My Body Isn't Broken

Our bodies are not at war with us and they’re not broken. Period.

They’re trying to tell us something; to communicate that things are off balance, that they’re not getting what they need, that something is them preventing them from running properly. The symptoms are not the problem—they’re our bodies response to the problem.

This is a concept that has taken me too damn long to come to terms with. I’ve always said that I was broken…a great way to talk about or see myself, right?

But the struggle was so real. Acid reflux burning my insides every time I ate, constant nausea, regular anxiety attacks and full-blown meltdowns…it’s a pretty long list so I’m just going to stop there, but I’m sure you get the idea. What else are we supposed to think when we’re constantly bombarded with physical symptoms that make daily life so damn hard? It feels like our bodies hate us and are trying to punish us for something.

And personally, the less I listened to my body, trying to band-aid the pain, nausea, and mental struggles instead, the worse the symptoms got—the louder my body screamed at me trying to get my attention…

“Put the McDonalds chicken nugget down…I can’t work with this crap!”

“Girl, dump that jerk already and ditch the emotional stress he’s causing you or I’m gonna keep giving you heart palpitations. Don’t test me.”

“Please, stop using that crappy shampoo. I know it smells good, but do you recognize a single ingredient on that label? How are you surprised this hair is failing out?”

“You can’t be upset with me that you’re bloated, lookin’ like your 7 months pregnant…maybe you should try taking a vitamin and drinking more water for once”

Any of this sound familiar?

The more I read and the more I listen to other people’s stories, the more I realize that my mindset needed to change and I needed to stop calling myself broken. Because I’m not—but my environment, foods, lifestyle, daily products, and health management are.

Toxins, GMOs, hustle culture, tasty over-processed snacks, crappy air quality, little to no stress management, and a general lack of education about how to actually be healthy. These are the things that are broken and triggering the underlying health problems that are causing the symptoms. Not my body.

I’m still trying to figure out what my body is trying to tell me and really wish it could communicate in a way that made more sense to me, but I’m done blaming it for my problems.