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The Day I Realized My Body Was My Greatest Teacher
A breakdown led me back to my body — and it turned out to be the wisest teacher I never meant to ignore.
It happened on a Wednesday, not a particularly special one. Just an ordinary mid-week morning that somehow became the dividing line between who I was and who I would become.
I’d been ignoring the signals for months — maybe years if I’m being honest. The tension headaches that started at my neck and wrapped around my skull like a too-tight hat. The weird digestive issues that doctors dismissed with vague suggestions about stress. The constant fatigue that five cups of coffee couldn’t touch.
“Just part of getting older,” I told myself, at the ripe old age of 32.
But on this particular Wednesday, something different happened. I was rushing to get ready for work, running late as usual, when a searing pain shot through my lower back. Not the dull ache I’d grown accustomed to — this was electric, immobilizing. I found myself on the bathroom floor, breath shallow, unable to stand.
In that moment of forced stillness, something broke open inside me.
