Panic attacks can feel overwhelming, sudden, and out of your control. Your heart races, your chest tightens, your breath shortens, and it can feel like something terrible is about to happen—even if there’s no clear danger in front of you. While these intense experiences are deeply disruptive, they are not signs of weakness or brokenness. Your nervous system is fighting to protect you.

In somatic therapy, we understand panic attacks as the body going into survival overdrive. The nervous system is responding to a real or perceived threat, flooding the brain with signals that it’s not safe. But just as the body can be activated into a fight-or-flight response, it can also be gently guided back into a state of regulation and calm.

Let’s explore how somatic practices can support you in moments of panic—offering your nervous system the safety and care it needs to complete the trauma response and come back to balance.

Why Panic Attacks Happen: A Nervous System Perspective

When a panic attack strikes, it’s not just “in your head”—your entire nervous system is activated. This is your body’s ancient survival response kicking in. It prepares you to fight, flee, or freeze in response to perceived danger.

Common physical symptoms of panic include:

• Rapid heartbeat
  
• Chest tightness
  
• Racing thoughts
  
• Trembling or shaking
  
• Dizziness or hyperventilation
  

These reactions are not random—they are survival energy moving through your system. And with the right tools, you can help that energy discharge safely, instead of staying stuck.

The Somatic Shift: Meet Panic with Compassion, Not Fear

What if, instead of fighting the panic or trying to shut it down, you learned to meet it with presence and care?

When we respond to panic with curiosity, compassion, and somatic tools, we invite the nervous system to complete what it started—to finish the trauma response and return to regulation. This process is at the heart of somatic therapy.

Below are several somatic practices that can soothe the nervous system during a panic attack and help it remember safety.

Somatic Practices for Panic Relief

1. Ice Packs Under the Armpits

Placing ice packs or even cold compresses under your arms can initiate the diving reflex—a powerful response that slows your heart rate and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (your body’s calming system). The diving reflex redirects oxygen-rich blood back toward vital organs like the heart and lungs instead of outer extremities.

This sudden cold exposure also shocks your brain into focusing on a new, non-threatening sensation, which can help interrupt the panic loop.

2. Deep Vocalization (or Shaking)

Making low, resonant sounds like a long sigh, deep hum, groan, or primal yell can activate the vagus nerve, which is a key player in nervous system regulation. These sounds signal to your brain: “I am safe. I am grounded.” Shaking—like literally letting your arms, legs, or whole body tremble—is another natural way to discharge adrenaline and survival energy stored in the body. Somatic trauma expert, Peter Levine, describes this process as re-channeling the survival energy into an active response that returns the body to safety.

3. Chew Gum (or Pretend to Chew)

The brain associates chewing with eating, and we don’t eat when we’re in danger. Chewing activates the rest-and-digest part of the nervous system and signals safety. Even pretending or mimicking chewing can begin to send calming signals to your brain and body. This simple action can help shift you out of a stress response by mimicking a non-threatening behavior. It’s especially helpful in public spaces where more obvious somatic tools might not feel accessible.

4. Wall Pushes for Strength and Stability

Pushing your palms firmly into a wall, with steady pressure, can help anchor you in your body. When pushing against a wall, we engage the fight response– particularly deep core muscles like the psoas, which are strongly linked to the stress response. Pushing sends a signal to your brain that you are strong, capable, and present.

5. Suck on Sour or Spicy Candy

Panic loops tend to keep the brain . A sudden strong sensory input—like a sour lemon candy or spicy flavor—gives your brain something new and intense to focus on, interrupting the cycle. But beyond just being a distraction, sucking itself is a powerful somatic act. From infancy, sucking is one of the first self-soothing mechanisms we develop. It’s rhythmic, repetitive, and deeply regulating. Engaging this reflex as an adult can stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, specifically the vagus nerve, helping the body shift from a state of high alert to one of calm and rest. This simple action can reconnect you to a felt sense of comfort and safety—rooted in the earliest ways our bodies learned to self-regulate.

Rewiring the Nervous System Over Time

If panic or anxiety is a regular part of your life, these tools can offer immediate disruption of the pain cycle—but they are not a cure-all. Ongoing panic may be a sign that your nervous system is stuck in survival mode and hasn’t learned how to return to a state of rest and regulation.

This is where somatic therapy can be transformative. Through consistent work with a trained therapist, you can begin to:

• Release stored trauma
  
• Complete unfinished survival responses
  
• Rewire your nervous system for safety, peace, and resilience

You Are Not Broken—You’re Wired for Protection

Panic is not a flaw. It’s your body trying to protect you.

And with somatic support, your system can learn that it’s safe to let the alarm settle.

If you’re ready for deeper healing—beyond just managing symptoms—somatic therapy can help you feel safe in your body again.

Interested in working together to support your nervous system healing?
Schedule a free phone consultation to learn more about somatic therapy and how it can help you move from survival to safety.