I used to think stress lived in my head. That if I could just change my mindset, stay positive, or meditate longer, I could out-think the tension in my chest or the tightness in my jaw.
But my body told a different story.
It took me years to realize that what I was feeling (physically) wasn’t just about having “too much on my plate.” It was years of over-functioning, caretaking, pretending I was okay when I wasn’t, and carrying things I never gave myself permission to process.
And my nervous system? It had been stuck in high alert for so long that I didn’t know what calm actually felt like. I only knew how to go. To push. To keep moving. To prove I could handle it.
The Body Is Always Listening
One of the biggest turning points in my healing was learning about how the body stores stress. Not just in theory, but feeling it for myself.
The lump in my throat when I held back tears. The burning in my stomach after hard conversations. The way my shoulders lived up by my ears for most of the day. The fluttering in my chest that I called “just being a bit overwhelmed.”
Those weren’t random symptoms. They were messages. Not from my mind, but from my body, asking to be heard.
You Can’t Heal What You Don’t Feel
Somatic healing (soma meaning the body) taught me that I couldn’t talk my way out of what I had never allowed myself to feel.
So I started tuning in. Gently. Not with judgment, but with curiosity. I'd ask: What am I feeling in my body right now? What happens if I let it be there for a minute?
And sometimes, that alone was enough to soften something in me. To exhale a little deeper. To release a layer of armor I didn’t even know I was wearing.
This Is Not About Fixing You
If you’ve been feeling tight, tired, anxious, or like your body is speaking a language you haven’t learned yet, just know: you’re not broken.
You might just be full.
Full of held-in emotions. Full of old patterns. Full of stories your body has never been given the space to tell. And that’s okay.
You don’t have to do anything yet. Maybe today, you just notice. Maybe you place your hand on your heart and say, “I hear you.”
That’s where it begins...
