Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.
– Pema Chödrön
The Body Speaks
Lately, my body has been talking to me in ways I can no longer ignore.
It began with a rash rising on the right side of my throat—the very center of expression and truth. Over time, the rash spread across my chest, resting in the tender ground of my heart.
Alongside this came another messenger: high blood pressure. For most of my life, my BP was steady and low. Only after a health crisis did it suddenly climb, and despite the doctors’ reassurances that medication would “keep me safe,” my truest desire is to discover why my body is calling out this way.
I experimented one morning with Ylang Ylang oil—placing a drop in my palms, inhaling deeply for five minutes. My BP lowered into the normal range. That experience whispered: There is more going on here than numbers on a chart.
My body is speaking. And I am finally listening.
Awareness: Struggle Feeds the Fire
I’ve noticed how quickly resistance takes hold. When my thoughts spiral around I hate this rash or Why is my BP still high? My nervous system shifts into fight mode. The more I struggle, the more my body tightens, the more symptoms flare.
Struggle keeps me locked in the very pain I wish to escape.
Awareness is the first step—not just awareness of the rash or the numbers, but awareness of my reaction to them. Fear and frustration don’t soothe my body; they inflame it.
This awareness itself is medicine.
Acceptance: Surrender as Softening
Acceptance is the heart of the spiritual life. It is the ground from which healing grows.
– Tara Brach
Surrender does not mean giving up. It means softening into what is.
It means sitting with the rawness of my throat and chest, and listening to what they want me to know. It means feeling the pressure in my blood and seeing it as the mirror of pressure I carry within.
Acceptance is a scary word for many of us—myself included. But when I soften into what my body is showing me, when I breathe instead of bracing, I find that love can move into the places fear has been holding tight.
Acceptance is not resignation. It is alignment.
Action: Walking with Shakti
Awareness opens the door. Acceptance invites me to step through. But action—compassionate, aligned action—is how I keep walking.
Here is my practice:
- Breathwork: Inhale for 4 counts, exhale for 6–8 counts. With each exhale, I whisper inwardly: Fear hums, love leads.
- Affirmation: My voice and my heart beat as one. I release pressure. I radiate love.
- Essential Oil: Ylang Ylang to calm, soothe, and bring me back into balance.
- Stone Ally: Rose Quartz or Amazonite—resting on my throat or chest—to harmonize voice and heart, compassion and truth.
- Sacred Sound: Chant YAM (heart) and HAM (throat) as a gentle hum, letting the vibration ripple through the very places my body is speaking.
Each practice is a reminder that I am not just trying to heal; I am already living as healed. I am listening and responding with love.
When I do the practices—breath, oils, stones—my body eases. But the deeper medicine is this: to honor my voice. To speak the truth I once had no safety to share. As a child, I was silenced; as an adult, I have sometimes muted myself to survive. My body carries those old echoes. The rash, the blood pressure, the inflammation — they rise when my truth is withheld. They soften when I dare to let my voice flow.
Awareness, acceptance, and action all lead me here: to risk expression, to speak with love, to let my voice become part of my healing.
Closing Whisper
I place a hand over my heart, another at my throat. I breathe while gently whispering:
I choose awareness. I choose acceptance. I choose action rooted in love.
This is the conversation my body has been waiting for. And I am finally listening.
And I said to my body, softly, ‘I want to be your friend.’
It took a long breath and replied, ‘I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.’
~ Nayyirah Waheed
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