“The physique retains the rating. If the reminiscence of trauma is encoded within the viscera, in heartbreaking and gut-wrenching sensations, then our first precedence is to assist individuals ‘really feel’ what their our bodies are telling them.” ~Bessel van der Kolk
I used to suppose my physique was a liar. As a result of how can one thing that’s presupposed to be clever even be so dramatic?
Why did my abdomen sink earlier than a espresso date?
Why did I really feel like I used to be going to vomit earlier than a Zoom name?
Why did I freeze earlier than taking a step towards the precise factor I mentioned I wished?
I used to suppose all of that meant one thing was flawed with me. Or perhaps I used to be simply anxious. Or overthinking. Or making it up. Decide a label.
However now I do know higher.
My physique wasn’t mendacity. It simply didn’t have the language to clarify what it was holding.
I didn’t develop up studying the right way to take heed to my physique. I grew up studying the right way to ignore it. Override it. Be good. Smile. Sit nonetheless. Don’t cry. Don’t be dramatic.
So I did what I used to be taught. I disconnected from it.
Even after I began “therapeutic,” I did it with my thoughts. Journaling. Speaking. Pondering. Extra pondering. Manifesting. Mindset work. All within the head. Nonetheless ignoring the physique that by no means stopped making an attempt to speak to me.
At first, it felt prefer it was working. I felt empowered. I may reframe my ideas, set intentions, and write affirmations. However it was like taping over a warning gentle in my automobile; I wasn’t addressing the deeper sign beneath. My physique saved breaking via. Refined at first, then louder.
And I actually believed I used to be doing it proper.
If I may simply write the right affirmation, course of the set off, and map it again to childhood, then I’d really feel higher. Proper? However it by no means actually lasted. Not till I finished making an attempt to repair all of it with my mind and really felt what was taking place in my physique.
The indicators have been delicate at first. A bit of tightness in my chest. A sudden drop in vitality. A bizarre rigidity in my jaw that got here out of nowhere.
Different occasions, it might scream. Fatigue. Rage. Nervousness. Autoimmune flare-ups. However I didn’t know the right way to translate any of it.
As a result of nobody teaches you {that a} shutdown isn’t laziness. That canceling plans doesn’t imply you’re flaky. That dread isn’t at all times worry; generally it’s your physique flagging one thing misaligned earlier than your mind catches up.
I believed I used to be damaged.
However I wasn’t. I used to be simply making an attempt to reside from the neck up.
And I don’t suppose that is simply my story. I believe many people have been raised in techniques, faculties, households, and even non secular areas that rewarded mind and punished emotion. We’re praised for being rational, calm, and logical. And that’s nice till you notice you’ve spent your entire life bypassing your individual physique to satisfy different individuals’s expectations.
Now, I perceive one thing that sounds ridiculous until you’ve lived it: Generally, your physique is aware of the reality earlier than your thoughts can clarify it.
And generally, your physique responds to worry that’s not even yours.
I’ve had moments the place I walked right into a room and felt like I couldn’t breathe, not as a result of something unhealthy was taking place, however as a result of one thing simply felt off, just like the air received heavier, like one thing in me tensed up earlier than I had an opportunity to make sense of it.
That’s not logic. That’s not trauma talking each time.
Generally, that’s instinct.
Different occasions, I’ve mistaken shutdowns for indicators.
I mentioned I wished to point out up. I meant it. However each time I received near placing myself on the market with my nonprofit, with my writing, my physique would tank. Exhaustion. Mind fog. Fatigue. I’d inform myself, “Possibly it is a signal I’m not prepared.” However the fact? It was simply worry. Worry of being seen. Worry of being misunderstood. Worry of being rejected.
My physique wasn’t making an attempt to cease me. It was making an attempt to guard me. That’s the nuance nobody talks about.
Your physique is sensible, however it’s not at all times proper.
Generally it’s responding to a previous model of you.
Generally it’s responding to another person’s vitality.
Generally it’s responding to a thought that isn’t even yours.
However it’s nonetheless making an attempt to assist in the one means it is aware of how. And that issues.
There have been occasions after I canceled one thing thrilling, like a podcast interview or a talking engagement, as a result of I felt sick. Nauseous. Shaky. I believed, “This have to be an indication it’s not aligned.” However typically, it was simply worry. Worry pretending to be instinct.
That’s after I realized: I wanted to cease asking, “Is that this true?” and begin asking, “What’s this from?”
I needed to be taught the distinction between worry and intuition.
For me, worry reveals up quick. It’s sizzling. Tight. Loud. It tries to hurry me.
Intuition feels slower. Grounded. Even when it says “no,” it comes via calm, not chaotic.
It wasn’t a swap I flipped. It was a strategy of remembering. Of noticing patterns. Of asking gentler questions.
And there was a second that shifted every little thing.
I used to be sitting on the ground of my bed room, crying and not using a clear purpose. Nothing dramatic had occurred that day. However my chest was tight. My head was spinning. I had that acquainted urge to “determine it out.”
As an alternative, I simply sat. I finished making an attempt to investigate it. I finished making an attempt to repair it.
I put one hand on my coronary heart and the opposite on my stomach. I breathed. And I mentioned out loud, “I’m right here. I’m listening.”
It sounds small, however it felt like one thing in me softened. My physique didn’t want me to know; it wanted me to be with it.
Since then, that’s been my apply. Not making an attempt to at all times decode my physique like a puzzle. Simply making area for what’s taking place, even when it’s messy.
I don’t consider there’s one method to “tune in.” No technique saved me. No protocol healed me. What helped was slowing down lengthy sufficient to note.
Respiration. Listening. Studying the distinction between instinct and avoidance. Between fact and set off. Between security and luxury.
For those who’ve ever felt like your physique was unreliable or prefer it was working towards you, you’re not alone. Most of us have been by no means taught the right way to interpret its language. And that doesn’t imply we’re damaged. It means we’re studying a brand new talent, one which most individuals by no means even knew they wanted.
That’s not one thing you get from a course. That’s one thing you get from being in your physique lengthy sufficient to inform when it’s reacting and when it’s remembering.
It’s why somatic remedy and polyvagal idea are gaining traction. Not as a result of they’re fashionable however as a result of they provide us a language for what so many have at all times felt: that the physique holds on. That therapeutic.
It isn’t nearly mindset. That regulation doesn’t come from logic; it comes from security.
Books like The Physique Retains the Rating opened that door for me. However residing it? That’s the place it lastly clicked.
I don’t have a neat bow to finish this with.
However I can let you know this: Your physique isn’t damaged. It’s not silly. And it’s not making an attempt to sabotage you. It simply doesn’t communicate in phrases.
And once you begin listening—actually listening—you cease needing so many solutions.
As a result of generally the reply isn’t “determine it out.”
It’s: “Really feel what’s truly taking place.”
And that’s sufficient.
About Danielle Aime
Danielle Aime is the founding father of Remeria, a nonprofit supporting deep emotional therapeutic via body-based and non secular instruments. Discover Uncooked reflections on marriage, motherhood, therapeutic, religion, and the universe that retains pulling us towards who we’re changing into on her Substack right here.