Your Body Is Speaking—Are You Finally Ready to Listen?

Ever had one of those weeks where everything feels impossible—even the things you normally love? That's exactly what happened as I tried to record this podcast episode. Four separate attempts, four brick walls. But instead of forcing it, I decided to get curious about what was really going on beneath the surface.

My body was sending signals through back pain and fatigue that something needed attention. As a Gen X woman, I was trained to power through discomfort—to ignore my needs until breaking point. People used to call me Wonder Woman because I just kept going no matter what. It served me well... until it didn't.

Our bodies hold onto everything we've experienced—physical, emotional, spiritual. When we consistently ignore what we need, our bodies eventually force us to stop through pain or illness. But there's another way. By pausing to ask "what do I actually need right now?" we can break the cycle of pushing until we break. This simple practice of presence allows us to tune into our mind, body, and spirit before we reach crisis point.

If you're running on empty and struggling to hear what your body is telling you, know that it's not too late to change the pattern. Grab my free guide "Five Ways to Practice Presence" from the show notes and start today. Remember, you don't need permission to take care of yourself—but if you do, consider it granted. The world needs what only you have to offer, but first, you need to take care of the vessel delivering those gifts.

5 Ways to Practice Presence🌿 Feeling Scattered, Distracted, or Overwhelmed? You’re constantly pulled in a million directions—your mind racing ahead to the next thing before you’ve even finished what’s in front of you. Sound familiar?  That’s exactly why I created 5 Ways to Practice Presence, a FREE guide to help you: ✅ Feel more grounded and connected in your daily life. ✅ Reduce stress and overwhelm in just a few minutes a day. ✅ Experience more peace, joy, and clarity—right where you are. ✨  🎁 Ready to stop rushing through life and start truly living it? Download 5 Ways to Practice Presence today—because peace and joy are waiting for you in this very moment.
Grab your FREE copy HERE! 💛 Breathe in. Exhale. Let’s begin.

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Chapters

• 0:00 When Everything Feels Impossible
• 1:50 My Strange Week of Resistance
• 3:40 The Body Remembers Everything
• 6:10 Breaking the Push-Through Pattern
• 8:30 Learning to Listen to Your Body
• 11:40 Resources and Community Support

Transcript

Melissa: 0:05

You ever have one of those weeks where everything feels like a struggle, when even the things you love doing, the things that usually light you up, suddenly feel impossible. Yeah, that was me this week. I sat down to record this episode so many times and every single time I hit a wall. So many times, and every single time I hit a wall, I had all the ideas, I had all the words, but something inside me just would not let them out. And, instead of forcing it, I decided to get curious. Why was this happening? What was really going on beneath the surface? So today, I'm going to just pull back the curtain and get real with you about the resistance, the frustration and the unexpected lessons that came with it, because sometimes showing up is hard and maybe, just maybe, that's exactly when we need to lean in the most. So let's talk about it. Welcome to the Lemon Balm Coaching Podcast, your cozy corner of the world where we'll sip on life's lessons and squeeze the most out of every moment. I'm Melissa, your coach, cheerleader, and maybe even a little bit like that mom who always has a warm hug and the best advice waiting for you. If you're a woman over 40, feeling like life's left you a little lost, aimless or downright stuck. You're in the right place. This is where your joy, your freedom and your purpose come back into focus. Together, we'll laugh, learn and rediscover what makes you come alive. Because it's not too late, this is your time, so grab a cup of something warm, settle in and let's start creating the next most beautiful chapter of your life together. Next most beautiful chapter of your life together. I'm serious, you guys.

Melissa: 1:49

I sat down four times over the past week to record an episode of the podcast. The first day that I sat down, I spent about 15 minutes talking and it just felt like I was rambling about nothing. The next time I sat down, I just stared at the screen like there was nothing there, even though there were words right in front of me. Another time, I sat down and just immediately got back up and walked away because it was not happening and I knew it was not happening. Each morning I spent some time chatting with my sister and each morning she asked me what my plans were for the day and I told her that recording the podcast was the plan every day. And every day she said, well, you didn't do it. And I said, well, no, I didn't do it. I just was having such a hard time sitting down to get my thoughts out of my head and recorded for you, but what the heck was actually going on.

Melissa: 2:51

It was a strange week. I just felt really odd. I was having some low back issues, I was really tired and nothing felt like my normal self. I did not feel okay. I talked with my husband one day and he was having issues. So maybe there was something going on in the you know the universe, Maybe there was something going on in the force, who knows? But I just could not sit down and record.

Melissa: 3:25

And it's not that I don't have things to say, it's not that I don't have the ability to sit down and do this, but something was standing in the way. Part of it was my low back issue. I was having a lot of pain and it's hard to focus when you're in pain. Because let's just talk about pain for a second. Pain is your body's fire alarm. Pain tells you that something is not right. Now we're not talking about. You know the discomfort you get when you go to the gym and work out. This was real, honest to goodness pain, and I have back issues. That's, you know, just something that I deal with on the regular, but it flared up this week and the question that I asked was what happened that made this flare up Typically? It's not something I've done Typically, it's something I'm experiencing, something emotional or spiritual that I'm experiencing that causes my body to react with stress, and when I have stress, things get out of whack. So part of the issue with my sitting down to record the podcast episode was my low back. But what was going on that caused that to happen? I still don't know. What I did know is that my body needed some attention. My body needed some rest. My body needed for me to not try and push through, which used to be my MO. I would push through. I would just keep pushing, pushing, pushing until I couldn't push anymore, Because there's a point where your body says I cannot do this anymore.

Melissa: 5:14

The body holds onto the memories of everything we go through Physical, emotional, spiritual. We go through physical, emotional, spiritual, relational, everything. Our body holds onto that Our physical bodies hold onto all of the energies of everything that we've ever been through in this life. It always reminds me of Bruce Almighty, the scene where Bruce meets God in the big white room and there's a filing cabinet and he goes to open it and it keeps going and going, and going and going, like a hundred feet. That's what we're talking about. The body, the subconscious, right. Our subconscious holds onto all of this subconscious holds on to all of this. Our subconscious knows more than we remember. No-transcript. Some of what our brain can do is, you know, just our automatic things that we do every day, the things that we can do on repeat, the things that we don't have to learn anymore. Right, that's our subconscious. But our subconscious also remembers. It remembers everything, it holds onto everything.

Melissa: 6:35

And even though I didn't do anything to exacerbate my low back, something in my body needed my attention, so I gave it. I didn't push through, I didn't try to get it done. I didn't try to go, go, go, go go, no matter what, I rested, I listened to what my body needed. I didn't try to just keep going. That used to serve me. That used to be a really, really major superpower that I had. People used to call me Wonder Woman. No lie, they used to call me Wonder Woman because I just kept going. When I was in the bagpipe band, I was called the Energizer Bunny because I just kept going. Nothing slowed me down until my body forced me to slow down through injuries. Yeah, so that was one of the things that I realized, like this week. It's not that I was doing anything or harming myself, I just needed rest. My body told me it's time to rest, so I did. I didn't try to record the episode because it wouldn't have made sense anyway.

Melissa: 8:00

So what do you do? What do you do when things just don't seem to be working right, when suddenly everything feels impossible? What do you do? Do you continue to push and push, and push? If you do, your body will eventually force you to take a break. There's a saying that I saw on social media one time, and I've even shared it on my social media If you don't make time for wellness now, your body will force you to do it later. So here we are at this point in our lives. Whatever that point is for you, here we are at this point in our lives. What is your body telling you? Is your body telling you I've had enough, I can't keep going? We need to start listening.

Melissa: 8:55

We, as a generation Gen X as a generation, Gen X as a generation we learned a long time ago to ignore our gut instinct. We learned a long time ago to ignore what we needed because we had to survive our life. There's so many Gen X social media people out there talking about this exact thing. Yes, we drank out of garden hoses. No, we didn't have curfews. Yes, we stayed home by ourselves. No, we didn't have a babysitter taking care of us. We took care of her. We raised ourselves. We basically raised ourselves.

Melissa: 9:33

We know how to get things done, we know how to push through. We know how to ignore what our body needs. But the problem is, eventually your body will say no. Eventually your body will say stop, I cannot keep going. That's what most autoimmune diseases are. It's your body saying I don't think so. We're not going to do that today.

Melissa: 10:00

So I just wanted to hop in here today. I wanted to encourage you. If that's you, if you're the kind of person that pushes and pushes and pushes, ignores what your body needs, until it's so tired, so exhausted, so much in pain, so sick, that it forces you to stop. It's not too late. It's not too late to shift. It's not too late to change that pattern. You can learn to listen to your body again. It is absolutely 100% possible. I have helped clients do it, but today I just want to share with you.

Melissa: 10:47

When something comes up whether it's like, in my case, the low back pain this week when something comes up, just stop what you're doing. It doesn't mean stop for a day, it doesn't mean stop for a week. Just take a moment, breathe and go what the heck is going on Like? Really examine what is going on. Ask yourself what do I need in this moment on. Ask yourself, what do I need in this moment? Do I need nourishment? Like, am I running on empty? Running on empty, running on? Do I need rest? Like, am I really running on empty? Do I need rest? What is it that I actually need in this moment? Do I need some self-care? Do I need some pampering? Maybe I need a hot shower? Ask yourself what do I need? Stop, take a breath, ask yourself what do I actually need in this moment and then do it.

Melissa: 11:46

Okay, If you need permission to do it, I'm giving you permission. Do the thing. Do the thing that you need permission to do it. I'm giving you permission. Do the thing. Do the thing that you need in the moment. You do not have to get to a point where you are completely broken down before you take a break. It is important to listen to what your body needs, and if you don't know how to do that, oh my gosh, please reach out to me. If you do not know how to hear your body, if you have completely ignored that part of you for so long that it remains silent all the time or it has to scream at you to get your attention, please reach out to me. All of my contact information is in the show notes. I don't want anyone I don't want anyone to have to live like this. I decided to live my healing story out loud so that no one else has to go through this again, so that no one has to go through it alone and so that you can learn from my journey. One of the things I love to do here on the podcast is give you something right, and I kind of scoured through all the things that I have to offer, but I think the one thing that's really going to help the most today is five ways to practice presence. So I have a simple guide for you. The link is going to be in the show notes. Just go over, click on the link, grab it, Because being present is more than just hanging out with your family or watching a movie together.

Melissa: 13:18

Being present is about learning how to be in the moment, which is exactly what is needed when we ability to feel what our bodies need. This is a short episode, man. I hope it blesses you. I hope you hear exactly what you need. We don't have to be my husband calls it a two by four people. We don't have to be two by four people where our body has to come and smack us upside the head to get our attention. So listen to what your body needs.

Melissa: 13:55

If you need a break, like I did this week, just take a break, because when we're stressed, our brains can't work. They just don't work right. We can't accomplish the things that we need to accomplish when we are so stressed out that our body is suffering. You are mind, body and spirit, and all three parts want to work in harmony for you to be well and healthy and happy and feeling joy and excitement. So stop, take a breath. Check in, see what you need mind, body and spirit. Check in, See what you need mind, body and spirit when things are struggling, when you're riding that struggle bus and things aren't going well, just take a moment and ask, and each time you ask, it becomes easier. So just start today. Don't wait. It's not too late. Don't wait. Start today, Check in with with yourself, see what you need and then do it.

Melissa: 15:00

Thanks so much for spending a little time with me today on the lemon balm coaching podcast. I hope you're walking away with something that sparks joy, hope or a fresh perspective for your journey. If you loved today's episode, let's keep the conversation going. You can find more inspiration, coaching tips and resources over at my website, LemonBalmCoachingcom. Don't forget to follow me on social media for encouragement and updates, and you'll find me on Instagram and Facebook at Lemon Balm Coaching. And hey, if you're looking for a supportive, uplifting community of amazing women just like you, come join us in the Reignite your Flame Facebook group. It's a safe, welcoming space where we share, grow and cheer each other on, and you can find the link on my website or just search for Reignite your Flame on Facebook. Remember, honey, just be yourself. The world needs what only you have to offer. Take care and I'll see you in the next episode.