Episode 2: Trustfall

Episode 2: Trustfall

Show Notes:

In this episode of Badass Thriving, we explore what it really means to trust yourself — not just in your mind, but in your body, your hunger, your rest, and your intuition.

'Trustfall' unpacks how our bodies were never designed to thrive — only to survive. But to step into our fullest, most badass selves, we have to break free from survival-mode patterns like self-abandonment, overtraining, emotional avoidance, and diet culture.

Inside this episode, we dive into:

• Why your nervous system resists vulnerability, change, and growth
• How ancient survival wiring still runs the show (and how to rewire it)
• The difference between discipline and self-betrayal in your fitness routine
• Rebuilding food trust and rejecting diet culture’s guilt-based rules
• Learning to trust your hunger, rest, and intuition again
• Mindset questions to decode your own resistance and start showing up
• A powerful mantra to anchor you in self-trust and radical ownership

This episode is for anyone who’s tired of shrinking, tired of performing, and ready to rebuild — on their terms.

🔥 Mantra from the Episode:

“I trust my body’s cues.
 I trust my hunger.
 I move because I can, not because I have to.
 I rest when it’s right.
 I listen. I lead. I thrive.”

If Trustfall hits home for you, share it with someone who’s ready to rise too.
Tag @badassthrivingpodcast and let us know what resonated most.

You’re not here to survive — you’re here to fucking thrive.

Transcript

0:54

Hello, my little bad asses. It is your host Caressa Dunphy, and I wanna welcome you back to the podcast Badass Thriving, where we go beyond the dairy and the gluten-free, and the diet culture, and the weird ass. Fitness challenges and we go beyond, you know, some of the woo woo stuff and we just talk about some real deep things that we as humans come across, because I really believe that we are multifaceted in that way, and I think that is just so intriguing. So here on the podcast, I want to talk about what it takes for us to thrive as the little badasses that we are. So what do we need to do with our mind and our body and what we put on our plate in order to achieve the most badass selves that we possibly can? So here on today's episode, I wanna talk about something that has become sort of a theme for me, and that theme is trust. And so I want to sort of start off with a. Antidote, if you will, a little personal story that happened to me relatively recently. And then I promise, I'll hope to make it make sense when I integrate it into some more, uh, topics further on. So first off, I wanted to say a huge thank you if you caught the very first episode of the podcast and. Gave it some love because I, I started off with guns a blazing. I shared my personal story, and let me tell you, it was hella uncomfortable to push publish on that sucker. There was so many times the day after that went live that I thought, you know what? I wanna take it down. I don't want anybody to listen to it. It's, I, it made me feel too vulnerable. It was too intimate, and then I had to realize. My nervous system needed a lot more love. My, my big brainy self was like, we've got this, don't worry about it. But my body was not okay with being challenged in that way, so my body wasn't trusting me. So that's one of the things that I wanted to bring up, is what I needed to do to bring my body along for the ride, because my nervous system was freaking the fuck out. Let me tell you so. Yeah, that was story number one, but also story number two. I'm gonna go back a couple of months to my life, um, where I had been accepted into a doctoral program. I was finishing my master's program and I thought, great. I know what I'm doing with my life. I know that I'm gonna take the summer off after I graduate, and then in the fall I'm gonna go into my doctoral program and life is gonna keep trucking along it. Going according to plan. I had been working at this since I was 16. This has always been the goal. You know, some folks just didn't really know that that was a secret ambition of mine. And they're like, wait, this is a thing. And I'm like, yep. That's always been the thing, always been the goal. Uh, so, you know, it was interesting that a few folks were. Sort of su surprised when I was ambitious enough to continue my educational journey beyond what was required to become a dietician, which I am working towards, uh, studying for that big test and, and working towards becoming a registered dietician. So. I in March was accepted into this doctoral program. And then we're gonna fast forward to May a couple months later and I'm meeting with my major professor who is basically my mentor to who's keeping me on track to graduate from my master's degree. And she knew I had been accepted into the doctoral program, of course. And she was mentoring me into that direction as well. And she and I had a sit down meeting. To make sure I was, you know, doing all the things I needed to do to graduate and whatnot. And at the end of that meeting, she dropped a bomb on me. She said, Carissa. I am so sorry to tell you this, but there is no federal funding for you. So doctoral students normally get funded in research and science world because it's just another line item on the budget for these big grant proposals, these research proposals that get, you know, okayed for these big research projects in, in all of the different science, you know, topics really. And she said. With all of the federal cuts that are happening because of our political landscape right now, there is no money being allocated or approved for research. And so nobody's research has been approved, so there's no money for any new doctoral students, and I just remember keeping it together for the rest of that meeting and for the next meeting I had following. And I got back to my place that night and I just broke down and I cried. The ugly cry, man. It was devastating for after 21 years of working towards this goal to be told, yeah, honey, you got in. You're smart enough, you did all the things. So you're accepted into the doctoral program, but we can't have you come. We, we can't fund you, and it was just such a kick to the gut because it was not according to my plan. I have been working so hard to make sure. For the last six, five years, you know, and then three years, all making sure everything that I was doing was putting me into the right trajectory for that route. And now to be told, you need to take at least a year, if not more time off while the federal funding gets sorted out. I'm sure something will come up sooner rather than later, but you need to put your dreams on hold. And I just remember just being like. What the fuck? Like what the actual fuck. I was so angry about this decision that was outside of my control. And so I'm sitting there that night just having the ugliest of ugly cries, just sort of like feeling the feels right, and I noticed on my phone that I missed a call from one of my best friends. And so I normally will just be like, I'll call her later. I'll call her later. But in fact, I, I picked up the phone and I called her back right then in the middle of my ugly cry and. She's like, oh my gosh, I, I, I just needed to like call you. I, something just happened, made me think of you and I don't really have time to talk right now, but I knew I needed to call you because this song came on the radio and made me think of you. And I was like, what, what song? Right? Like, I'm just sobbing.'cause I, I told her like, what was going on and, and she said it was a song by Pink and the song was called Trust Fall. And I knew I needed to call you right now. I can't talk, but I knew I needed to at least just tell you that. And it was so interesting to me because it was like this sign from the universe that had literally been personally delivered onto my lap to say, I know things aren't going well right now. Just trust me. And I, I mean, I, I am sitting here months later recording this and it still gives me goosebumps'cause I'm still like, oh my God, that happened. And so it was just such an amazing reminder because years and years ago, I remember struggling with all of my personal shit. So go back and listen to episode one, if you wanna know about the personal shit. I remember just struggling and struggling and just being like, universe, why? And I remember this very clear message even back then that the universe was like, I got your back honey. I got you. You know? And so it was so interesting to be reminded that there is a plan. There is a plan for each and every one of us, and to, we have to sometimes just completely let go and trustful that the universe is gonna catch us. It's scary as hell to be like. I, I have no idea what I'm doing and it's great and it will all work out. And the schedule I had set for myself this fall and you know, to now have just wide open space available to me to dream again, to be. Creative to have the time to sit down and to create a podcast and to dream a big dream and say, what do I really want out of this amazing life? My whole adult journey has been in academia or going towards academia. I've been raising a family, right? And so what do I get to do now that I have some open space on my calendar? And that was kind of my little personal story to start it off with trust, because it's been a theme ever since then to really go, okay, am I trusting or am I just hanging on to every little bit of control I can. My mantra in the beginning of the year was let it go, let it flow, and let it be at ease, and I am. Realigning myself, reprogramming myself, rebuilding a relationship with myself on does this feel chaotic and phonetic and, and just like I'm holding on for a dear life to make it all work? Or am I letting it go? Am I letting it be? At ease. Am I letting it be joyful? Am I learning to trust my path again? Because it felt like if I didn't have it penciled out on the calendar, I couldn't trust it. And so that is exactly the topic of today's podcast, where I want to really get into trust and how we kind of got away from it and how we can come back to ourselves and. I think this is coming at a really good time because there's so many people I've been having conversations with where there's just these little epiphanies that happen in the conversations of There's something missing. There's something missing, and so this is what I hope. Is going to make sense at the end where my brain kind of connects the dots and that you as the listener and the little bad asses that you are, can take something from this and apply it. And so I'm gonna back up a little bit into some science, into, you know, sort of where it all kind of comes together. And I want it to really. Help you understand maybe where you can apply some of this to rebuilding trust with yourself. So our survival, you know, going way back and way back to like maybe Paleolithic days, was that our nervous system wasn't designed for thriving. It was designed to survive. So back in those days it was. Don't die today. Eat if you can. Don't get eaten and stay in the group because if we, you know, went too far from our little community, we could get eaten by a Saber two tiger, or, I don't know, run over by a wooly mammoth. Who knows, right? So our bodies and our brains have evolved to constantly scan this environment for danger. Am I safe or am I unsafe? That is your body. It's constantly scanning and asking that question, am I safe or am I not safe? That's it. It's a loop. It just continually goes, Nope, there's no danger here. You can proceed. Or oh shit, there's something up there. Uh, we should probably be super careful'cause it could be something really scary that's about to jump out of the bush and eat us. Um, we don't know and uh, maybe we don't wanna go that direction, right? So why this still matters is that that survival wiring never actually left us. The world around us changed, but you know, we're still very much in this. Is it safe or not safe sort of environment that loops still goes. So we're not running from like predators so much anymore, but we're dodging like really interesting. Terrain of emotional rejection, of body shaming, of burnout, of unrealistic expectations. I mean, there's so many things there that you could add to that list, and our nervous system can't really tell the difference between a bear attack and being left on. Like red or criticized online or excluded by friends, right? So our body is still staying sort of hypervigilant and it's still scanning. Am I safe or not safe? So we choose to stay small. We choose to selfa abandon because it. We think it's gonna help keep us safe and part of the community'cause we don't want to be rejected. Right? Being rejected means back in the day, if you were rejected and you were ostracized from your community, you probably weren't gonna survive the winter by yourself. And so we constantly are going. Okay. It doesn't feel safe enough to really step into what I want to do and who I want to be because I might be ridiculed by my peers and people that I thought were, you know, rooting for me. I don't know if they're truly on my. Side. So it's better to just not even chance it. And so this self abandonment is the survival strategy that we have integrated all these years. We learned to betray our truth to fit in. We learned to shut down things like our own hunger cues to override our intuition to be what we thought others want us or need us to be. So we have. Sort of reverted into this diet culture where we starve ourselves for approval. We overtrain in our physical fitness because it feels like validation to us. We silence our truth so that we can stay in our tribe, in our community, so that we're not. Shunted out, right? Because again, like back then being rejected, being meant probably death to us and our body remembers that. Our body is like, um, yeah, no, we would really like to just keep on trucking along for as long as we possibly can. Thank you so much. Right? And so we. Our diet hopping. We're over training. We're saying yes when we really wanna say no. We don't trust our own bodies. We don't trust our intuition. And it's not because that we're weak, it's because deep down we think that fitting in equals survival. And so the shift to go from surviving to thriving is not something our body is really, you know. Super excited about. So we have never really been taught how to thrive. So thriving means. Safety in our own skin. It means acceptance without shrinking ourselves. To be small, it means nourishment. Without guilt, it means resting without proving that we needed to earn it. It means that self abandon, abandonment got you through, but self-trust will set us free. And to take that step is so scary. And so to revert back to my very first story. Where when I published my first episode, my body was like, um, we don't like this. This doesn't feel safe to us. It feels like you've just opened us up for an attack and we wanna shut it down because this feels like we're gonna get ostracized from our community. Feels like we're gonna get bullied. It feels like we open the door way too far, and any predator could come in and so. My nervous system was really trying to say, ssi, you need to self abandon ssi. You need to pull the plug. Because my nervous system was not having it. It's like we're wired for, for surviving. We are not wired to thrive, so we wanna do actually the very opposite of what this podcast is all about. And let me tell you, that was such an interesting epiphany to me and to sit there in that uncomfortable space. And to remind myself over and over and over again that it is okay that it is safe to use my voice. It is my decision to use my voice. It is safe to thrive. It is safe to do this. I mean, for literally like two days, I was like, I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna know. I don't wanna know. I'm not even gonna get on social media. I'm not even gonna look at the reviews. I don't wanna know how many people downloaded it. I don't. I don't wanna know, because that felt like I was opening the door to. Criticism, right? So my body was like self abandoned at all costs. We're not thriving. We're not doing the badass thing today. And I was like, yeah, no, we are, because this is where my soul, my intuition is guiding me. And so it was just the perfect way to sort of loop into this very episode. So, you know, to go back, like I realized I wasn't broken, I was just sort of disconnected. And when I started practicing something so radical, I mean I'm talking like months ago. Years ago when I started really listening to my body. It was what kept me safe from a couple of really potentially hazardous places in my life. If my intuition. Hadn't been the loudest thing in the world, in the room in that moment. I don't know what could happen, you know? And so I had silenced it for so long that I didn't hear it. And then when it mattered, I heard it. And that was just so amazing of, even though I wasn't in tune per se, I was still listening. And I think it could be, what's happening with a lot of folks is maybe they're not listening. As deeply as maybe, you know, being all woke and whatnot, but like, if you tune in for a half a second, I bet you can hear it. And so I think it's just the more that we can slow down. Like, the more I could slow down, the more that I could learn how to meditate, the more that I could check in with myself, the more that I could do some deep breath work, the more that I could ask myself, is this a yes? Like a thousand percent whole body? Yes. Or is this a eh? I don't really know. Because if it's kind of a, eh, I don't really know. It's a thousand percent no. Right. If it's a not a thousand percent, yes, please. It's a thousand percent. No, thank you. And I think that is a really. A great way to start to rebuild that connection with your intuition and. It's something that, you know, even when we're hungry, that we have dismissed, you know, we can trust something as simple as our hunger cues, our hunger and our fullness cues are there to guide us to say, you know, like a baby cries when they're hungry. They stop when they're full. I, I just noticed my cat's eating this morning. I was like, they're eating and drinking because that's what their body is telling them. Like they're, you know. Going to eat what they're going to eat and they're gonna walk away when they're full. It's the same with us. Like we can still trust that even our own hunger and fullness cues are safe to trust. That is our natural design. You know, over time we've been taught to override those signals. Diets taught us to ignore our hunger. That, you know, it's more, we just need more willpower. We need to praise us for our. Our fear of fullness. You know, I, I can deprive myself because I have all the willpower in the world, and then everybody gives me kudos for it. You know, it's like we've learned to turn off our internal compass and we handed the steering wheel over to counting our calories and, and using apps and these arbitrary rules of the more we ignore our hunger, the more we lost our ability to trust it. You know? And it's like. We just, we've, we've ignored our hunger to the point where now we've lost our ability to trust it and it's gonna take time to rebuild something like that with your own hunger and fullness cues. So rebuilding food trust looks like neutralizing some of that language, you know, when as a new and upcoming dietician words like good or. Bad that are sort of this binary, you know, sort of evil versus non, um, word choice towards food. It's like food is just nourishment. Why did we make it good or bad? You know, if there's foods that are. You know, maybe a little bit more calorically dense, maybe just don't eat those as much and just learn to use a little bit more neutral language of like, this is more nutrient dense. This is more calorically dense. Right? Instead of good or bad. Because then there's this sense of like. Shaming that is put on food. Food is food, guys like it is what it is, but we don't need to make it a good or a bad. You know, one of them's not wearing a little halo and one of them's not wearing a little devil horns like it's food and it's meant to nourish us. And then it's up to us to say, okay, I would like to have a very small portion of that ice cream, because to me that still feels good. It still feels like it is a whole body Yes, to me. And I will. Enjoy that little portion and then I'll make sure that I'm balancing it out the rest of the day with other nutrient dense choices, right? It's rebuilding it in that way and using language in that way. You know, we need to learn how food affects your body, not just what the internet says, right? All this like low carb bullshit and keto diet crap. People ask me all the time, like, what's your take on these bad diets? And I just want to go off on a tangent for like. 25 minutes about how bad it is for you. And by that point, people's eyes start to glaze over and I can tell I've lost them. Also, I know I went into the right field of study because if I could talk about nutrition all day and, and, you know, get really passionate about it, I think I found, I think I found where I'm supposed to be at. Um, you know, but it, it goes back to like, we need to fuel our body with intention versus this restriction. It's saying. Okay. I am going to make it a priority to learn what food does for me. What's a carbohydrate, what's a protein? What's a fat, what does that do for me on a physiological level, you know? And then I'm going to be very intentional with how I build my plate, because if I'm being intentional with the foods I'm putting on it, then. You know, that is rebuilding some trust with my body of saying, okay, I am, I am about to hit my period, and I'm feeling like I need a lot more carbs today because my brain is all foggy. I don't feel super great. Have a little more carbs like. Go for it. You know, if you're like, okay, I'm, I'm hitting the weights and I'm working out and I'm gonna be intentional about hitting my protein and, and how to build my, my plate so that I can have enough protein on board so that my muscles have what they need to recover, then do that. Right? It's, it's not demonizing food anymore, it's knowing what it does for you. So that's a whole nother episode that I'm sure that we will circle back to you several times. Um. You know, even asking yourself like, how does this food make me feel? Instead of, is this allowed, you know, does this make me feel good inside of, does that satisfy my, my craving for a sweet tooth? And I honored the portion size that I knew I could be very mindful when I ate it. Does this make me feel bloated and uncomfortable? Do I need to maybe take this off of my diet? Um. Not so much diet word, but my, my grocery list for a while. You know, maybe I need to just be more mindful about how many chips I'm eating. How often, you know, does this alcohol make me feel sluggish and gross the next couple of days? You know, those kinds of things. It's really checking back in with your body to say, you know, I am a, I'm allowed to eat whatever the hell I want. Um, I'm allowed to eat enough. I am allowed to enjoy food. And I'm allowed to fuel myself because I'm a little fucking badass and I am. I'm a grownup. I can do whatever I want. I have that autonomy, and I get to make those choices. I get to choose this from me and to not feel shame for saying. You know what? Instead of restricting my sizes of my portions, because I wanna fit in, like I'm gonna nourish myself so that I feel good, and that is truly reclaiming the connection with your body, the relationship with your body, and food. If we're gonna talk about fitness, it's movement as a connection, not as a way to control your body. It's not a, oh my gosh, I ate too much yesterday. I need to go burn it all off. It's exercise is empowering as fuck, like it is another form of nourishment. It helps you mentally, it helps you physically. I mean, there's so many good things that happen when you. Can have planned exercise in, you know, the majority of your days of the week. You know, it is a way that I personally get through whatever mind funk I've got going on. When I'm really stressed, when I've got this, that the other thing going on when I'm just like, oh my gosh, you know, my kids are in my face because it's summer and they're. Fighting. I'm like, I need to go work out. Like it is the best way that I can regulate myself. And it is not a way to say, oh my gosh, I, I was just gone all weekend and I need to, you know, go burn off all the extra calories. It's a, this is intentionally my time for myself and it is how I can honor what my body needs. And it is one thing to push yourself through a workout, but. It's a different thing if it's not serving you too. And so you have to kind of play with that relationship and. You know, it's okay if you take an extra day off because you're traveling. That's what happened to me yesterday. We went camping for a long weekend. I got some movement in, and then yesterday we were traveling and it was just one of those things like I just couldn't get any workouts in and it was what it was. And to be okay with that, like I don't need. Perfectionism, I need progress. You know, some days it's just what it is and, and some days it is a way to, okay, I gotta get back on track today. So today I'm out on a hike. I'm in the woods. I'm actually sitting in a little tiny pasture right now and I am enjoying some sunshine. And I am recording this gorgeous podcast and I'm gonna go weight train here in a little bit, right? It's being intentional and putting it into your. Your schedule for what works as well instead of being, you know, so restrictive even with your fitness, you know, and then even like over training, it's, it's celebrated to overtrain and, but it's just another way to self abandon. And it's a very fine line to overtrain slash be disciplined, if that makes sense. So over training is. You know, I've gotta fit it in six days of the week and, you know, even seven if I'm really being disciplined kind of a deal. Right? Disciplined is knowing the difference between not being motivated and being disciplined in saying, okay, I said five to six days of the week, I'm gonna try to do something physically active, and this is my plan that I, I planned out at the beginning of the week. And I was traveling one of those days, so maybe I won't hit all of them, but that's okay. Like I am going to get right back on track and do what I said I was gonna do, right? So the difference between over training, because society says you have to be perfect and you need to check that box every single day or else you know it's different, right? Like you just have to learn some of these. Differences in the nuances. And also listen to your body. You know,'cause skipping workouts out of avoidance, that's self betrayal as well. You know, if you are just saying, oh, I just, I really didn't feel it today. I'm gonna say, go get your butt to the gym because not being motivated and avoiding it. Those are not okay either. So discipline, because you said you were going to hit this goal is one thing and being. Unmotivated and avoiding. That's another thing, you know? So the difference between being disciplined isn't about ignoring your body, it's about showing up for it. It's about, you know, saying, I am gonna do this thing. I think I've already said that several times now. But you know, on the other hand, if your body is asking for rest, do you bulldoze through that? Right? Do you, you need to also be in tune with your body. You need to say. Oh my God. I am sore every single muscle in my and, and my bones and my internal organs are sore. I am not necessarily not motivated, but I'm also just like really feeling it. That's probably a good indicator that you need some rest and you need some recovery, and you need to listen to your body. So learning the difference between avoiding learning, the difference between not being motivated, and then learning the difference of when your body. Asking or demanding for rest. Those are also some nuances that you're gonna have to learn. But it starts with building trust with your body first, right? So that is something that it takes time, it takes a lot of just internal know-how. It takes tuning into that intuition and really going, all right, what? What's actually going on here? Am I avoiding, am I self abandoning or do I just need some rest? Right? If you keep skipping your workouts because you're not in the mood, that's not necessarily intuition. That's probably some resistance there and not the right kind of resistance. So you need to kind of unpack that and ask yourself, what am I actually, what am I avoiding here? What's the emotions under here that I'm avoiding? Because I don't wanna get emotionally uncomfortable. That's a really good place to start and only you can do that work. Unfortunately, my little badass friend, that is the work right there, so to know how you know the difference. I would like you, I would invite you to ask these questions. Am I avoiding the hard thing because I'm tired or because I'm scared of feeling uncomfortable? Oof. That's a good one. I'll repeat it. Am I avoiding the hard thing because I am tired or because I'm scared of feeling uncomfortable? Here's the next one. Will movement today bring me closer to feeling strong and alive? Or am I trying to earn food or worthiness? Will movement today bring me closer to feeling strong and alive? Or am I trying to earn food or worthiness? Is this rest restoring me? Or is it just an excuse in disguise? Is this rest restoring me? Or is it just an excuse in disguise? Remember, rest is badass. The show is showing up for yourself. The magic is learning which one your body is actually asking for. So to wrap it up, I wanna give you this groundbreaking mantra. I hope it, you find it helpful. I trust my body's cues. I trust my hunger. I move because I can not because I have to. I rest when it's right. I listen. I lead, I thrive. So I'd like to leave you with this. Where are you operating from distrust, and where do you want to start rebuilding? Rebuilding trust isn't a one time decision. It is a daily choice. A thousand little promises. A rebellion against everything that told you you had to shrink to hustle or earn your worth. You don't need permission. You just need to start listening. You are not here to survive. You here to fucking thrive. If this episode hit home for you, take a screenshot and share it with someone who needs this message. Please tag me at the Badass Thriving Podcast and let me know what part resonated with you the most. Until next time, stay bold, stay rooted, and keep showing up for your badass self. I love you, you little bad asses. Now go out there and crush it. Here are this episode's main takeaways. Number one, the nervous system must feel safe to thrive. The body is constantly scanning, am I safe or unsafe? Thriving requires nervous system regulation, not just mindset shifts. Healing begins when we stop overriding the body signals. Number two, we're wired for survival, not thriving. Evolution trained us to stay small, belong, and avoid rejection. Today's quote unquote, predators are emotional. They are shame, rejection, burnout, and perfectionism. Self abandonment is a survival strategy, but it's no longer serving us. Number three, self abandonment looks like ignoring our hunger and our fullness cues, diet hopping and over training. Saying yes when we wanna say no. Silencing our intuition to fit in or be accepted. Number four, thriving requires rebuilding trust. Self-trust is greater than external validation. Thriving is safety in our own skin. Nourishment without guilt, rest, without having to earn it. Moving our body as connection, not punishment. Number five, food trust starts with neutral language. Ditch the good versus bad food labels. Replace with nutrient dense or caloric dense language. Ask, how does this food make me feel? Learn what protein, carbs, and fat do for your body. Then fuel intentionally. Number six, movement is empowerment, not atonement. Discipline is greater than showing up because you said you would. Over training is greater than ignoring your body to meet external expectations. Resting intentionally is not failure, it's resilience. Skipping movement out of avoidance is also a form of self betrayal. Number seven, questions to rebuild trust with yourself. Am I tired or avoiding discomfort? Will movement help me feel strong and alive? Or am I trying to earn worthiness? Is this rest, restorative, or an excuse in disguise? Number eight, the mantra connection. I trust my body's cues. I can trust my hunger. I move because I can not because I have to. I rest when it's right. I listen. I lead and I thrive. I.