When Your Body Says 'No': The Surprising Link Between Emotional Health and Lasting Success

Today I had an incredible session with a client who expressed that she had never experienced anything so powerful.?

Like most of my clients, Annie* is a successful Entrepreneur harboring the emotional burden of feeling responsible for too many people and projects. As a multiple business owner, she’s often pulled in many different directions, and as she attempts to keep up with everyone’s demands she becomes overwhelmed and energetically drained. She spends a lot of time and energy managing the expectations of different stakeholders who often oppose her decision making. When this happens she questions herself, the decision and is left feeling confused and without clarity.?

For the last six months she’s also been experiencing multiple chemical sensitivity, chronic pain, and very low levels of energy in her body. When she consulted with her GP and a bunch of other doctors - immunologists, neurologists, digestive specialists and cardiologists, they advised her to change her diet, refrain from social interactions, and take prescription medicines but the symptoms persisted, because the deeper underlying emotions behind the symptomatology had not been addressed.?

The powerful connection between mind and body

The connection between the mind (psyche) and the body (soma) - scientifically called Psychosomatics - has been studied since the 60’s. Scientists have since found that psychological factors like stress, emotions, and mental states can influence physical health and contribute to the development or exacerbation of physical conditions. Newest studies have found that poor mental health creates physiological conditions like autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain syndromes, gut health issues, and even depression and anxiety.?

Annie knew that she needed to address the emotional and mental root causes, so she reached out to me to get to the bottom of what was creating the chronic pain, multiple chemical sensitivity and exhaustion. Upon speaking with her about her business, her emotional experience and the physical symptomatology, I immediately saw that all three of these areas were interconnected and once we started to effectively solve one, the others would fall like dominos.?

The physical symptoms in her body are caused by an emotional stress response. The emotional experience arises as a result of an inability to set firm boundaries with her colleagues, different partners and stand up for herself in conflicts. Instead of prioritizing her own needs, she self sacrifices, overgives and engages in people pleasing behaviors - especially when it comes to the other gender. This is ultimately a pattern of self abandonment which results in energy depletion and physical sickness.?

You see, the body cries out for help when we don’t know how to listen to and take proper care of ourselves. Eventually this cry becomes a loud roar.?For her, it started with exhaustion and pain and ended in a chronic condition.?

The solution is often simple, but not necessarily easy.?

In order for Annie to successfully start setting boundaries and asserting her needs she needs to address the difficult emotions that come up when she’s presented with an opportunity to just make the other person happy. You see, people pleasers engage in this behavior because at their core they are not okay with other people not being okay, resulting in the self sacrifice that alleviates the discomfort.?

How we repatterned the behaviors which she thought she was condemned to live with

Together, we repatterned this behavior by firstly peeling back layers of stories she had bought into about why she felt she needed to prioritize others over herself and where this all started in childhood. I facilitated somatic sessions that allowed her to feel gradually more comfortable and safe with the new replacement behavior of boundary setting (a well documented and evidence based form of exposure therapy).

After just a few sessions she was stunned. So much had shifted for her in such a short space of time. Prior to working together she genuinely believed that she was condemned to a life of surviving to keep up with everyone’s demands. Today she says that, “everything feels like possibility,” because now she has the ability to identify the patterns of behavior that create her reality and effectively shift them to create completely different outcomes, as she desires. Where she once felt caged and trapped by her businesses and people in her life, she now feels as though she’s stepped into the throne of her own kingdom.?

With these new skills, she’s capable of making aligned decisions with conviction, resulting in a life that feels congruent with her authentic self; a life where she feels confident to make all of her dreams come true.?

If you’re ready to inspect where things in your business are affecting your mental and emotional wellbeing and even your potential physiology, so you can unlock your true power and potential, like Annie, book a call via the link in my bio. I currently have space for one more consult, so if this resonates, make sure you get in quick ;)

*name changed for anonymity