What My Body Was Trying to Tell Me That I Kept Ignoring
Your body has been talking. Maybe for a long time.
School just ended. Or it’s ending soon. The routines that held you all year are dissolving. And maybe your body is finally trying to tell you something you couldn’t hear when everything was structured.
My body had been talking to me for years. I just didn’t know how to listen.
It was showing up in the smallest, quietest ways. The way I’d look up at 2pm and realize I hadn’t eaten since breakfast — and I wouldn’t even be hungry anymore because my body had given up asking. The way I’d ignore the bathroom break until it became a crisis. The way I’d push through exhaustion like it was a character flaw instead of a signal.
I wasn’t abusing myself on purpose. I wasn’t punishing my body. I was just... ignoring it. The way you ignore a notification you’ve swiped away too many times. The way a friend’s texts become background noise because you’re too busy.
I was too busy to listen to my body.
And then one day I realized: I’d created a life where I couldn’t even meet my own basic needs without guilt. Where drinking water felt indulgent. Where taking a bathroom break felt like failure. Where eating when I was hungry felt like I was being irresponsible.
I’d become fluent in ignoring my body’s language.
And it turns out — this wasn’t an accident. There was a whole history underneath it.
As a kid, asking for things meant risk. It meant drawing attention. It meant potential disappointment. It meant being “too much.” So you learn to quiet your asks. You learn to ignore the signal before it even becomes a request. You learn to make yourself small enough that your needs don’t bother anyone.
Your body learns: You don’t matter enough to interrupt.
Then you grow up and wonder why you’re so disconnected from your own needs.
The pattern follows you into adulthood. You’re productive and high-functioning, so nobody notices. You’re showing up, accomplishing things, holding it together. But there’s this quiet erosion happening underneath. Your body’s been trying to tell you something for a long time, and you’ve gotten very good at not hearing it.
I see this with the women I work with constantly. They come in and say: “I’m just tired.” But it’s not just tiredness. It’s accumulated unmet needs. It’s months or years of your body asking for something and your mind saying: “Not now. Later.”
Here’s what I started doing differently: I began with water.
Not some grand wellness overhaul. Just: Every morning, I drink water before I do anything else.
It sounds stupidly simple. But it was revolutionary because it was the first time I was actively responding to my body before I did anything productive. It was the first time my body’s needs came first, not last.
And then I noticed something: When I listened to the small signal (drink water), I started hearing the bigger ones too. I need rest. I need food. I need this break. I need to slow down.
It’s like my body realized someone was finally paying attention, and it started being louder about what it needed.
Your body has been talking to you. Maybe for a long time. It didn’t stop talking because you stopped listening — it just learned to talk quieter.
What’s the smallest signal your body keeps sending that you keep ignoring? What if you listened?
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