#30 The Cost of Believing Your Body Only Works "Sometimes"

We’ve all been told mixed messages about our body. When it comes to something like a cut or a broken bone, we trust without question that the body knows how to heal. But when the label is autoimmune, cancer, or another chronic condition, suddenly the story changes — now your body has betrayed you, and you’re told you have to fight it.

In this episode, I’m exposing the hidden cost of believing your body only works “sometimes.” 

You’ll discover:

• Why our culture has programmed us to trust the body in some situations but not others.
• The truth about symptoms as adaptations.
• The surprising impact this belief has on your healing.

By the end, you’ll walk away with a powerful reframe that will change how you see every symptom and open the door to deeper trust in your body.

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Thanks for listening! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

When you get a cut or broken bone, no one questions whether your body knows what it's doing. You trust it will clot the blood, knit the bone back together, and heal. But when it comes to things like autoimmune conditions, cancer, or other chronic symptoms, the story suddenly changes. Now your body is seen as betraying. Now you're told it's something you have to fight. That mixed message doesn't just confuse us, it comes with a cost. And most people don't even realize they're paying it. In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on that contradiction and showing you why it matters for your healing. By the end, you'll walk away with three things clarity on the contradictory messages you've been given about your body. Number two, the very real cost of believing your body only works sometimes. And number three, a powerful reframe that will change how you see every symptom moving forward. So let's dive in. Welcome to the Rebellious Healer, where we ditch the fear, decode the symptoms, and take healing into our own hands. I'm Jenny Peterson, a former holistic practitioner, turn symptom-free, mind-body rebel. I help women break free from protocols and step into trust, confidence, and full body healing. If you're done with rules, restrictions, and outsourcing your power, you're in the right place. So not long ago, I was listening to a podcast by a psychologist that I really enjoy. But I noticed something that he was saying when people called in for his advice. A caller shared that they were struggling with anxiety. And he said, Your body is working perfectly. That anxiety response is protection. Your biology is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. Great message, right? And I agreed with him. But then another caller came on, this time with an autoimmune condition. And suddenly the message was completely different. He said, I'm so sorry that this is happening to you. The body that you should be able to trust is now failing you. And my jaw dropped. Because think about what that's really saying. One moment your body is perfect, the next moment it's the enemy. One moment you're encouraged to trust it, the next you're told to go to war with it. And here's what gets me no one called it out. Not the audience, not the caller, not even the psychologist himself. That's how normal it's become in our culture to hold this contradiction in our minds. We trust the body only in certain contexts, and in others we instantly believe it has failed us. This contradiction isn't just about one psychologist's words. It's about cultural conditioning that runs so deep you don't even notice it anymore. Think about the language we use. We fight cancer. We're battling autoimmune disease. We lose the fight when someone dies. War metaphors are everywhere. It creates an image that your body is a battlefield and you are at war with yourself. The invader is your own biology. The enemy is your own cells. Now compare that to how we talk about a cut or a broken bone. No one says your body is fighting your leg when you break a bone. We say it's healing. No one says your body has betrayed you when you get a cut. We simply expect the body to do what it's designed to do, repair itself. So why the double standard? Why do we automatically assume intelligence and trust in one scenario, but betrayal and failure in another? Isn't it the same body? The same design? The same biology at work? This is where cultural programming runs deep. We've been trained to believe some symptoms are proof the body is working, while others are proof it has turned against us. We rarely stop to question how contradictory that actually is. And I see this show up all the time in the questions I get. People ask me, is fill in the blank their symptom or condition something that can be addressed with the work that I do? Can autoimmune, cancer, or something more serious be helped with the mind-body approach? Or because it's bigger, do I have to approach it differently? These are common questions I get. And do you hear the assumption in that question? The belief that the body has two different operating systems. One that works perfectly for small things, and another that somehow malfunctions when the stakes feel higher. And because no one calls it out, we just accept it as truth. We nod along, we repeat the phrases, and we build our entire approach to health around an idea that doesn't even make biological sense. So let's look at this from a different lens. What if the body never flips from working perfectly to failing? What if every single thing it does, whether it's a cut, a broken bone, anxiety, autoimmune, or even cancer? Is this still part of the same intelligent design? The truth is, illness is not betrayal. Illness is adaptation. Your body is always responding, always adjusting, always protecting you in the only way it knows how. Think about it. A fever is your body adapting to fight off infection. Inflammation is your body creating protection while it repairs tissue. Fatigue is your body forcing you to rest when you've pushed beyond your limits. And the same intelligence that heals a cut or knits a bone is the intelligence behind every chronic condition. It doesn't just disappear when the symptom gets a scarier label. The problem is we've been taught to see adaptation as failure. We've been trained to look at symptoms and think this is my body turning against me. But that's not what's happening. Symptoms are evidence of the body doing its job, responding to unresolved patterns, unprocessed experiences, and survival programming that it thinks is still needed. When you see illness as adaptation, the whole story changes. Your body is no longer the enemy, it's the messenger. It's showing you what's happening beneath the surface, what needs your attention, and where healing work is still unfinished. And once you understand that, you can stop fighting and start partnering. Let's play this out with an example. Imagine Jane. Jane has panic attacks. She's terrified, but people tell her, Jane, that's your body protecting. Your nervous system is just on overdrive. Your body isn't broken. Now that calms her. She may not like the panic attacks, but at least she believes her body has good intentions. Now imagine Jane gets diagnosed with an autoimmune condition. Overnight the narrative changes. Jane, your body is attacking itself. Your body has turned against you. You need to fight it. Can you see what that does to her subconscious? With panic attacks, she believes her body is for her. With autoimmune, she now believes her body is against her. That belief doesn't just live in her mind, it creates a deep sense of betrayal, fear, and helplessness. And here's the cost. Once she believes her body has betrayed her, she loses her ability to trust. She loses her ability to feel safe inside herself. And without that, healing feels impossible. This is why so many people come to me saying, I've tried mind body work, but I don't think it will work for my condition. It's not because mind body work only applies to some conditions. It's because they've been programmed to believe trust in the body has limits. Every time they reinforce my body is against me, they deepen the very patterns keeping them stuck. And that's the cost. Selective trust. Believing some symptoms are quote unquote safe to address with the mind-body approach, while others require abandoning trust altogether. That belief splits you down the middle. And that split keeps you from ever fully stepping into healing. This split will show up in real practical ways. Fear every time a new symptom appears, hesitation about whether you can really trust your body, doubt and whether the mind-body approach can quote unquote handle your condition. And every one of those is a cost you don't need to keep paying. Healing requires full partnership with your body, even when the symptom feels scary, especially when it feels scary. If you can believe your body is protecting you in anxiety, then you can also believe your body is protecting you in autoimmune or cancer. The design doesn't change. The biology doesn't suddenly fail. The body is consistent. It's our narrative that isn't. So the real question is, where in your healing have you accepted the story that your body has turned against you? And how much has that belief already cost you? Because when you let that belief go, you stop paying the price of fear and you start building trust. And trust is where healing begins. So let's bring this all together. We've seen how our culture teaches us a contradictory story about the body. One moment it's celebrated for working perfectly, the next it's accused of betraying us. We've looked at how those mixed messages shape the very question people ask. Does this work for something serious like autoimmune or cancer, or only for the smaller stuff? We've reframed illness as adaptation, not failure, showing that the same intelligence that heals a cut or a broken bone is behind every symptom, even the ones that feel the scariest. And we've uncovered the cost of believing otherwise, selective trust, constant fear, hesitation, and doubt. The belief that your body sometimes works perfectly and other times betrays you splits in two. And nothing keeps you stuck in symptoms more than that. But here's the empowering truth. Your body doesn't betray you, it adapts, it protects, it communicates always. So the question I'll leave you with today is this Where in your healing have you accepted the story that your body turned against you? And what would open up for you if you choose to see every symptom as proof that your body is still working perfectly? Because when you stop paying the price of fear, you start investing in trust. And that trust is the foundation of real healing.