The Real Work with Maggie Sterling
The Real Work helps women break chronic stress, anxiety, and burnout by addressing root causes, not symptoms. Host Maggie Sterling combines neuroscience and nervous system regulation to help you stop self-abandonment, build self-trust, and feel safe in your skin. No toxic positivity—just practical tools for rewiring your brain, regulating emotions, and coming home to yourself. Deep transformation for women ready to stop escaping and start living.
Episodes
55 - Why Your Nervous System Won't Let You Sleep
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz. If you have chronic insomnia, or you wake up at 3am and can't fall back asleep, there's a good chance your nervous system is sensitized and stuck on high alert. In my experience this is rarely a sleep problem. In this video I cover how your nervous
54 - You've been making your anxiety worse without even knowing it
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz. If you've had anxiety for a while, there's a good chance you've been making it worse without knowing it. It happens automatically the second a symptom shows up, and it's the reason your nervous system keeps sounding the alarm no matter what you try.
53 - Why Your Nervous System Won't Let You Think Straight
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz. Anxious thoughts, intrusive thoughts, and rumination are symptoms of a sensitized nervous system, the same way physical symptoms are. In this video I explain why your thoughts get so loud, so dark, and so convincing when your system has been stuck in
52 - 3 Reasons Your Nervous System Won't Regulate
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz. Your nervous system won't regulate, and the tool you picked isn't the reason. Meditation, breathwork, supplements, cold plunges: if you've tried all of it and still feel anxious and wired, there are three things underneath it that nobody put on the l
51 - The Biggest Lie About Nervous System Regulation
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz. Nervous system regulation doesn't work for everyone, and the reason has nothing to do with how hard you're trying. If you've done the breathing exercises, the cold plunges, the vagus nerve tools — and felt nothing — there's something happening undern
50 - Healing Became Your Whole Personality (And It's Keeping You Stuck)
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz. You've spent years trying to heal your nervous system, calm your anxiety, and finally feel better — but you're still waiting to actually live your life. Somewhere along the way, healing stopped being something you do and quietly became who you are. T
48 - 3 Things You Don't Realize Are Overstimulating You
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz. Three everyday things are overstimulating your nervous system without you even noticing, and they're the ones that feel like relaxing. You can do almost nothing all day and still end up completely fried by the evening. In this video I walk through a
47 - Why your chronic pain wont go away
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz. If your chronic pain or symptoms won't go away no matter what you've tried, the answer may be in your nervous system. What keeps chronic pain going is something most doctors and practitioners never talk about, and once you see it, it's hard to unsee
46 - How To Finally Heal Your Chronic Pain (and other symptoms) with Dr. Howard Schubiner
Buy the book "Unlearn Your Pain": https://amzn.to/3RFTxho Follow Dr. Schubiner on Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/hschubiner/ https://www.facebook.com/hschubiner/ Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz. If you've been to doctor after doctor with no real answers, this conversation
44 - What Your Symptoms Are Really Trying To Tell You
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz. If you've been trying to decode every symptom — chest tightness, flares, intrusive thoughts, dizziness — searching for the hidden meaning your body is trying to send you, this video is going to reframe what's actually happening. The message you're lo
45 - What Nobody Tells You About Brain Retraining (When You're Already Sensitized)
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz. Brain retraining is being prescribed to the people it makes worse. If you have a sensitized nervous system and you've been doing brain retraining — monitoring every thought, interrupting cascades, redirecting hundreds of times a day — and it feels l
43 - 5 Signs Your Nervous System Is Causing Your Pain (and other symptoms)
Are your symptoms caused by your nervous system? Take the Quiz. Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz 5 signs your nervous system is causing your chronic pain, anxiety, gut issues, dizziness, fatigue, and other symptoms doctors can't explain. If your tests keep coming back normal and nothing has worked, this video walks you through the specific sign
42 - 5 Subtle signs your nervous system is actually healing
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Nervous system healing rarely looks like what you think it should. For 20 years I waited for the day I'd wake up calm, symptom-free, and finally "fixed." That day never came. What did happen was much quieter — and I almost missed it. In this video, I'm sharing 5 subtle signs your nervous system is actually heali
41 - I'm Addicted to Being OFF My Phone (It made my symptoms disappear)
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Your phone is sensitizing your nervous system. If you have chronic anxiety, chronic pain, or symptoms that won't shift no matter what you try, your screen time may be the layer of work you haven't addressed yet. In this video, I'm walking you through what's actually happening in your nervous system every time you
40 - Can AI Help You Heal Your Nervous System?
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Can AI help you heal your nervous system? ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini have become the go-to for people dealing with anxiety, chronic pain, and chronic symptoms — but my honest opinion on whether you should be using them is probably not what you'd expect.In this video, I'm walking you through when AI actually help
39 - How to reset a hypersensitive nervous system
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz A hypersensitive nervous system can be reset. But not the way most people are teaching it. In this video, I'm showing you what actually works when your system is so sensitized that every sensation feels like an emergency — and why the tools you've been reaching for are keeping the alarm on. If you try the practic
38 - How to Get Your Partner to Support Your Healing (It's Not What They Think)
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz If you're in the middle of nervous system healing, you've probably wondered how to get your partner to actually understand what you're going through — and what real support looks like when nothing they do seems to help. In this episode, Maggie sits down with her husband Ryan, who supported her through her darkest
37 - I'm terrified of my symptoms—how to respond differently even when it feels impossible
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Nervous system sensitization makes responding differently feel completely impossible — and that feeling is lying to you. If you know what you're supposed to do but can't make yourself do it when symptoms are high, you're not broken. This is one of the most common places people get stuck — and it's exactly what'
36 - Why Is Nervous System Healing So Slow? (the pattern keeping you stuck)
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz If you feel like you've been doing everything right and you're still not getting better, this episode is for you. Maggie spent over a decade stuck in nervous system sensitization — and a lot of that time was spent doing things that felt like healing but were actually keeping her stuck. In this episode, she brea
35 - I don't have insomnia anymore. Here's the thing I had to change to heal.
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz If you've tried every sleep hack, supplement, and routine and you're still not sleeping — this is the video you've been looking for. I struggled with chronic insomnia for 20 years. It got so bad in 2023 that I ended up in an inpatient psychiatric facility. In this video, I'm sharing the single shift that actually
34 - You're Way Beyond Nervous System Dysregulation | 5 Signs To Look Out For
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz If you've tried everything for your anxiety or chronic symptoms and nothing is working, your nervous system might be sensitized — not dysregulated. These are two very different things. Most nervous system content out there is built for dysregulation. And if that's not what you're dealing with, those tools won't j
33 - My anxiety and pain stole my life. This is how I got it back.
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz I tried everything. Therapy, EMDR, IFS, ketamine, supplements, psychedelics, hormone testing — 20 years of effort, and my anxiety kept getting worse. Then a dental injury led to chronic nerve pain, health OCD, insomnia, and eventually severe suicidal ideation. I hit rock bottom in a psychiatric ward. What finally
32 - Deep Breathing Is Making Your Anxiety Worse
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz If you have chronic anxiety or physical symptoms that won't go away, you've probably been told to breathe through it. Box breathing, the physiological sigh, meditation — and maybe it helps for a minute, or maybe it doesn't help at all. There's a reason for that. When your nervous system is sensitized, breathing e
31 - The Scariest Anxiety Symptom Nobody Talks About
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Most anxiety symptoms are scary. But there's one that's different — and almost nobody talks about it. It doesn't just feel like fear. It feels like certainty. Like something is genuinely, seriously wrong with you. It's the loop that kept me Googling for hours, bouncing between diagnoses, convinced that this ti
30 - You'll Never Rewire Beliefs Until You Do This First
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz If you've been doing thought work, journaling, affirmations, or mindset shifts and your nervous system isn't changing — this video explains why. When your nervous system is sensitized, the part of your brain responsible for rational thinking is barely online. Trying to think your way to safety when your system
29 - Medication, Withdrawal, and Nervous System Desensitization (What's Actually Happening)
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz If you're dealing with nervous system sensitization and medication is part of your story — whether you're currently on it, actively tapering, or in full withdrawal — this video is for you. Maggie breaks down the three most common situations she hears about and answers the question she gets asked constantly: do
28 - 3 Things I Stopped Telling Myself to Heal
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Everyone asks me what they should be saying to themselves when anxiety hits. After years of chronic anxiety and nervous system sensitization — and hitting rock bottom in a psychiatric hospitalization — I realized the question wasn't what to say. It was what to stop saying. In this video, I'm sharing the 3 sente
27 - 20 Years Of Anxiety Ended When I Did This
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz I dealt with anxiety for 20 years. I tried every modality, every therapist, every supplement, every hack. Nothing worked long-term. In this video, I'm sharing what finally healed my anxiety — and why it was the scariest, most counterintuitive option I could have chosen. I talk about what sensitization actually
26 - 5 Things You Shouldn't Do If Your Nervous System Is Sensitized
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz If your nervous system is sensitized, the things you instinctively want to do are probably making it worse.In this video, I'm sharing 5 things I would stop doing immediately if I were in the thick of sensitization — and I know because I did all of them for years. This is stabilization work. The goal isn't optimiz
25 - Why You're Always Exhausted (And Rest Doesn't Help)
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz Your exhaustion isn't laziness—it's your nervous system running survival operations 24/7. In this video, I explain the two hidden energy drains keeping you depleted and why the beginning of healing feels the hardest (even though it gets easier). For years, I believed I was just a low-energy person. I needed 2-3
24 - Why Your Nervous System Got Stuck In Survival Mode (And Won't Turn Off)
Get my nervous system sensitization course Take the nervous system sensitization quiz You didn't develop chronic anxiety from one traumatic event. You got stuck in a sensitization loop—where your nervous system learned to stay vigilant even when the threat was gone. In this episode, I break down what sensitization actually is, how it happens gradually (not dramatically), and why understanding thi
23 - Dr. Brad Fanestil, MD | This Is How You Heal Anxiety and Chronic Pain
In this episode, Dr. Brad Fanestil—a medical doctor with 30 years of experience—explains how chronic pain and anxiety can actually be healed, not just managed. If you've been told you just need to "learn to live with it," this conversation will challenge everything you thought you knew about healing. About Dr. Brad Fanestil Dr. Brad Fanestil is a board-certified Internal Medicine doctor with 30 y
22 - The Missing Step in Nervous System Work
Most nervous system advice is missing something critical — and it kept me stuck for years. If you've tried everything (the breathing exercises, the tapping, the vagus nerve resets, the meditation) and nothing seems to work… you're not broken. You might just be using the wrong tools for where your system actually is. In this episode, I'm breaking down the difference between a dysregulated nervou
21 - 3 Things to Avoid When Healing Your Nervous System
Get my nervous system sensitization course You're doing all the "right" things — the breathing exercises, the meditation apps, the journaling — and you're still anxious. Still wired. Still can't relax. Here's the thing: some of the habits you think are helping are actually keeping your nervous system stuck in survival mode. In this video, I'm sharing 3 things to stop doing if you actually want to
20 - What Acceptance Actually Looks Like (It's Not What You Think)
Get my nervous system sensitization course You've heard that acceptance is the key to healing. But when you try to "accept" your symptoms, nothing changes. That's because acceptance isn't something you do—it's what happens when you stop doing. In this episode, I'm breaking down what acceptance actually looks like in practice (hint: it's not saying affirmations or trying to feel calm). I'll share w
19 - How I Quiet My Anxious Mind in 7 Seconds
Get my nervous system sensitization course I used to have one anxious thought hijack my entire day. Now it passes in about 7 seconds. In this episode, I'm sharing the shift that made this possible—and it's not a breathing technique or a hack. It's understanding the difference between being "anxiety free" and being "free from anxiety." One keeps you stuck. The other is where the suffering actually
18 - Why Therapy Wasn't Enough (What No One Told Me)
Get my nervous system sensitization course For years, I was doing everything therapy told me to do… and somehow, I was still getting worse. More panic. More symptoms. More fear. More confusion. It didn't make sense. Until it finally did. In this episode, I'm sharing the part of healing that talk therapy never explained — the piece I didn't even know I was missing. If you've been in therapy, doing
17 - You're Not Lazy, You're Overstimulated
Feeling lazy, exhausted, and overstimulated? You're not lazy—your nervous system is maxed out. Learn why you're tired all the time even when you "haven't done anything" and how to rebuild capacity. If you've been calling yourself lazy because you can't seem to make yourself do anything, this episode is for you. What looks like laziness is often a nervous system that's been running at 12 out of
16 - 20 Years of Insomnia Healed. Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me This?
Do you dread nighttime? Does your heart race the moment the sun goes down because you're terrified you won't sleep again? In this episode, I'm sharing my personal journey with insomnia — a battle that started when I was 15 years old and consumed my life for over two decades. I'll walk you through the exact moment everything shifted, the Reddit post that changed my perspective, and the mindset shif
15 - Is Your Nervous System On Overdrive Without You Knowing?
If you're constantly moving like your house is on fire, bracing for impact, or collapsing exhausted every evening - your nervous system is running on overdrive. This episode breaks down why childhood conditioning, unresolved trauma, and urgency addiction keep you in chronic stress mode, plus practical tools to interrupt the pattern. What you'll learn: - Why you unconsciously clench your jaw and ra
14 - Radical Acceptance: What Finally Worked for My Chronic Anxiety
Radical acceptance is the missing piece in healing chronic anxiety and nervous system dysregulation. After 20 years of struggling with anxiety, trying therapy, EMDR, brain scans, and every treatment available, acceptance became the breakthrough that changed everything. In this episode, Maggie explains why acceptance must come before therapeutic interventions like CBT, EMDR, or somatic work. With
13 - How to Rewire Your Brain When You Feel Stuck
Do you feel completely stuck in your thinking patterns and emotional reactions? You wake up every day knowing you want to change, but somehow you keep ending up in the same stress loops, the same autopilot behaviors, and the same survival mode responses. Here's what most people don't understand: your brain isn't actually stuck—but the way you're trying to change it isn't working. In this episode,
12 - Stop Healing. Start Living.
You've been journaling, meditating, researching, and trying everything to feel better—but somehow you're more exhausted than ever. If healing has started to feel like a full-time job, you're not alone. In this episode, we break down why the constant focus on "fixing" yourself might be the exact thing keeping you stuck. There's a specific shift that changes everything, and it has nothing to do with
11 - How to Change Before You Hit Rock Bottom
Most people wait until they're desperate to make a change - until the health scare, the rock bottom moment, or the crisis that forces their hand. But here's what nobody talks about: changing from desperation is so much harder than changing from inspiration. In this episode, we're exploring the two different drivers of change and why one of them makes everything feel impossible while the other keep
10 - Why You Keep Quitting Your Habits (And How to Make Them Stick)
Struggling to stick to your habits? It's not about discipline or willpower. Here's why you keep quitting habits and the one mindset shift that makes following through effortless. Most people approach habits wrong - chasing streaks, perfection, and arrival points. But habits aren't about self-improvement, they're about self-alignment. When you shift from "I need to do this perfectly" to "this is wh
09 - How To Actually Heal Your Nervous System
You've been trying to calm down by talking to yourself, using logic, and telling yourself you're safe. But no matter how much you reason with yourself, your body stays stuck in stress mode. That's because your nervous system doesn't speak the language of words and thinking—it speaks through sensation and experience. In this episode, we're breaking down why cognitive approaches fail when your body
08 - 4 Ways To Challenge Your Negative Self-Talk
Do you ever catch yourself saying cruel things in your head that you'd never say to anyone else? That harsh inner voice might feel automatic, but it's costing you more than you realize. In this episode, we break down why negative self-talk keeps you stuck and how it's directly connected to your eating habits, motivation, and ability to create lasting change. You'll discover that most of what you b
07 - The Real Secret to Self-Confidence
Why do some people seem naturally confident while others struggle despite achieving everything they thought would make them feel secure? This episode breaks down the hidden blocks that keep you stuck in self-doubt, even when you've "made it" on paper. We explore how overthinking, people-pleasing, perfectionism, and living in survival mode actually work against building genuine confidence. You'll d
06 - How to Stop Letting Other People Ruin Your Day
Discover why your triggers are actually pointing you back to yourself, not at others. Learn the difference between top-down and bottom-up approaches to emotional regulation, and why taking responsibility for your triggers is the key to reclaiming your power. What You'll Learn The Truth About Triggers and Emotional Responsibility Most people believe their triggers are someone else's fault, but this
05 - How I Used Meditation To Change My Life
Are you stuck trying new self-help tools, meditation apps, and personal development programs but seeing zero lasting results? You download the latest mindfulness app, commit to journaling every morning, or sign up for another course promising change, yet somehow you end up right back where you started. The frustration builds as you watch others break through while you stay trapped in the same patt
04 - Decompressing Without Coping Mechanisms
Do you find yourself automatically reaching for your phone, a snack, or a drink the moment you walk through the door after work? You're not alone - evening urges to decompress with these quick fixes are incredibly common, and there's a real reason why your willpower feels so low at the end of the day. In this episode, we explore why that "pressure cooker" feeling builds up throughout your day and
03 - Symptom Chasing and How To Actually Heal From Anxiety
Do you find yourself constantly trying to fix your anxiety symptoms, only to feel more frustrated and stuck? You're not alone if you've spent countless hours researching techniques, trying supplements, or analyzing every sensation in your body, hoping to make the anxiety go away. Most people with anxiety become expert "fixers" - always searching for the next solution, the right technique, or the p
02 - How to Make Changes That Actually Stick
You know that feeling when you decide you're going to completely transform your life... starting Monday? Maybe it's the latest TikTok "lock-in" challenge. Maybe it's your own version of changing everything at once. You're fired up, you make the plan, you're ready to become a whole new person. And then reality hits. In this episode, Maggie reveals why your brain literally fights back
01 - What Is "The Real Work"?
The Real Work podcast focuses on helping people address the root causes of chronic stress, anxiety, and disconnection rather than chasing surface-level fixes. I share my personal journey through trauma, chronic anxiety, insomnia, and eventually chronic pain that led me to discover the connection between nervous system dysregulation and physical symptoms. After years of trying various therapies, tr
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