Uphill Healing: Why Everything Feels Harder (and How to Make It Easier)
Episode 118: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
View transcript on Buzzsprout
Using a personal story about a difficult uphill walk versus an easy downhill one, this episode offers a powerful and validating analogy for the healing journey. Amanda explores why life and healing can feel so hard when you’re dealing with anxiety or depression, diving into the real physiological and biological reasons your body is working overtime. This episode is a compassionate reminder that your struggle is not a personal failing and that the hard “uphill” work you’re doing now is what creates the conditions for life to feel easier later.
What We Cover in This Episode
- Why a dysregulated nervous system is “physiologically expensive” and makes daily life feel objectively harder.
- The reasons the healing process itself—confronting the past, feeling new emotions, and changing habits—also feels uphill at first.
- How underlying physiological issues, like hormone imbalances or nutrient deficiencies, can make the healing journey feel even steeper.
- Practical strategies for navigating the “uphill” phase of healing without getting discouraged.
- What the “downhill” phase of healing looks and feels like, and the hope that it is possible.
Healing Isn’t Always a Straight Line (Or Flat Trail)
Amanda opens with a personal story about a walk to the hospital that inspired this whole episode. Same distance both ways, but the uphill walk burned more energy, triggered a higher heart rate, and felt significantly harder.
That’s exactly what healing can feel like.
Just because you’re doing the same work as someone else—or doing work you’ve done before—doesn’t mean it should feel equally easy. Your body, your circumstances, and your biology all influence how hard or heavy the path feels.
Why Healing Often Feels So Hard
Healing isn’t just emotional or psychological—it’s biological. Dysregulation is physiologically expensive. If you’re stuck in chronic survival mode, your body is already spending extra energy just to function. Add healing on top, and it makes sense that the process feels exhausting.
When your nervous system is dysregulated, everything takes more effort—including healing.
Amanda outlines real factors that can make healing harder:
- Chronic dysregulation or survival mode
- Past trauma or unresolved stress
- Micronutrient deficiencies (B6, iron, etc.)
- Hormonal imbalances (thyroid, cortisol)
- Blood sugar instability or gut issues
- Lack of movement, connection, or sleep
These aren’t hypothetical. Inside Restore, clients often discover that previously missed health data (like undiagnosed thyroid issues) were directly contributing to anxiety or emotional shutdown. Once addressed, healing got easier.
Uphill Now, Easier Later
Healing often gets harder before it gets easier. That’s not failure—it’s feedback. Amanda reminds listeners that healing requires upfront investment: emotionally, biologically, and practically. But when you build safety, nourishment, and regulation into your life, things begin to shift.
You often have to walk uphill to create the conditions for life to feel downhill later.
This is what it means to do the hard work of healing in order to experience more ease later. There is a tipping point, and Amanda walks through what it looks like:
- More clarity, less brain fog
- More ease getting out of bed
- Faster stress recovery
- More emotional range and resilience
- Responding instead of reacting
Four Ways to Navigate the Uphill Journey
- Expect it. Normalize the fact that healing will feel hard sometimes. This doesn’t mean it’s not working.
- Start small. One change at a time. One supportive step at a time.
- Get support. Therapists, coaches, and community make the climb easier.
- Rest often. You’re allowed to pause. Resting doesn’t mean regressing.
Inside Regulated Living, coaching program members learn how to assess their own “stress bucket,” balance their biology, and regulate in small, doable ways.
Three Tangible Takeaways
- Life with anxiety or depression feels uphill because it is. Your nervous system is working harder than most to function. That’s real, not imagined.
- Healing is hard because it’s rewiring your system. Change takes effort. Familiar doesn’t mean healthy—so it makes sense that growth feels hard.
- The uphill phase won’t last forever. The effort you put in now is creating conditions for future ease. Keep going. You’re doing brave work.
Looking for more personalized support?
- Book a FREE discovery call for RESTORE, our 1:1 anxiety & depression coaching program (HSA/FSA eligible & includes comprehensive bloodwork)
- Join me inside the Regulated Living Membership, a mental health membership and nervous system healing space (sliding scale pricing available)
- Join my Release Class – Monthly guided nervous system regulation class
- Order my book, Healing Through the Vagus Nerve today!
*Want me to talk about something specific on the podcast? Let me know HERE.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
