E047 I Emotional healing for real results – The missing link in wellness

 Are you doing everything “right” but still feeling exhausted, inflamed, and stuck in a cycle of symptoms?

You’ve cleaned up your diet, taken all the supplements, and followed the expert protocols—but your body still isn’t responding the way you’d hoped. 

What if the missing piece isn’t another test or treatment, but something deeper?

For too long, the wellness world has focused only on physical health, ignoring the profound impact that emotions, trauma, and subconscious beliefs have on our healing. In this episode, we uncover why your body may be stuck in survival mode and what you can do to finally break free. 

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL DISCOVER:

✔ The hidden connection between emotions, stored trauma, and chronic symptoms.
✔ Why your nervous system plays a bigger role in healing than any diet or supplement.
✔ How to recognize the signs that emotional healing is the missing link in your journey.

If you’re tired of trying everything and getting nowhere, this episode will shift the way you approach healing—so you can finally see the results you’ve been searching for.

🎧 Listen now and take the first step toward real, lasting wellness!

OTHER LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Join our free Facebook group: Embrace Your Healing Journey

📖 Books Mentioned:

• You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay
• Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom by Dr. Christiane Northrup
• When the Body Says No by Dr. Gabor Maté
• The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution by Dr. Aviva Romm

💡 Learn more about the BODY WISE HEALING™ Framework

📩 Write to me: anindita@aninditarungta.com—I’d love to hear from you!

 Don’t miss the Autoimmune Breakthrough Masterclass happening in March! Reserve your spot now and finally break free from fatigue, inflammation, and confusion. 

Chapters

• 0:06 The hidden reason your body isn’t healing
• 1:13 Why you haven’t heard about this before
• 3:20 Why emotional suppression contributes chronic illness
• 5:21 What if your body is actually protecting you?
• 6:53 Your gut is your second brain and how its affecting you
• 9:14 What happens when you finally release stored emotions
• 10:04 When your body is stuck in survival mode
• 12:04 When your subconscious beliefs are keeping you stuck
• 12:44 The truth no one talks about
• 18:02 Survival Overdrive Syndrome according to Dr Aviva Romm
• 18:57 The real path to lasting healing
• 19:16 Here are 3 ways you can get started today
• 21:26 Use the “I Should” Exercise by Louise Hay
• 24:33 The key to breaking free from autoimmune overwhelm

Transcript

 You've tried the diets, the supplements, the treatments, and yet still your body isn't responding the way you wanted it to. And the frustration is real. What if the missing piece isn't another test, another protocol on another expert opinion, but something much deeper? 

In this podcast episode, I am uncovering a hidden barrier that's holding so many women back from real healing. And once you see it, you can never unsee it. So stay with me, because this might be the breakthrough that you've been waiting for. Welcome to Embrace Your Healing Journey, a podcast for women with autoimmune and other chronic conditions to help them navigate their illness without fear of isolation and uncertainty, and find relief from their symptoms. Your body is your guide and ally in healing. If you're ready to embrace this journey with compassion and awareness, then this show is for you. Tune in weekly as I am a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach, deliver tips and insights that demystify the healing process, guiding you towards the relief you deserve so that you can feel healthy and happy once more. 

I first came across Louise Hay about six years ago. It was the book, you Can Heal Your Life, and it opened my eyes to a very different way of thinking about healing and the importance of emotions and how it impacts our body and our life. Until then, when I read the book, it pretty much felt like I had been living under a rock with little awareness and awareness of exactly how emotions are picked up, bodies and our physical health. 

I had got some idea during my, uh, coaching certification way back in 2016 that emotions do affect our body. Till then, I had no idea. Honestly, this is not something which is taught in school or college and certainly not heard about the term limiting beliefs and how it can really keep us stuck. Beliefs such as I am not good enough or I don't deserve this, I don't deserve some, you know I'm not worthy enough. 

But then I read this book, uh, and I'll share the link below. And it was it was an eye opener. So if you add to this, uh, the kind of beliefs that we have, you know, we we have a tendency to blame others. If we don't take responsibility for our own life, then we tend to blame others for our problems or just cling on to the past. And this actually prevents us from accessing the power that we have to change the outcomes in our life and in our health. So one exercise that I make my clients do, and it's based from this book. It's a brilliant exercise and I'm going to take you through it. So keep a pen and paper handy or a journal. Uh, you can pause the episode here while you do that. 

So this exercise is called "I SHOULD" and I make my clients do this when, uh, I feel that they are in denial of what the reality is and what their role is in creating their current situation. You know, sometimes we need a nudge to take responsibility. So I'll take you through it in the, uh, you know, later on in the episode. An activity I call, uh, that's called issued. Um, so this is actually also another excellent book on, uh, on this topic, which is called Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Doctor Christine Northrup. I referred to this book earlier, also in earlier podcast episodes, and I highly recommend you to read it to get a better understanding on emotional health as well. 

So she says in her book, 

Many women have been taught to think, not feel that we should be upbeat and happy all the time, an approach that inevitably results in squelching needs. Sadness and pain are natural parts of life. They are also great teachers. No one gets through life without experiencing sadness of pain. Yet our culture teaches us that there is something wrong with pain, that it must be drugged, denied, or otherwise avoided at all costs, and the costs are very high. We are not taught that we have an innate ability to deal with pain, that our bodies know how to do this. The path is movement, sound and tears. When a woman has just given birth, she often shakes uncontrollably. It's her body's way of recovery. When an antelope chased by a lion escapes, it shakes all over. 

Crying is one of the ways in which we read our bodies of toxins. Crying allows us to move energy around our body and sometimes to reach it or understand it in a different way. When we don't allow ourselves to feel our emotions and instead use addictive activities or substances such as running alcohol, sugar or recreational chemicals to get a high, we actually create hormones that repress tears and many illnesses, she goes on to say, are quite simply the end result of an of needs that have been buried, unacknowledged and unexperienced for years, sometimes since birth, or even more. 

So in this episode, I'm going to dive deeper into this. And I'm sure you know, when I read that last part from the book, um, there will be someone or maybe it's you that you can think of who has been doing this for a long time, because that's the message that we get typically from society, from media. And that is that maybe the reason that you're doing everything right, eating clean, taking the supplements, following the protocol, but your body is still holding on to symptoms. And maybe you've started wondering, what's wrong with me? Why isn't this working?

 But what if the issue isn't your body at all? And I want you to think about this carefully. What if your body is actually protecting you from something it does not feel safe to release? So let's talk about the hidden symptoms that signal emotional healing is the missing piece. 

Number one, you're constantly fatigued, even when your labs say you're fine. So you wake up exhausted even after a full night's sleep. And maybe you've told me that, you know, we've been told it's adrenal fatigue and you've blamed it on stress, but your body may be carrying around emotional weight that has not been processed. So unresolved, you know, emotions like grief, resentment of fear can create a chronic stress response in your nervous system, and it actually affects your physical body, right? There is there is that connection. 

Number two, you feel stuck in the same cycle. Pain. Flares. Anxiety. Repeat. Rinse and repeat. So you have periods where of course you feel better, but then the symptoms creep back in and the flare up returns the anxiety surfaces. And you tell yourself, maybe I need to change my diet again. Maybe I should try a new supplement this time. But what is actually happening is that your nervous system is in a loop. It's like a trauma response that it's not able to get out of. And your body is in a constant survival mode. And in this mode, uh, no protocol will stick. And no, you know, results will not be sustainable. 

Number three might be that you struggle struggle with digestive issues that just won't go away. So bloating, IBS, food sensitivities, nausea, they come and go, but you're not able to get rid of them completely. And you've tried elimination types. You've tried probiotics and other supplements and gut feeling protocols. But the thing is, your gut is your second brain. So if you're suppressing your emotions, your digestive system will take the head. It will get affected. An unprocessed grief can sometimes show up as chronic constipation. Anxiety can often manifest as diarrhea or nausea. It happens to the best of us. If you are very anxious about a upcoming presentation or a big presentation or, you know, speaking at some event, we can. And it's happened to me that, you know, I can see that I had a bit of diarrhea, etc. the body is not reacting to food. It's reacting to what you haven't allowed yourself to feel. Or you also can get stuck, stuck in an all or nothing thinking. So you either feel that you're on track or you're completely falling apart. There's no in-between place, and so if you've missed a supplement, you have eaten something outside your flat, or you are not following, you haven't worked out. You said you'll work out five days a week and you've not worked out the fifth day. So you sort of get into this response, which keeps you stuck in a, again, a survival mode. But true healing is not about controlling each and every variable. You need to be able to trust your body and do the right thing. And of course, you can end up carrying physical tension that you can never release. So Tight shoulders is a classic example that happens to me quite often. I have to consciously relax my shoulders. Maybe there's a knot in your stomach or a lump in your throat when you try to share something that, you know, vulnerable. This is your way of body talking to you. So these are not random aches. They are stored emotions. And science shows us that when emotions like anger and sadness are suppressed, they don't just disappear, they get stuck in our body.

 They're brilliant books on this topic. When the body says no by Doctor Gabor, mate, I'll share the links in the resource section below. And of course, you say you've moved on, but your body can tell a very different story. And because you're struggling to let go of the past. So maybe it's a past betrayal. You've never really been able to forgive that person. Maybe it's childhood memories. So there are many of these subconscious wounds that need to be addressed, acknowledged, and then released. Otherwise, they continue to affect us, and we don't even realize that it's affecting us. And this is something that has happened I see happening with clients. I've seen it happening with me to some extent and with and with my friends and family.

 So women, you know, who've spent years chasing the perfect diet, perfect protocol, and, you know, they're. And they've changed all of this, and then they start to do this emotional inner work. It's happened to me. Of course, I have seen this difference. And suddenly their body starts responding. They've done pretty much everything before that and somehow they were just stuck. But once they started this emotional work, uh, emotional cleanse, kind of a thing that chronic fatigue lifts without adding another supplement. They got issues resolved without, you know, following another very, very strict diet. The wage starts shifting again. Their flares become less frequent. So because what happens is when you remove the hidden emotional block, your body no longer has to fight to protect you so it can finally heal. And that's what I'll be taking you through next. 

So you may be you may have been treating the symptoms. So there's fatigue, bloating, chronic pain, flare ups, but nothing seems to work long term. And the reason the reason is your body is just not dealing with physical imbalances. It's stuck in chronic survival mode. So it is a mode that is designed to protect you right through to what it perceives to be real. It seems that there is actually a tiger chasing you when that's no longer the case for most of us. That may have been true. Many, many, many years ago. Thousands of years ago, when we used to live in caves as cavemen and cave women. That's no longer the case, but our body doesn't know the difference, so it still reacts. So the nervous system is still trapped in a chronic stress response. 

If you've experienced prolonged stress, trauma, or years of self-criticism, your body has learned to stay in this fight or flight mode as its default state. And this means that your body will prioritize survival over healing. And that is what leads to inflammation, hormonal imbalances, digestive issues. So no amount of supplements or protocols will work if your body does not feel safe to heal. So it's your responsibility to make sure that your body feels safe, immune system feels safe. 

The second thing that can happen is unprocessed emotions. Because suppressed emotions don't just disappear, they get stored in our body. And as I said, I'll share some resources, some books, then deep delve deep into this because fear, grief, and unresolved anger can actually manifest as chronic pain, digestive issues, migraines, back pain even. There's actually research on that. And this is the body ways of saying your body's way of saying that something is not right. Please pay attention and do something about. And the other thing that can typically happen is that your subconscious beliefs can keep you stuck. So if you believe deep down, then you may not be even aware of it. "I am not good enough". I don't deserve to rest. I have to keep proving myself. Your body will respond accordingly. 

So too many times I have worked with women where they know that self-care is of paramount importance and it's so important. But they still struggle because they, deep down, they find that they believe they are not worthy of doing, that. They are not worthy of taking rest. They are not worthy of creating healthy boundaries which will allow them to take that rest or, you know, follow a proper self-care routine which is consistent and because of these beliefs that keep them stuck. But till they work around that belief, till they become aware of this belief, they can't really get anywhere. And they keep going around and around. So until these patterns are addressed, the cycle continues and you can make as many changes as you want on the surface, but you will not see sustainable results. 

And this is something that no one talks about. Your body is not failing. You understand this. It's protecting you from something it perceives to be unsafe. So, um, it's your responsibility to send the message to your body and your immune system that, hey, it's safe. You know, we can calm things down. The immune system can go back into balance. It doesn't have to be hyper responsive or are so over reactive or under reactive. It can be in balance and be appropriately tolerant. And it does not need to protect, you know, like you from something. 

And that something can be many different things. It can be repressed, uh, trauma or grief. It can be unexpressed emotions. It can be a constant state of high alert. And that's how your, you know, you've been living in that constant state of high alert for many years now, or a belief system that keeps you stuck in stress mode. So again, healing is not about doing more. It's about teaching your body that it's finally safe to let go. 

So if you're like most women struggling with ongoing chronic symptoms, you've already probably tried everything you follow the best advice, you've done, the research and you've put in the effort. And yet here you are, still exhausted, still dealing with the flare ups, still feeling like your body just won't cooperate. So, doctor Aviva Romm, I highly recommend her books. She's an amazing herbalist and a doctor, and she has these books and this particular book, The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution. 

She talks about how so many women are misdiagnosed, dismissed or told their symptoms, are just stressed or in their head. And she also explains how conventional approach to healing often ignores the deeper root causes. So it's chronic stress, unresolved emotion, and the nervous system is rolling in an illness. So she talks about this. And, you know, I'm picking up some from her book as well. And this is what you probably tried and why it hasn't worked. 

The first thing is that you might be you might have tried the perfect diet approach. You've got gluten, dairy, Sugar. You've tried. Keto. Paleo. Autoimmune protocol. Plant based. Maybe some. You know, all of them at some point, but your symptoms still come and go. See, the diet matters. It matters a lot. Food is medicine, but it's still not the full picture. Chronic stress, especially emotional stress, can override even the cleanest of diets. And this is one major reason that so many people, they wonder that they are eating healthy. They're doing they're having the right salads. You know, they're having the healthiest foods, but their body is still in a state of inflammation. The immune system is still overreacting. This is the reason this is the most common reason, actually. 

The second reason is a supplement and protocol overload. You've taken adrenal support supplements. You've taken thyroid boosters, detox kits, gut healing powders, and some have helped, of course, but the relief is typically typically temporary. And the reason is the body can't really absorb nutrients or rebalance hormones when it's in survival mode. It just can't. Even the supplements, if it can't digest the food properly, it won't even absorb the supplements properly. So. If there is emotional trauma, there is stored stress, subconscious fears. And that's what's keeping your body hypervigilant. Then the bus based supplements will only work as a band aid and not a long term solution. 

The third thing is pushing through willpower and productivity. So you may tell yourself, I just need to manage my stress better and you try different things morning routines, meditation apps, mindset work, and you also stay busy to distract yourself. But you still feel wired, tired and sheers and exhausted. And the reason is that the willpower does not override your body's survival mechanism, the survival response that the body is in. So again, your nervous system has been conditioned to associate rest with danger because, you know, if you are actually in physical danger and you are resting, then of course, if you're being chased by a tiger, you know that is actually a proper physical danger. A long time back then, it you know, there is a big threat and that's what the body then tends to believe. So then slowing down actually feels unsafe. And even if you know, you actually need it. 

The fourth thing that happens often is that you've gone to specialists, have had lab work done, and even maybe tried alternative medicine, and you've been told like, your labs are completely normal. It's just stress. See, most doctors, especially in the conventional medicine field, they focus on symptom management and even in functional medicine, while they look for root causes, imbalances, nutritional deficiencies. Sometimes they overlook the role of emotional stress and stored trauma. They completely overlook that. So your body is not just dealing with low thyroid function, etc. it is also years of emotional suppression. And that's why you're probably not seeing sustained results. And all of these approaches are one thing in common. They focus on fixing the body without addressing the underlying emotional root cause. And that's why you don't see the results. 

And that's why so many women continue to struggle despite doing everything right. They are treating their thyroid gut hormones, but they haven't addressed the nervous system. Their subconscious beliefs and emotional stress that keeping them stuck and locked in the same loop that I mentioned earlier. 

Adrenal thyroid revolution calls this the survival overdrive syndrome syndrome. It is a state where chronic stress, emotional trauma, and biological imbalances all feed into each other and they keep you stuck in a cycle of symptoms or what I call a disease. You go down so you keep going and round and round in circles. You're trying different things. So the only way to break that cycle or get off that merry go round is healing from the inside out, starting with your nervous system, your emotions, and your body's deepest needs. And that's exactly what we're diving into next, because this next exercise that I'll take you through, which I mentioned right at the beginning, will help you pinpoint what's actually holding you back.

 So you actually don't need another diet, another supplement, or another protocol that only scratches the surface. You need all of that, but you also need to do this work. You need to shift your entire approach to healing. And Doctor Romm, in the same book explained that. 

She explains that real healing doesn't come from just treating symptoms. It comes from resetting the body's stress response and addressing emotional wounds. So you need to move your body out of this chronic survival mode. 

So here are three ways that you can get started today. You don't have to wait a second longer. 

Number one, of course you're starting with getting your nervous system out of survival mode. Your body will not heal if it doesn't feel safe. Period.

 This first step is not a new thing, not a new supplement. It's teaching your nervous system that it's okay to relax. I am amazed that this is not talked about more often than nobody tells this. Uh, you know, to people, I mean, very few people I would say are aware of this, that your body needs to know that it's safe. It's safe to heal. And the way you can practice this by practicing body based healing techniques. So just, you know, just by being in your head is not gonna help you in this case, which is mind set work. You will also have to be in your body. So the somatic kind of exercises, breath work, vagus nerve stimulation, the many apps that can help you do this. It tells your body that it's okay to let go of tension. And you stop rushing your healing because that, you know, if you if you keep thinking that I need to fix this right now, that keeps your body again in a high alert phase. So you need to stop doing that. And, of course, prioritize. True rest, not distraction, not distracting yourself with Netflix, TV, social media or anything else. That's not true. Rest. Your body needs real downtime. So it's quiet stillness. It is meditation. It's mindfulness. It's even mindful walking. It doesn't have to be anything else. So when you do this, your body starts shifting from fight off from fight or flight to rest and digest and relaxation mode. And that's when magic, the magic happens. 

The second way that you can do this is to release the emotional stress your body has been holding on to. And the way you can do that is the I should exercise by Louis Haye. So I want you to take a piece of pen and paper and write down a list of everything you tell yourself you should do. I should be eating better. I should be eating healthy. I should be exercising five days a week. I should be doing that. And then if you ask yourself why, you will actually uncover your reasons or what you think your reasons are. So my mother told me,  my doctor told me you need. So, you know, you can just sort of come up that. And once you are uncovering the reason that you are doing this, and if it's not the right reason, then that's probably why you're not doing it. Or, you know, you're shoulding yourself. 

Then you can rewrite. And this is where the magic happens. You can rewrite each statement as if I really wanted to, I would. And when you start doing that, if I really wanted to, I could eat or make a healthier choice every day by just adding one vegetable. Or one, uh, so, you know, whatever the case might be, or just adding 15 minutes of work every day. So just by stopping, you know, shooting yourself, you make a huge shift. So this exercise is something that I would highly recommend. 

The second way you can do this is by, uh. You know that don't push through or stay positive all the time. You don't need to stay positive. Allow yourself to feel what needs to be felt, because what you don't process, your body actually stalls. So you don't have to be a happy and positive all the time. That's not how you know human beings function. And of course, moving emotions through your body. So that means journaling, crying, dancing, shaking. Dancing is my favorite way of doing that. I mean, I can, especially for women, we hold a lot of emotions in our hips, so when we dance and do a lot with a lot of hip movement, it really takes the emotions out of our body and it can really feel weird, you know, at first, but it really works. It helps me lift my mood, feel happier. You know, I have cried when I have done that. You know, in a way I've had tears on my eyes and that's probably because I needed to feel that in my body. So a lot of times a chronic pain, tightness, fatigue can lessen or disappear because your body no longer needs to hold on to stress at that level. 

The third way that you can do this is rewire the subconscious beliefs that are keeping you stuck. So all those beliefs like I am not enough. I have to work harder to deserve health. Healing is supposed to be hard. All you have to let go of is. And the way you do that is of course, by identifying what those beliefs are. So what you ask yourself is what story am I telling myself about my health? So this is another thing that you can do in your journal. You can write this down as well. What story am I telling about myself? About my health? And then ask, is this actually true? 

And the second thing that you do here is reframe healing as a journey, not as a punishment. So stop looking for perfection. So don't say I have to do this to get better. Say that I get to support my body with love, right? This is what I want to do. I choose to write. The other thing that you can do is you can sort of use affirmations, you know, so it's completely up to you what you like. And you can say things like, I'm safe, I'm supported, my body is healing it. You know, your body can actually start responding with ease because when you shift from fixing to feeling, from controlling to trusting, from surviving to thriving, everything changes. Your energies can start, uh, you know, improving your symptoms lessen. Not because you force them to. Because your body no longer feels the need to hold on to them. And you finally feel at ease in your body. And when you've tried the diets, supplements, expert recommendations and it's body's not, uh, you know, uh, responding. And because your body did not feel safe enough to heal, and when you've done all these three things, then, uh, you will see the difference. 

But if you don't address it, this is what happens. You can actually continue to feel exhausted. Your body continues to stay stuck in a cycle of flare ups, inflammation. You keep bouncing between new diets, protocols, treatments, all without any lasting relief, and you feel more confused, more overwhelmed, and more disconnected from your own healing. So I hope that you will, uh, move from being stuck in a constant state of survival mode to, you know, to a rest and digest mode. It's not your fault. The system has failed to show you what's really driving your symptoms beneath the surface. 

And here's the truth. You don't need another. Another temporary fix. You need a clear, sustainable path to breaking free from this vicious cycle. This disease merry go round, as I call it, one that simplifies your approach, restores your energy, and helps you take back control of your health. And that's exactly what you will get inside the Autoimmune Breakthrough Masterclass this March. I am this is not an information session. This is a breakthrough masterclass. So if you're ready to learn how to do this and finally get clarity on what your body truly needs, then you join me and I'm going to share the link below. Reserve your spot. 

Now if you have any questions, you can connect with me on Instagram at the rate and in the room tab. And ah yeah, I've shared that. So thank you so much for joining me today for this episode of Embrace Your Healing Journey. 

In the next episode, we are diving deep into the wellness myth that are probably keeping you exhausted, inflamed, and frustrated, but without even realizing it. So if you've ever felt like healing is harder than it should be, there's a reason for this. I'll be breaking down the biggest misconceptions in the wellness world that are making your journey towards health more complicated, not less. And most importantly, how to break free today. Don't miss it!