There She Glows with Becca Nicholls
Oct 29, 2026 · 28 min · 8 segments
In this episode, we're discussing the top down and bottom up approaches. I educate you on what each approach is, why they both work, where top down hits a wall, and run you through a somatic…
Becca NichollsHost
So when it comes to changing, healing, evolving, growing, there are basically two directions that you can do this from.
So you change your thoughts, your understanding, your beliefs, and the idea is that your feelings and your body will follow suit.
So you change the state of your nervous system first, and then your thoughts and your feelings will follow.
The vagus nerve is this huge nerve that connects your brain to your heart, your lungs, your gut, and about 80% of its fibers carry information up from the body to the brain.
Your body is talking to your brain way more than your brain is talking to your body way more.
So let's start with the top-down approaches because I want to give credit where credit is due.
I am not here to bash therapy or journaling or any of these valuable tools because I use them.
So when we are talking about top-down approaches, these include talk therapy, Maybe cognitive behavioral therapy, journaling, reframing your thoughts, affirmations, NLP work, learning about your patterns, listening to podcasts, top-down approaches.
That's the part of your brain right behind your forehead that handles reasoning, perspective, planning, and choice.
It is what allows you to step back and go, okay, is this thought actually true? And there is solid, solid research behind top-down approaches.
I mean, cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most studied forms of therapy that there is.
And there is research that found that by simply naming your emotions, saying, I feel anxious, This can calm your brain.
So when it comes to changing, healing, evolving, growing, there are basically two directions that you can do this from.
So you change your thoughts, your understanding, your beliefs, and the idea is that your feelings and your body will follow suit.
So you change the state of your nervous system first, and then your thoughts and your feelings will follow.
The vagus nerve is this huge nerve that connects your brain to your heart, your lungs, your gut, and about 80% of its fibers carry information up from the body to the brain.
Your body is talking to your brain way more than your brain is talking to your body way more.
So let's start with the top-down approaches because I want to give credit where credit is due.
I am not here to bash therapy or journaling or any of these valuable tools because I use them.
So when we are talking about top-down approaches, these include talk therapy, Maybe cognitive behavioral therapy, journaling, reframing your thoughts, affirmations, NLP work, learning about your patterns, listening to podcasts, top-down approaches.
That's the part of your brain right behind your forehead that handles reasoning, perspective, planning, and choice.
It is what allows you to step back and go, okay, is this thought actually true? And there is solid, solid research behind top-down approaches.
I mean, cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most studied forms of therapy that there is.
And there is research that found that by simply naming your emotions, saying, I feel anxious, This can calm your brain.
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