Why You Get “Sick” Every Spring (It’s Not Illness)

You might be noticing your body feels more exhausted than usual, emotions closer to the surface, or old symptoms returning that you thought were already resolved.

In this live episode, I’m talking about what it means to be a sensitive body during seasonal transitions, especially in spring, when nervous systems tend to surface what’s been stored or unfinished. I share my own recent experience moving through what looked like illness, but was also a deeper clearing cycle, and how easy it is to misread those signals and jump into panic, overcorrecting, or trying to fix what may not actually be broken. We're also talking about why community and co-regulation matter for sensitive nervous systems, and how being in the right environments can shift the entire experience of what your body is going through.


In this Episode:

00:00 Why Your Body Might Feel “Off” Right Now
01:01 You Might Not Be Sick (The Core Reframe)
02:55 Understanding Sensitive Bodies & Seasonal Shifts
05:10 My Detox Experience (What It Actually Looked Like)
11:06 The 4 Signs Your Body Is Clearing, Not Crashing
11:15 #1 Exhaustion That Doesn’t Improve With Sleep
12:00 #2–#4: Symptoms, Emotions & Vivid Dreams
16:43  Spring Energy, Ancient Rituals & Why Community Matters
23:14  Invitation + Nervous System Reset Practice

Links Mentioned:
🔮 Cosmic Sensitive Circle Early Bird Discount: https://bwh.thrivecart.com/cosmic-sensitive-circle/?coupon=EARLYBIRDCSC
🌷 BodyScan: https://bodywhisperhealing.com/services
✨ Take the Cosmic Sensitive Quiz: https://cosmicsensitivequiz.com
💐 Bloom B*tch Photoshoot Retreat: https://businessbynature.com/bloom-retreat/
🌀 SpiralDance with Maria Yraceburu: https://www.yraceburu.org/spiraldancing-life.html

Resources:
🌸 Beltane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltane#:~:text=Beltane%20was%20one%20of%20four,waxing%20power%20of%20the%20sun%22. 
🌿 Other Festivals: https://www.celticwebmerchant.com/en-int/blogs/culture-spirituality/get-the-look-your-perfect-ostara-beltane-outfits#:~:text=Ostara%2C%20Beltane%20and%20Walpurgis%20Night,the%20Indo%2DEuropean%20culture%20settled. 
🔄 Co-regulation of the nervous system: https://www.traumatherapistinstitute.com/blog/Co-Regulation-of-the-Autonomic-Nervous-System#:~:text=Connection%20supports%20trauma%20recovery%20in%20regulation%20in,and%20healthy%20connections%20help%20recalibrate%20these%20systems. 
🔄 Co-regulation and the people around you: https://welldoing.org/article/co-regulation-how-people-around-you-impact-your-nervous-system

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Watch Cosmic Body Shenanigans Podcast on YouTube!

Check out more from Amanda:
Website: Body Whisper Healing
Instagram: @Amanda.G.Smith
Facebook: Body Whisper Healing
Pinterest: AmandaGSmithBWH
LinkedIn: Amanda (Ritchie) Smith

Take the Cosmic Sensitive Quiz to find out what stresses you out most and why. It's fun, it's free, and it's only 7 easy questions. https://www.cosmicsensitivequiz.com/

Transcript

0:07

Alright. We've already begun with a splash. going live today on YouTube because I didn't have time last week to get this episode for the Cosmic Body Shenanigans podcast ready and that's okay because what my body was going through is exactly what we're going to talk about in this live broadcast. So I will be engaging with whoever shows up. for the chat and I'm excited for that piece of the puzzle. Because by this time next week, hopefully you might stop panicking about the signals your body keeps throwing at you. that you don't totally recognize. because we're diving into how sensitive bodies respond to springtime and you might not be sick. And that creates a nice deep exhale for some of you. springtime for a sensitive body tends to show up as more exhaustion, as emotions closer to the surface because of that exhaustion. Old symptoms might show up that you thought you cleared and they're whispering or maybe even yelling at you again. if you're like most of my clients, you are potentially hitting the panic button. You're going for, my gosh, I need to Google what's wrong with me. Reaching out to healthcare providers like myself, adding another supplement or just pushing through really hard. And that was me last week. I was pushing through hard. And here's what I want you to hear. You might not be sick. And of course I can throw a bunch of disclaimers at you and tell you, you know, go, go find out from your doctor, go find out from a healthcare provider that you trust. and you might just be completing something. Again, that's what I was going through. sensitive bodies are high fidelity. We're working at 4K here, not 1080p. you register things on a different level and your nervous system responds acutely. You might be the type that has seasonal changes that you feel in your body, energetic shifts that are happening from solar flares and our awesome solar maximum that we're in right now. It might be collective emotional gunk. I mean, we are kind of in a crazy time right now. And it could be cosmic timing. It's not a flaw, it's attunement. That's the true thing when it comes to being someone who's sensitive. doesn't mean your body is broken. doesn't mean that because this thing showed up again, you can't clear it. It could be that this is the beginning of a clearing cycle. It could be that it's finally time to finish a cycle that's been showing up over and over again. Because we live in a culture that needs pathologies, any symptom without a clean, clear lab result is usually sickness and I throw that in air quotes but it could be misread. And it could be that you're actually experiencing a detox instead of an illness or a disease. I have been going through a pretty intense period of sickness slash detox. And I say that as the sickness slash detox because when I speak to people and they see me and they're like, you look, you look sick. telling them I'm in a detox is a lot to explain. And part of what I was going through had the common sickness type things like stuffy nose, fever on and off. My body was definitely fighting something. And it was also a detox. Double down. It had flavors of long COVID, which was really interesting. It had flavors of phantom pain. I had my tonsils removed when I was four years old, but my tonsils that don't exist in my throat felt swollen, the spots where those tonsils are at or were at. I was moving some very deep stuff and I was experiencing that bone deep fatigue. was experiencing fevers on and off. I was experiencing the weight of what I've experienced throughout my lifetime. I kept on thinking. I need to release this thought of I'm sick all the time. I have been sick on and off throughout my entire life in big ways and little ways, but just generally battling sickness. And some of the work that I'm doing right now with Maria Yesperu in uh Spiral Dance, I will put the link for that. in the show notes. She's not taking people on right now for this year, but come, I believe, October, September, October timeframe, she's taken on new people for Spiral Dance. And I am in a place where I was, I was working a ceremony around that very thing. Fear of continuing to live this unhealthiness that I've been experiencing my entire life. And I got to do a ceremony this last weekend where I stalked that fear like Kevin Costner in Dances with the Wolves. And I attacked it. And then I burned it down. And that release has given me so much more vitality, so much more energy. It's liberating. And yet I know my body is still doing this detoxing thing that I've been going through. By the way, I'm Amanda Smith, you don't know who I am. I am a former NASA. I am a former engineer that worked on NASA projects and programs. It's so much easier to say I was a NASA engineer, but I never actually worked for NASA. I worked with NASA. Little catch there. I've since working on all those projects and programs, including Artemis, you can see it over my shoulder over here. Since working on those projects and programs, I have turned into a nervous system nerd, experimenting, working with the nervous system, with my clients, working through health issues like this detox. And it's springtime here in the Northern Hemisphere. So our bodies are going through a sensitive period. And in the Southern Hemisphere, fall, same thing. Spring and fall are a time to be gentler on your system. And for us sensitive ones, be gentler on your digestive system. Soups are a phenomenal thing during spring and fall. I highly encourage you to embrace those. And this is when seasonal allergies will show up, especially this year, because the trees are throwing, especially if you have pollen allergies from trees, our trees are gonna be throwing a ton of pollen at us this year because they've gone through quite a wild ride through the winter time where we might've had some moisture and then we didn't have any moisture and then we might've had a big dump of moisture. And it's this crazy cycle of on off with heat and moisture and no moisture that these trees are seeing like, okay, I'm gonna throw my pile. No, I'm gonna throw my, and we keep getting this pollen craziness going on. So if you have tree allergies, you might be experiencing more intense allergies. And that isn't what you need to experience. It might be that you need to detox something. So let's go through the four signs of your body is clearing, not crashing. You're not sick potentially. Sit with this list, please. So number one, exhaustion that doesn't respond to sleep. It doesn't respond to taking more naps. It doesn't respond to taking longer sleep cycles. It's not responding to sleep at all. This is your body redirecting energy inward. You're experiencing a melatonin spike and a cortisol dip. Your system's pulling resources towards cellular cleanup. That's a detox. Please rest more. But this signal that you're exhausted, it has a purpose. Listen to it. Number 2 old symptoms resurfacing. This is the thing that I knew right away. was like, Ooh, okay. Tonsils that I don't have feel swollen lymph nodes along my neck. Very swollen fevers on and off with tons of snot. These are like super common things and body doesn't always clear things in a straight line. Our bodies can be cyclical. on us just like the seasons. Something healing looks like a return before it looks like a release. If something old is showing up, ask what it's completing rather than assuming it's coming back. That's huge. That's huge because... I kept on thinking, oh like, oh, I'm sick again. And this is a long duration sickness. Here we go. Like long COVID. I had that for years. I was experiencing symptoms for years from long COVID. And when I got to about week four of this sickness detox, woo hoo! I was going, okay, we're in it for the long haul right now. And all I had to do was take this turn and ask this question. what is completing rather than assuming it's coming back. All right, number three, emotional rawness without a clear trigger. You might think, it's because I'm exhausted. Oh, it's because I'm sick again. Yeah, those could be the triggers for sure, but your nervous system is becoming honest. during a detox cycle. Anything you've been suppressing comes to the surface. Anything. It's not there to punish you. It's there for you to complete. Emotions aren't the problem. Override is. In this potential detox, don't try to conquer it. See it for what it is. Ask it what it wants. Don't just go, okay, I'm to be a bruiser now and shove that crap down. If you took the gutsy chick quiz at gutsy chick quiz.com and you're a bruiser, this one, this one's tough because we do want to override that. We do want to just, okay, enough. And that that's an emotion in and of itself. All right. Number four, this, as far as the signals that this is probably a clearing and not a sickness. Number four dreams. get way more vivid or strange or intense or all of the above. I think that was probably my number one indicator that I was in a detox was the dreams that I was having. I could regurgitate them beautifully as soon as I woke up. It wasn't like they just disappeared when I woke up and I went into the fog of, I don't remember what I dreamed about, but I know I dreamed. This was like raw on the surface, easy to go, okay, Maria, what in the world is happening in this dream? What do you see that I potentially am not seeing? it was so funny. One of the dreams I had emailed Maria was the reoccurring thing was releasing old patterns. And again, it was just one of those indicators of you're in a detox. So here's the background on it. Your limbic system is doing a nighttime processing. It's doing work while you're asleep. And that's what you want. You want your subconscious to become conscious so that you can handle it. And that's what dream time can be phenomenal for. Your dreaming mind is working. Let it. And write it down, process it with another human. go look up what in the world that was all about. Ask Chat GPT. You can get some really entertaining things from Chat GPT. Not necessarily accurate, but definitely entertaining. All right. Now let's switch gears slightly. Since we are in springtime and this is being live recorded on April 27th, May day is coming. I remember as a kid, putting together a little basket of flowers, ding dong ditching one of my neighbors, putting the basket on their porch and then hiding to see how they would react. This is the essence of Mayday. But there's a cultural thing here that I got to learn later on that I was like, okay. And then when I was doing the research for this particular podcast episode, oh, I learned a whole lot more. So culturally, we've got Beltane. I'm probably going to pronounce some of these wrong. Walpurgis night, that's the Germanic practice. Floralia and Obias. These are some of the oldest festivals on Earth. We didn't need a calendar date, which May Day happens to be on May 1st, which was America's version of taking what those cultures did and saying, OK, we've got labor union now, and we've got people in the industrial complex. Let's give them something to play with. That's actually the American version of May Day, which was interesting to learn about. Happened in the late 1800s. for all the other cultures that had already had Beltane, while Purgis night, Floralia and on and on. These were nervous system events. Their bodies were going, hey, it's springtime. We got to celebrate in community. We're emerging from the winter time. We survived. Let's celebrate. They built fires. They danced the maypole. They celebrated together that they had made it through the dark. not quietly and alone, but together. with their bodies moving and their voices loud, singing and dancing. The science behind this one isn't complicated. Your nervous system regulates faster when you're in community. It becomes more complete when you're in community and you are more durable in the presence of others regulating nervous systems with the same intention. co-regulation is not a wellness trend. In fact, it's kind of underground, which is weird, but in ancient times, this was how they knew their bodies were designed. And because we've gotten linear with our calendars and our clocks. And if you've not had an opportunity to watch the podcast episode, that I recorded the patriarch's clock, the Gregorian calendar has changed you, yeah, go check that one out. We're re-emerging in this time in a beautiful, beautiful way. And that re-emergence looks like it takes a village. The women know this. The men are learning this. And we're all starting to realize these ancient cultures had it right. So for those of you who are sensitive. Coming together in community and allowing your nervous system to co-regulate with others who are on a similar path with a similar intention moves the needle faster forward. I got an opportunity this last weekend to be with my people and it was a photography retreat called Bloom Bitch put on by Alina Paisas and Kat. Bacchus, gonna drop that one in the show notes too. They put on three to four of these a year. This was the first one. I've been to it twice now. It's an initiation. It's not just a photo shoot. And because we were in community, my body, my mind, my nervous system had an opportunity to co-regulate with the women that were there. And yes, men can come to this photo shoot also. oh It was spectacular. And we had soup for dinner every night. And we played with Oracle cards and we had flower and essences by Michelle Wellington. And my gosh, we made magical candles like the one I knocked over when we started this podcast episode, live recording. This isn't the one I made. This is the one I made at the first one and actually like thinking back about the first photo shoot versus the candle I made for this photo shoot. This was my Beltane. This was my opportunity to come together and co-regulate and allow this detox that I've been experiencing to complete. No one else there was going through the same thing I was going through. No one else there was in a detox like I was. Some people were experiencing sickness, colds that were probably detoxes or many initiations before the retreat started. But we all got to regulate together and everybody walked away from this beaming, absolutely beaming. I want to invite you to the Cosmic Sensitive Circle. If you are looking for that community, I created it for you, for the sensitives, for people who want to co-regulate and learn from other people who are going through similar experiences with their bodies, their minds, their nervous systems. It's a place to connect. It's a place to learn about what the cosmic weather is throwing your way. give you briefings at every moon, new moon and full moon to let you know here's what's coming so you can prepare so that your body goes, okay, so we've got this major solar flare coming for my solas. If you've taken a cosmic sensitive quiz, cosmic sensitive quiz.com solas are. affected by light and the solar activity has a big effect on them. So if you know what's coming, you can decrease your load during that week, during that day, I should say, and make it so that when the solar flare is over, that geomagnetic storm is over, you aren't so bogged down. You don't feel like crap. you were prepared. That's part of it. And learning more about your cosmic sensitive type, whether you're a sola, a Luna, a Barrow or an empa, you get to go deeper into the understanding of what that is. And then you can start to point out, Oh, Oh, I know what my husband or my partner is. I know what my best friend is. And it actually helps you better understand those people in your life, your coworkers. your boss. Okay, let's regulate together. Gonna check the chat real quick. Placing one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly. And if you're driving, just put one hand on your heart. Take a nice slow inhale. and a longer exhale dropping into your body. and ask yourself, what are you trying to put down right now? Don't analyze the answer. Just notice what comes up. A sensation, a word, an image, sign from nature if you're outside or you're near a window and you're hearing or seeing things. That's your body talking. That's nature giving you ideas of what's going on. That's the signal most people override. So I mentioned the Cosmic Sensitive Circle. Right now we're in the early bird phase. So if you are hearing this and the early bird has not hit May 3rd yet, that is when the early bird stops, it is $37 a month. You can cancel at any time.$37 a month until May 3rd. Remember, your body is intelligent. It wants to heal. Listen to it. Move with it. It knows.