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

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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.

It’s time to rediscover YOU. Join the Reignite Your Flame Facebook group—a supportive community where women like you find peace, joy, and purpose. Together, we’ll nurture your mind, body, and spirit so you can shine again.  Don’t wait to start your journey back to yourself. 
Join Reignite Your Flame HERE

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Music by Adipsia

Episode Transcript

Melissa (00:05):
You ever have one of those weeks where everything
feels like a struggle, when eventhe 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 thisepisode so many times and every
single time I hit a wall.
So many times, and every singletime I hit a wall, I had all
the ideas, I had all the words,but something inside me just

(00:28):
would not let them out.
And, instead of forcing it, Idecided to get curious.
Why was this happening?
What was really going onbeneath the surface?
So today, I'm going to justpull back the curtain and get
real with you about theresistance, the frustration and
the unexpected lessons that camewith it, because sometimes

(00:50):
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 BalmCoaching Podcast, your cozy
corner of the world where we'llsip on life's lessons and
squeeze the most out of everymoment.
I'm Melissa, your coach,cheerleader, and maybe even a

(01:11):
little bit like that mom whoalways 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 ordownright stuck.
You're in the right place.
This is where your joy, yourfreedom and your purpose come

(01:31):
back into focus.
Together, we'll laugh, learnand rediscover what makes you
come alive.
Because it's not too late, thisis your time, so grab a cup of
something warm, settle in andlet's start creating the next
most beautiful chapter of yourlife together.
Next most beautiful chapter ofyour life together.
I'm serious, you guys.
I sat down four times over thepast week to record an episode

(01:52):
of the podcast.
The first day that I sat down,I spent about 15 minutes talking
and it just felt like I wasrambling about nothing.
The next time I sat down, Ijust stared at the screen like
there was nothing there, eventhough there were words right in
front of me.
Another time, I sat down andjust immediately got back up and

(02:14):
walked away because it was nothappening and I knew it was not
happening.
Each morning I spent some timechatting with my sister and each
morning she asked me what myplans were for the day and I
told her that recording thepodcast was the plan every day.
And every day she said, well,you didn't do it.
And I said, well, no, I didn'tdo it.

(02:35):
I just was having such a hardtime sitting down to get my
thoughts out of my head andrecorded for you, but what the
heck was actually going on.
It was a strange week.
I just felt really odd.

(02:56):
I was having some low backissues, I was really tired and
nothing felt like my normal self.
I did not feel okay.
I talked with my husband oneday and he was having issues.
So maybe there was somethinggoing on in the you know the
universe, Maybe there wassomething going on in the force,

(03:19):
who knows?
But I just could not sit downand record.
And it's not that I don't havethings to say, it's not that I
don't have the ability to sitdown and do this, but something
was standing in the way.
Part of it was my low backissue.
I was having a lot of pain andit's hard to focus when you're

(03:41):
in pain.
Because let's just talk aboutpain for a second.
Pain is your body's fire alarm.
Pain tells you that somethingis not right.
Now we're not talking about.
You know the discomfort you getwhen you go to the gym and work
out.
This was real, honest togoodness pain, and I have back
issues.

(04:01):
That's, you know, justsomething that I deal with on
the regular, but it flared upthis week and the question that
I asked was what happened thatmade this flare up Typically?
It's not something I've doneTypically, it's something I'm
experiencing, somethingemotional or spiritual that I'm

(04:24):
experiencing that causes my bodyto react with stress, and when
I have stress, things get out ofwhack.
So part of the issue with mysitting down to record the
podcast episode was my low back.
But what was going on thatcaused that to happen?

(04:45):
I still don't know.
What I did know is that my bodyneeded some attention.
My body needed some rest.
My body needed for me to nottry 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, Becausethere's a point where your body

(05:10):
says I cannot do this anymore.
The body holds onto the memoriesof everything we go through
Physical, emotional, spiritual.
We go through physical,emotional, spiritual, relational
, everything.
Our body holds onto that Ourphysical bodies hold onto all of

(05:36):
the energies of everything thatwe've ever been through in this
life.
It always reminds me of BruceAlmighty, the scene where Bruce
meets God in the big white roomand there's a filing cabinet and
he goes to open it and it keepsgoing and going, and going and
going, like a hundred feet.
That's what we're talking about.
The body, the subconscious,right.

(05:59):
Our subconscious holds onto allof this subconscious holds on
to all of this.
Our subconscious knows morethan we remember.
No-transcript.
Some of what our brain can dois, you know, just our automatic

(06:21):
things that we do every day,the things that we can do on
repeat, the things that we don'thave to learn anymore.
Right, that's our subconscious.
But our subconscious alsoremembers.
It remembers everything, itholds onto everything.
And even though I didn't doanything to exacerbate my low
back, something in my bodyneeded my attention, so I gave

(06:44):
it.
I didn't push through, I didn'ttry to get it done.
I didn't try to go, go, go, gogo, no matter what, I rested, I
listened to what my body needed.
I didn't try to just keep going.

(07:07):
That used to serve me.
That used to be a really,really major superpower that I
had.
People used to call me WonderWoman.
No lie, they used to call meWonder Woman because I just kept
going.
When I was in the bagpipe band,I was called the Energizer
Bunny because I just kept going.

(07:27):
Nothing slowed me down until mybody forced me to slow down
through injuries.
Yeah, so that was one of thethings that I realized, like
this week.
It's not that I was doinganything or harming myself, I

(07:48):
just needed rest.
My body told me it's time torest, so I did.
I didn't try to record theepisode because it wouldn't have
made sense anyway.
So what do you do?
What do you do when things justdon't seem to be working right,
when suddenly everything feelsimpossible?

(08:10):
What do you do?
Do you continue to push andpush, and push?
If you do, your body willeventually force you to take a
break.
There's a saying that I saw onsocial media one time, and I've
even shared it on my socialmedia If you don't make time for

(08:32):
wellness now, your body willforce you to do it later.
So here we are at this point inour 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'vehad enough, I can't keep going?

(08:52):
We need to start listening.
We, as a generation Gen X as ageneration, Gen X as a
generation we learned a longtime ago to ignore our gut
instinct.
We learned a long time ago toignore what we needed because we
had to survive our life.

(09:13):
There's so many Gen X socialmedia people out there talking
about this exact thing.
Yes, we drank out of gardenhoses.
No, we didn't have curfews.
Yes, we stayed home byourselves.
No, we didn't have a babysittertaking care of us.
We took care of her.
We raised ourselves.
We basically raised ourselves.

(09:33):
We know how to get things done,we know how to push through.
We know how to ignore what ourbody needs.
But the problem is, eventuallyyour body will say no.
Eventually your body will saystop, I cannot keep going.
That's what most autoimmunediseases are.
It's your body saying I don'tthink so.

(09:57):
We're not going to do thattoday.
So I just wanted to hop in heretoday.
I wanted to encourage you.
If that's you, if you're thekind of person that pushes and
pushes and pushes, ignores whatyour body needs, until it's so
tired, so exhausted, so much inpain, so sick, that it forces

(10:20):
you to stop.
It's not too late.
It's not too late to shift.
It's not too late to changethat pattern.
You can learn to listen to yourbody again.
It is absolutely 100% possible.
I have helped clients do it,but today I just want to share

(10:41):
with you.
When something comes up whetherit's like, in my case, the low
back pain this week whensomething 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 andgo what the heck is going on

(11:04):
Like?
Really examine what is going on.
Ask yourself what do I need inthis moment on.
Ask yourself, what do I need inthis moment?
Do I need nourishment?
Like, am I running on empty?
Running on empty, running on?

(11:26):
Do I need rest?
Like, am I really running onempty?
Do I need rest?
What is it that I actually needin 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, askyourself what do I actually need
in this moment and then do it.

(11:46):
Okay, If you need permission todo it, I'm giving you permission
.
Do the thing.
Do the thing that you needpermission to do it.
I'm giving you permission.
Do the thing.
Do the thing that you need inthe moment.
You do not have to get to apoint where you are completely
broken down before you take abreak.
It is important to listen towhat your body needs, and if you

(12:06):
don't know how to do that, ohmy gosh, please reach out to me.
If you do not know how to hearyour body, if you have
completely ignored that part ofyou for so long that it remains
silent all the time or it has toscream at you to get your
attention, please reach out tome.
All of my contact informationis in the show notes.

(12:27):
I don't want anyone I don'twant anyone to have to live like
this.
I decided to live my healingstory out loud so that no one
else has to go through thisagain, so that no one has to go
through it alone and so that youcan learn from my journey.
One of the things I love to dohere on the podcast is give you

(12:51):
something right, and I kind ofscoured through all the things
that I have to offer, but Ithink the one thing that's
really going to help the mosttoday is five ways to practice
presence.
So I have a simple guide foryou.
The link is going to be in theshow notes.
Just go over, click on the link, grab it, Because being present

(13:13):
is more than just hanging outwith your family or watching a
movie together.
Being present is about learninghow to be in the moment, which
is exactly what is needed whenwe ability to feel what our
bodies need.
This is a short episode, man.

(13:36):
I hope it blesses you.
I hope you hear exactly whatyou need.
We don't have to be my husbandcalls it a two by four people.
We don't have to be two by fourpeople where our body has to
come and smack us upside thehead to get our attention.
So listen to what your bodyneeds.
If you need a break, like I didthis week, just take a break,

(13:58):
because when we're stressed, ourbrains can't work.
They just don't work right.
We can't accomplish the thingsthat we need to accomplish when
we are so stressed out that ourbody is suffering.
You are mind, body and spirit,and all three parts want to work
in harmony for you to be welland healthy and happy and

(14:19):
feeling joy and excitement.
So stop, take a breath.
Check in, see what you needmind, body and spirit.
Check in, See what you needmind, body and spirit when
things are struggling, whenyou're riding that struggle bus
and things aren't going well,just take a moment and ask, and

(14:41):
each time you ask, it becomeseasier.
So just start today.
Don't wait.
It's not too late.
Don't wait.
Start today, Check in with withyourself, see what you need and
then do it.
Thanks so much for spending alittle time with me today on the

(15:02):
lemon balm coaching podcast.
I hope you're walking away withsomething that sparks joy, hope
or a fresh perspective for yourjourney.
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 onsocial media for encouragement

(15:22):
and updates, and you'll find meon Instagram and Facebook at
Lemon Balm Coaching.
And hey, if you're looking fora supportive, uplifting
community of amazing women justlike you, come join us in the
Reignite your Flame Facebookgroup.
It's a safe, welcoming spacewhere we share, grow and cheer
each other on, and you can findthe link on my website or just
search for Reignite your Flameon Facebook.

(15:43):
Remember, honey, just beyourself.
The world needs what only youhave to offer.
Take care and I'll see you inthe next episode.