Your body isn’t broken; it’s brilliantly adapting.
For so many businesswomen, both mental and physical health is a top priority. In work that can often be stressful and all-consuming, it makes it all the more difficult to do our absolute best when we feel like our bodies aren’t cooperating. Experiencing low-energy, having digestive issues, feeling emotionally volatile, or contending with brain fog can be issues we all face on a daily basis and it can be easy to just want to make them go away with a quick fix. But, what if instead of feeling like our bodies are broken or betraying us, we are able to see these symptoms as a good thing? Our body’s intelligent adaptation to a deeply stressful past experience? In Dr. Kimberly Higney’s work at Cardea Well Being, that’s exactly what she focuses on. By building a deeper understanding of our body’s responses, learning to trust in its wisdom, build a mind-body connection, and support our body through its healing journey we can help resolve these survival mechanisms we’ve been thrust into and return to our bodies’ more normative state.
Looking at common concerns like low energy, a slowing metabolism, poor sleep, and mood swings, they can feel frustrating and sometimes disorienting. However, these symptoms are appearing in response to a major life stressor and are actually acting as signals to tell you it’s time to rest and repair. Symptoms typically develop when we’re in the healing phase and the best thing we can do is not interfere with anti-inflammatory meds or other symptom depressants but rather support our bodies while they work through these healing phases. When we do interfere during that healing cycle we often, unintentionally, reset the healing process which leads us to a chronic condition.
Typical day to day stressors will most likely not send your nervous system into a survival response. These events must be intense, unexpected, and isolating. Only when it fulfills those three categories is your brain likely to trigger the survival mechanisms that result in the pervasive symptoms you’re experiencing. These adaptations that are creating your symptomatology is the body’s intelligent way of adapting to that moment in time. When we can’t resolve that trauma for ourselves our body may get stuck in that adaptation, believing that it’s still necessary. By facilitating the rest and repair of the body we can help it move beyond that adaptation and return to a more normative state.
So how can you know you know your body and brain may be entering into a survival mode? You may notice things like cold hands and feet, feeling an adrenaline shift, or feeling a bit of absentmindedness – perhaps it’s more difficult to concentrate during the day. Your nervous system is also entering a solving mode so you may dream more about the resolution to the major life event you endured or find yourself ruminating on it during the day. Your body then hones in on the part of the system that your brain made the connection to, which may be digestive, endocrine, sleep etc. The theme of the event will respond to specific tissues in specific ways depending on how your body and brain interpret it.
When those symptoms aren’t resolved with rest, sunshine, whole foods, and clean herbs you know something deeper is going on in the body and you’re in a new adaptive state. Once these symptoms are recognized it’s all about supporting your body on its healing journey and try not to interfere with the natural process. So next time you feel a symptom flare up, give it some space, and get curious about how this might be a wise adaptation that’s telling us it’s time to rest and repair. The goal is to unburden your body so it can move through the healing cycle and focus on supporting a system that is self-regulating. Your body has your back and is doing its best to help you recover!
Your body isn’t the problem – it’s the solution. Take time to pay attention to biological cues, what is your body asking for? Rest? Nourishment? Stillness? Instead of trying to suppress symptoms, give them the space to unfold naturally and allow yourself to be a compassionate archaeologist – dig past the systems and consider when they originally started and what may have triggered this survival mechanism to take root. In this way we can work on helping our survival brain realize this experience isn’t happening anymore and the adaptation it made is no longer necessary.
By interpreting your symptoms from this place of curiosity and empowerment, you can unburden your body and help it complete its healing processes. This deeper connection to your body’s wisdom not only benefits you, but can impact future generations by modeling body trust and health sovereignty.
Your body isn’t broken; it’s brilliantly adapting. Lean in, listen, and support it as it heals. You’ll be surprised to see the changes that take place.
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