up the volume on anxiety that felt manageable before, why overachievement is just another way of outrunning the alarm, and what you can actually do — today — to start healing from the body up. Fair warning: Dr. Kennedy takes Dr. Stephanie through a live exercise to find her body alarm. There were tears in the production room.
🎤 Episode Overview
(0:00) Intro/Teaser
(1:30) Stand-Up Comedy, Mother's Death, and What Anxiety Is
(08:28) Why We're So Anxious in a World That's Never Been Safer
(12:51) Alarm vs. Anxiety: The Distinction That Finally Makes Sense of It All
(26:00) JABS, the Default Mode Network, and Overachievement
(46:00) Perimenopause and SSRIs
(53:00) Live Exercise: Finding the Alarm in Your Body (Baby Steffi)
(01:06:00) How to Start Feeling Your Feelings Without Blowing the Lid Off Pandora's Box
(01:11:39) Three Beach Balls and No Progesterone
(01:17:00) The After-Party with Dr. Stephanie
📎 Resources mentioned in this episode: https://drstephanieestima.com/podcasts/ep474
🎁 We couldn’t do it without our sponsors:
OXFORD HEALTHSPAN PRIMEADINE - A whole-food spermidine supplement that supports cell renewal and healthy aging. Save at https://OxfordHealthspan.com/DrStephanie with code DrStephanie.
ONESKIN - With age, skin becomes thinner, produces less collagen, proliferates at a slower rate, and accumulates damage. Fight back at https://oneskin.co/better with code BETTER.
JUST THRIVE HEALTH - Take the Just Thrive FEEL BETTER challenge today, and save on your first order. Go to https://justthrivehealth.com/better and use the code BETTER to see the difference for yourself.
AGZ - If you’re ready to turn down the stress and focus on the rest, head to https://drinkag1.com/STEPHANIE to get a special offer.
****************************
P.S. When you're ready, here are two ways Dr. Stephanie can help you:
Subscribe: The Mini Pause — My weekly newsletter packed with the most actionable, evidence-based tools for women 40+ to thrive in midlife.
Build Muscle: LIFT — My progressive strength training program designed for women in midlife. Form-focused, joint-friendly, and built for real results.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRussell Kennedy· Guest0:00
Then the negative self-talk. Why can't I do this? I should be, you know, you know, Sharon down the street, she's doing just thriving. It's like, why can't I go to the gym? Like, she goes to the gym all the time. I... Yeah. So these jabs that we take at ourselves. It's just realizing this isn't you. Like, this is, this is how you've learned to be, but this isn't who you are, and we don't see who we are until we're able to- Oh, that's so good ... sort of metabolize that alarm, because that alarm will always throw a blanket over who we are.
Stephanie Estima· Host0:26
I am going to think about that sentence for a while.
Russell Kennedy· Guest0:29
[laughs] These things that we tell ourselves, you know, these stories. Okay, when I have this much money, when I have this house, when I have this relationship, you know, I'll be happy when... And it... That's called affective prediction error. Affective being emotional, predictive error means I'll be happy when. I say, you know, don't go looking for peanut butter in the tree. Don't go to your medical doctor thinking they're gonna heal your anxiety, when basically they're gonna give you an antidepressant. And I'm not down on medical doctors, it's just that they really don't understand this whole process, especially with anxiety. When you're worried about your kids, or your job, or your relationship, or whatever, it's like, okay, I'm getting caught into my head. This is not helping me. What can I do to sort of calm myself at this point? And that's why I say sensation without explanations.
Stephanie Estima· Host1:14
[upbeat music] If you think that treating anxiety is about feeling better, you're wrong. It's about getting better at feeling. My guest today is Dr. Russell Kennedy.