When Your Body Speaks
Nausea, dizziness, ‘random’ pain/exhaustion etc.
When these bodily symptoms crop up for people, our societal conditioning around being disembodied rears its head in a big way. .
I see it time and time again for those I work with…
A part of us has absorbed that societal frame: mind, brain, neurobiology as King. And the body as Subject — or worse, Slave.
It might sound like one of these:
“I can’t tell if this symptom is something physically wrong or just emotionally?”
“The doctor has told me ‘nothing is wrong’ and yet I’m still very anxious about this symptom meaning there’s something wrong with my health”
“I must being making it up as nothing happened externally and physically to cause this”
“I’m so worried about this symptom coming back because I’ll feel like the world has ended”
“I just want to figure out what’s causing this physical symptom so I can sort it asap”
Yeah maybe there’s a physical element, maybe also an emotional element. And just maybe they both don't have a linear relationship with the present moment.
We are taught to relate to our system as fragmented pieces of a machine that you can sort out and fix one by one — compartmentalised. But…
What if the nausea, the dizziness, the ‘random’ pain or exhaustion has an inherent dual quality to it?
Physical & Emotional.
Present & Past.
A Problem & The Solution.
A sign of illness & A sign of healing holistically long-term.
What if dizziness is to do with built up tension in the neck and jaw AND the initial response you have to the dizziness indicative of how that tension built up in the first place?
When working somatically I’m always more interested in our relationship to the bodily thing first – rather than the analysis of how it physically functions.
This approach always surfaces more, for example:
If you feel hopelessness and panic towards a physical symptom like dizziness or pain, that response itself is likely the door into interfacing with the experience of hopelessness or fear that you never felt and processed.
The helplessness, powerlessness or collapse that you never really thawed through. Instead, you functioned and vigilanced over it. And so your nervous system stayed braced while you lived in your head – carrying underneath the threat of annihilation, as if it’s literally knocking at your door right now.
In this case? Your system is wisely presenting the problem and the solution in one. The past, held onto, now playing itself out through your current present context. Loud and proud through physical symptoms. So you can finally deepen the support and capacity to process what needs processing.
Another quick example:
A response like “omg I need to make this nausea stop it feels so disorienting, I feel sick and disgusted” – that response itself could be the door. Showing you ways your system has kept you away from feelings or parts of yourself that it hasn’t felt safe to access. Likely because of shame.
So…
I invite you to not separate the analysis and tactics of your physical ‘medical’ health from the emotional and nervous system health of your being.
You are not a machine, you are nature.
I invite you to see your initial response to what’s happening in your body as the exact entry point for what you need to support, feel, or develop capacity for.
The response tells a story of safety or threat gone by.
