Welcome to "The Body Knows"
Trading self-improvement for self-trust and rooting personal development in collective liberation.
When was the last time you actually listened to your body instead of telling it to sit down and be quiet?
Here's what we, Ana and Leona, learned after years of either battling our bodies like opponents or tuning them out like car seatbelt alarms: They were never the problem. All along, our bodies knew what we needed, and were trying desperately to communicate it to us.
(Don't worry, moms, we put on our seatbelts. We just can't pass up a good joke.)
Our bodies are wise — stubbornly, persistently wise — and in constant conversation with us. In their “primitive” language of sensation, emotion, and subtle knowing, they are constantly sharing information with us about what's working versus what's hurting. Wildly useful information that we've been taught to completely ignore.
We recognize the basics, right? Hunger means eat. Thirst means drink. Pain means stop. Fatigue means rest. (Though we often ignore even these…)
But what about everything else? That headache that shows up like clockwork during certain meetings. The stomach knots before family gatherings. The mysterious exhaustion, the persistent tension, the anxiety that seems to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.
We've been trained to see these as inconvenient glitches in the system. Take a pill. Correct the symptom. Mind over matter.
But what if, and stay with us here, these aren't malfunctions at all?
What if your body is carrying the weight of all your unexpressed truths, your unprocessed grief, your unacknowledged needs?
What if it's bearing the strain of relentless self-doubt and normalized burnout that we've collectively decided is just "modern life"?
And what if it’s trying to balance all these imbalances, by first asking us, then nudging us, and finally forcing us to pay attention?
Both of us have spent more money than we care to admit trying to silence these messages. Maybe you have too. But there’s another way:
Healing isn't about fixing what's broken. It’s about understanding what our aches and pains are saying.
And living well isn't about conquering our bodies, but befriending them.
Because our bodies aren’t just all-terrain vehicles for our heads. They're portals to pleasure, to aliveness, to the wild joy of being human. It’s easy to forget when our nervous systems are preoccupied with so much pain, but it’s worth it to remember.
We, Ana and Leona, have been slowly but surely remembering. (Slowly.)
Ana's journey through Lyme disease and chronic illness led her deep into the wilderness of auto-immune diagnosis and the impacts of trauma on the nervous system, while Leona's battles with anxiety, panic attacks, burn out, and disordered eating pulled her into the labyrinth of mental health and personal development.
Different trails, same destination: the profound realization that our bodies aren't the enemy — they're the compass.
We’ve been so amazed by what we’ve learned, we’re ready to shout it from the Internet roof tops. So here we go.
Through a blend of neuroscience, somatic practices, and often-embarrassing lived experience, at The Body Knows we’re diving into:
How our nervous systems shape every experience we have
The ways trauma lives in the body, and how the body knows the path through it
Practical tools for liberating trapped emotions and reclaiming your vital energy
Inner work that goes beyond "think positive" to actually feeling different
How becoming your body's ally makes life not just easier, but richer and wider
And how reclaiming our relationship with our bodies can ripple out to change the communities around us (more on that in a sec)
This isn't about following someone else's “self-help blueprint” or forcing yourself into rigid protocols. (Trust us, we've tried them all. The pile of abandoned wellness gadgets in Leona’s basement stands as testament.) It's about coming home to yourself. About trusting the intelligence that lives in your tissues, your gut feelings, your instincts. Because healing isn't something that happens to you — it's something that happens as you liberate you.
And while our bodies are the center of our work, they are just the beginning. Every time we choose to honor our needs, knowings, and desires instead of suppressing them, we're challenging the oppressive systems that taught us otherwise — to place productivity over humanity, logic over compassion, authority over the inner voice that whispers “this is not right.”
In this way, healing is embodying the future we want to live in — one where every person can ask for and receive what they need to live in safety, dignity, and belonging.
This isn't just about making it easier for me to get through my day (though hey, if that happens too, we’re not mad about it). This is about collective liberation, one body at a time.
As Albert Camus said, “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
So at The Body Knows, we’ll be exploring how to:
Lay down the weapons of self-improvement and pick up the tools of self-trust.
Transform our wounds into sources of wisdom and power.
Remember what our bodies never forgot.
Change this goddamn world together.
This sounds awesome, thank you both for sharing.
Nice to see you back in my inbox <3