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What The Body Keeps the Score Taught Me About Listening to My Body

There was a time in my life when I was in pain every single day—and I convinced myself it was normal.

I told myself it was stress.
That I needed to push through.
That everyone felt this way.

But the truth was:
My body was screaming…
And I had forgotten how to listen.

📖 How The Body Keeps the Score Changed Everything

When I finally picked up The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, I wasn’t looking for an awakening.

I was looking for answers.
Answers to the unexplained fatigue.
To the chronic pain.
To the emotional outbursts I couldn’t predict or control.
To the fact that I kept saying, “I’m fine” when nothing in me actually was.

What I found instead?
Was validation.

This book didn’t just confirm what I was experiencing—
It gave language to the quiet suffering my body had been holding for years.

🧠 “Feeling Off” Is Not Laziness—It’s Intelligence

One of the most powerful takeaways from Dr. van der Kolk’s work is this:
Trauma doesn’t just live in your memories.
It lives in your nervous system.
In your posture.
In your gut.
In your energy.

That tightness in your chest when you’re around certain people?
That exhaustion after doing something that’s “not even hard”?
That feeling of being wired but tired, snappy but numb?

It’s not dramatic.
It’s data.
It’s your body doing exactly what it was designed to do:
Protect you.

But if you’ve been overriding those cues for years like I did—
you might not even recognize them as intelligence anymore.

🌿 The Moment I Realized My Body Knew Before I Did

I ignored the signs for so long.

The gallbladder attacks.
The chronic pain.
The emotional spirals after pushing past every limit I had.

I thought I was “strong.”
What I really was…
was disconnected.

But slowly—through the work I now teach in the Quantum Leap Course, the pages of the LTS Journal: Know, and the rituals I return to every morning—
I started to hear my body again.

And more importantly?
I started to believe her.

🔁 From Overriding to Honoring: A Soft Reconnection

You don’t need a dramatic diagnosis or rock-bottom moment to come back to your body.
All you need is the willingness to pause and ask:

• Why am I always tired around this person?

• Why does my chest tighten before this task?

• Why do I feel more energized when I’m alone than when I’m performing?

This is what I teach inside the Quantum Leap Course—
because reinvention without regulation will always feel like resistance.

It’s why the LTS Journal is designed to be a space where you ask these quiet questions without needing perfect answers.

And it’s why The Body Keeps the Score will forever be a book I recommend to anyone who’s trying to heal what they can’t quite name yet.

✨ A Few Powerful Truths from the Book:

• Trauma is not just an event—it’s the imprint it leaves on the body and brain.

• Suppressing emotional pain leads to physical symptoms and energy dysregulation.

• Healing must involve the body—not just the mind.

• Safety is the foundation for transformation. You can’t grow in fight-or-flight.

📝 Journal Prompt:

What is my body trying to tell me that I’ve been too busy, scared, or distracted to hear?

🧘♀️ Mantra:

“My energy is truth. My body is wisdom.”

📲 Let’s Keep This Soft

If this resonated with you, I’d love to hear your story.
Are you in a season of reconnection?
Are you realizing your energy has been trying to speak to you?

DM me on Instagram @lovethyselfies or comment on the post for Episode 13: Your Energy Doesn’t Lie—And Neither Should You.

You’re not broken.
You’re not lazy.
You’re just remembering how to listen.

And that?
That’s where the healing begins.

With love,
xo, Melissa