Kitija Ozolina · Awareness Mentor for Mothers
The Things Your Body Has Been Trying to Tell You
Your body does not forget. It just does not always tell you what it is still carrying.
This guide is not medical advice. If what you're experiencing feels persistent or severe, speak with a healthcare professional.
Your body remembers things your mind has moved on from. The tightness. The held breath. The way you react before you have thought.
This is about what the body stores and why.
This is not a list of things wrong with you. It is a list of things your body learned to do when it was trying to keep you safe.
Read through. Notice what you recognise. That is all. You do not have to fix anything right now.
Ten signals
Your shoulders tense the moment conflict is near.
Before anything is even said. Before you know how bad it is. Your body already knows, and it braces.
Your stomach drops when someone sounds disappointed in you.
Not a little discomfort. A fall. Something that used to mean danger, still landing that way.
You hold your breath without realising it.
Especially when someone raises their voice. Or when you are about to say something hard. You find out when you finally exhale.
You feel physically sick before saying something difficult.
The nausea, the tight chest. your body is not being dramatic. It learned that speaking up had consequences.
Your body only truly relaxes when you are completely alone.
Not just quiet. Alone. When there is no one to read, no one to manage, no one whose mood might shift.
Certain people make you physically tired.
After being with them you are exhausted in a way that sleep does not fix. Your nervous system worked overtime and you did not even realise.
Stillness feels unsafe.
You have to stay busy. The moment things go quiet there is an urge to find something to do. As if stopping means something bad can catch up.
Being watched changes how your body feels.
Something shifts. a stiffness, a performance. Like you are no longer yourself but a version of yourself being evaluated.
You feel shame in your chest, not just your mind.
A heat. A collapse. A wanting to disappear. Shame has a location in the body, and yours knows exactly where to find it.
Food, a drink, or scrolling is your main way of settling down.
Not because you are weak. Because at some point, they worked. They were the fastest route to calm in a body that was not safe.
Your body has been sending these signals for years. Not to make your life harder. to tell you something it could not say another way.
The first step is just to start hearing it. Not to fix everything at once. Just to notice: there you are.
Your body has not been working against you. It has been speaking for you.
It just needed you to stop long enough to listen.
What has your body been telling you that you haven't quite let yourself hear?
With love, Kitija 🤍
If you want to take this further, The Body Reset is a workbook you can go through at your own pace.
Have a look →