Chronic Pain, Emotional Healing & Your Body | Aly Breathe

A woman came to Aly Breathe on a Zoom call with neck pain she had been carrying for six years. She had tried everything the conventional system offered. Thirty minutes later, the pain was gone.

That is not a miracle. That is what happens when you reach the emotional charge stored in the body that physical treatment alone cannot access.

In this episode of Elevate Within, Aly Breathe, embodied mindset coach and chronic pain specialist joins Sandy Davis for a conversation about what the body is actually communicating through chronic pain, fatigue, migraines, and tension. Aly works at the intersection of the cognitive and the somatic, building a bridge between mind-first healing and body-first healing that helps her clients release what neither approach alone could reach.

She is not a medical professional. She is also someone who has witnessed what happens when women finally allow themselves to feel what their body has been storing and the shifts that become possible when they do.

She also shares one of the most important distinctions for high-achieving women: the difference between force and power. Force is the energy of have to, should, and must. Power is the energy of get to, choose to, and love to. Most women have been running on force for so long they have forgotten what power feels like. And the body has been keeping score.

What You Will Hear in This Episode

Why chronic pain, fatigue, and tension are often the body’s messages rather than its malfunctions.

How emotional charge attaches to physical weak spots and keeps pain alive long after the original injury has healed.

The bridge between mind-first and body-first healing and why both have a ceiling when used alone.

The force vs. power distinction and what it means to stop pushing through and start filling up.

A simple 10-minute daily practice to begin reconnecting with your body’s signals today.

Her message to every woman who has been told by a doctor that there is nothing more to be done.

Connect with Aly Breathe

Website: alybreathe.com

Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook: @alybreathe

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Why do you think so many women, not just high achieving women, but why do you think so many women become disconnected from their own body signals?

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Because no one teaches us to be connected with it. No one reminds us how important it is. No one encourages us to take a slow breath and really come back to our body and feel it. Right? Because our culture right now is all around and about go, go, go, rush, rush, rush, achieve, achieve, achieve. Whether you are at home stay mom or you have a business or you're just doing nine to five. It I think that the more I talk with people, the more I realize that the majority of us are living inside a prison, I am not good enough. And no matter what we do, we are not going to be good enough. And that's like never achieving goal, never achieving target, a target that is ever moving again and again. And then we are fighting ourselves into like inside a never-ending race because we don't know what else to do and how else to leave, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Welcome back to Elevate Within. I'm your host, Sandy Davis. Elevate Within is for the high-achieving women and the messy middle, the space between who you were and who you're becoming. This is a space for honest conversations about reinvention, resilience, healing, leadership, and what it really takes to rebuild from the inside out. Each week, I'm joined by my co-host Claudia Cuevas, licensed marriage and family therapist, as we explore the stories, lessons, and emotional realities behind transformation. Because reinvention isn't just about changing our circumstances, it's about understanding yourself. It's about healing. It's about letting go of who you thought you had to be, so you can become who you were always meant to be. Whether you're navigating burnout, grief, identity shifts, career transitions, entrepreneurships, caregiving, or simply asking yourself, what's next? You are not alone. So take a breath, pull up a chair, and join us at the table. This is Elevate Within. I'm your host, Sandy Davis. Many women have learned how to push through, push through exhaustion, push through stress, push through grief, push through pain. We're taught to keep going, to be productive, to be resilient, to be strong, and often we become so good at ignoring what we're feeling that we stop listening to what our bodies are trying to tell us. Today's guest believes the body is always speaking. And when we don't listen, it finds a way to get our attention. I'm honored to introduce Allie Breathe. Allie is an embodied mindset coach who helps people release chronic pain by addressing the deeper emotional, subconscious, and identity level patterns that may be keeping it in place. After years of working with founders, executives, and high-achieving women navigating burnout, pressure, and stress, Ali discovered something very profound. The body doesn't lie. Often, the symptoms we're trying hardest to fix are actually messengers pointing us towards something that needs to be seen, felt, processed, or healed. Through her work, Ali helps people move beyond simply managing pain and begin understanding what their bodies may have been communicating all along. Today, we're talking about chronic pain, burnout, survival mode, emotional healing, embodiment, and the connection between our stories and our physical well-being. Allie, welcome to Elevate Within.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Thank you. What a privilege. Oh my god, thank you so much for having me. It's a privilege to have you here.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Ali, tell us a little bit about your journey and what led you into this work.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah, absolutely. Um there were two main things that I've experienced in my life that really led me to do what I do right now. Number one, from 10 to 16, I wasn't able to talk almost at all because I had very, very big stuttering and was not able to answer orally in school. It was so stressful for me to answer a phone call or to buy something at the grocery store when I needed to tell that I needed maybe some cucumbers. And um the stuttering is still there, and uh it's still there sometimes when I'm nervous or um when there's something unusual going on, but it's nowhere near where I literally could not talk at all when I was younger. And it led me to really reflect back at myself because initially I was just thinking that there was something wrong with me. I was thinking that I am not good enough because there is that thing with me, and no one around me was was touching ever, and I didn't know what was happening. I was just feeling so much stuckness, and it's like we tried so many things, we were trying to heal it and trying to overcome that, but it still was there, and I was really honestly feeling that there is something wrong with me that uh I don't know why, but it is there in my life, and I was just feeling that heaviness. And another part, uh, much older, I was really struggling with my extra weight. I was feeling that I am not good enough, I am not lovable because I have extra weight, I am not slim enough, not beautiful enough, and I will never be able to find love, to find true, true love inside me because of all of the beliefs and all the thoughts that I got from others, uh not to the fault of theirs, but just because it was the way that it was. And uh five years ago I came to a program of coaching that was meant for me to heal, but by the end of the year um of me being in in that program, I helped quite a few people there, and other people were reflecting back at me that it seems that you have a talent because I have 20 more years of experience not just in coaching but on earth and I have no idea what you've just done. And that try like that led me to the path of coaching in general and trying to understand like what do I really want to do. And I was passionate about business and entrepreneurship big time and um faced some adversity in my life on a personal level, and that led me to wanting to really speak with women as much as I can because I know how hard it can be on the business side, but also on the personal side when there are so many preconceptions and so many things that are happening in the world. And I started helping first women, founders, with getting more clients and more money in their business. But quickly I realized that many people when they want more money, they look for strategy, not for mindset. And I was mainly like my core strength was mindset and really feeling the emotions. And then I was doing a podcast, I was co-waching there online, and maybe the 36th person, I believe, came to my podcast and she said, you know, my business is more or less okay. I understand what is happening there, but I have that neck pain. I've tried everything, like acupuncture, my star therapy, like I've tried everything, and I don't understand what to do about it. I was like, okay, let's go there. And she was like, Ali, what can you do about that? We are in Zoom! What can you do about that? I've tried everything, like um mainly approach that is connected with the body first, like massage therapy or acupuncture or physiotherapy, and nothing worked. I was like, let's just try, let's see. She was full with skepticism. I was like, okay. Half an hour later, she came back to me, like after being with her eyes closed, opened her eyes, and it was like opened mouth, just silence, and I like, I don't feel it anymore. What did you do? What did you do, Ollie? What did you do? And also stood up and tried like any different moves, and it was like, I don't feel it, like what is happening there? And she was with pain, like for the for the six plus years at that point.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

And what did you do?

SPEAKER_01 8:51

What did I do? What did you do? Yeah, it's a very good question. Well, um, I just um helped her feel what her body was stored and not able and not allowed to feel before. What was the trauma that was connected with the pain? She had an injury in the gym six years prior the conversation. And pain should not be in her body for the six years after that injury. It was just the bench press in on an inclined bench um at the gym. And it was obvious for me that there was something deeper that was a root cause, that was like emotional charge of that pain, because um the pain or the area of the body might not have been um in pain because of the physical injury anymore, but it was the weak spot. And around weak spots, our body is holding all of the traumatic um experiences that we had when we were a kid, and we processed some of it, and again, I just really want to be very clear, I'm not a medical professional, I am not a licensed therapist, uh, and we always are going there in the past at the pace that is comfortable for my client in front of me. And we went in the past and we just understood what was happening there, came back. So, main idea that I do is I connect mind first approach and body first approach because many people go body first approach, like maybe any medicine or any surgeries or physiotherapy, massage therapy, all of that. Other people go to mind only and mind first approach, like therapy, like any any other coaching that is only on the talk level, on on the cognitive level. I am creating a bridge, a bridge for a person to feel the emotion, then come back to the cognitive level, understand what is the limiting belief or the prison or the concept that they've believed in, usually subconsciously, in their head, and then I connect all of them. We let go of the emotion, let go of that sensation that was stored in their body, into the nature, and then they are coming back and they just don't feel it anymore. You know, I know that it is it it is very hard to explain and it is very hard to believe when you just hear about that. That's why I have my channel on my YouTube where you can see and watch the full session, no edits almost, um, just to like let people feel it and understand it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Well, was there a specific moment where you realized chronic pain might be connected to something deeper than the physical body?

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Oof. Um I think it like that was the moment when I it was interesting if she would ever listen to that episode, but when I told her, let's go and let's explore, very honestly, I didn't know for a fact whether I will help her or not. And I cannot guarantee that, right? I cannot say that it's for sure will be. But I was just curious to explore. And once I've done it with her, then she came back to me and we started working together, and then once I've done it many, many times, like over three dozens of times with many different people from many walks of life, women, men, um, different ages, different types of pain, also not only pain, but allergies, digestive issues, or even blood pressure, all of the different cases which I never thought I I I never thought that it would be um any in in any way connected to that. But as soon as I can see huge transformation and person come back to me and like I've tried everything. I've spent twenty thousand dollars for the last 17 years and I could not do anything, and now in one session my pain went from seven to two, and in two and a half weeks she came back to me for a check-in, and she was like, My pain is at one right now, and I was able to go up and down the stairs of a big arena, and I'm like, apparently it's working, you know?

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Yeah. Obviously. You often say that the body doesn't lie. What do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_01 13:05

As soon as you feel the tension, as soon as you feel the constriction, maybe it's migraine, maybe it is just a tension in your shoulder, or you don't have enough energy, maybe it's like chronic fatigue. Um, like as soon as we start to be very connected with our body and truly feel it and allow ourselves like a moment, and honestly, if you listen or watch it right now, I really want you to take a deep breath in and really tap into your body for a second. Is there a moment where you feel the tension? Is there a place where you feel maybe some constriction, maybe some energy going on, maybe some discomfort? That moment of awareness usually almost never anyone do that in a real world right now because we are going from meeting to meeting, from this meeting to lunch, then to the washroom, then to another meeting, then to pick up kids, then to do X, Y, and Z. We never really take a conscious breath and come back to our body and really settle down and feel what is it really there. So that's the step number one, like that is awareness part of what is really happening. And as soon as you connect with your body, then you can really understand, oh, well, I have migraine. Oh, oh, I have this and that. Maybe oh I have migraine every single time I'm talking with this very with this very person specifically. Oh oh every single Monday morning I am waking up and I have no energy whatsoever in my lungs like at all. Or maybe vice versa, maybe it's it's happening on Friday. Like as soon as we get into awareness, then we start seeing the patterns. What are the patterns from my body that is telling us? Because um the majority of people that are coming to me, they've tried everything. And usually they came to a point with doctors when doctors told them, We've tried everything, I don't know what else to do. And usually it's next phrase there is, well yes, you just get uh get to um find a way to leave with that. Like with pain or with fatigue.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

The medication. They stop getting medication, stuff like that, that also has side effects that we definitely don't need. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Yeah. Yeah. And uh the hardest thing that I really encounter with my clients is not to change the pain, is not to move the pain. Like releasing pain from their body is easy. I'm not saying simple it's it's easy, it is doable. But at the same time, the hardest thing that is really there to overcome is their belief that they can be pain-free. As soon as they don't believe like it's I cannot be and I cannot do anything there for them, you know?

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Why do you think so many women, not just high-achieving women, but why do you think so many women become disconnected from their own body signals?

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Because no one teaches us to be connected with it. No one reminds us how important it is. No one encourages us to take a slow breath and to really come back to our body and feel it. Right? Because our culture right now is all around and about go, go, go, rush, rush, rush, achieve, achieve, achieve. Whether you are at home stay mom or you have a business or you're just doing nine to five. It I think that the more I talk with people, the more I realize that the majority of us are leaving inside a prison, I am not good enough. And no matter what we do, we are not going to be good enough. And that's like never achieving goal, never achieving target, a target that is ever moving again and again. And then we are finding ourselves into like inside a never-ending race because we don't know what else to do and how else to leave, you know?

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yeah. What are some of the most common symptoms you see in women who have been carrying too much for too long? And how does it affect their bodies?

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Uh the m biggest symptoms that I can feel, specifically for people who've been carrying a lot, is back pain. Starting from neck and shoulders down to the lower back. Because what is happening there is the person is literally feeling that they've been carrying the whole world on their shoulders. And that's why back, that's why shoulders, that's why neck, that's why all of the other areas of the back. And uh it is just that heaviness. Sometimes it's heaviness on the chest, but usually it pops up first on their back. Because usually the deeper layer there is they subconsciously believe it's all up to me. It's all up to me to control and to manage my family, my business, my relationships, my health, and they are trying to control the whole world. If I don't have enough money from my business, it's my fault. If my son is not achieving A plus grades, it's my fault. And they are trying to control everything and everyone around them, and plus also worrying about what other people think. And here we are in the nonending journey of trying to be perfect for others, but not connecting with ourselves and really understanding what is really inside of me that prevents me from being who I really am.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Right. Educate some of these women. Many women, we pride ourselves on being strong. How does strength and suppression sometimes get confused?

SPEAKER_01 19:03

I love to talk about a distinction between force and power.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Force and there's also a book I I didn't read it yet, but I know that it it it is on my list. Force and power. First force versus power. Force is when someone has a goal and wants to push their way through that. Push people around them, push themselves, make them discipline, make them do the thing that they think that they have to do. The words usually there is about have to, I need to, I should to, um I can't not to. Like it's the it's that tension, it's that need energy, it's that energy of I have to do that, otherwise it won't work out, otherwise I am broke, otherwise there's something wrong with me. Like it's the energy from I am avoiding not being enough. I am avoiding other people feeling and seeing that I am not enough. And I'm pushing through that and it's that chase from, like we are running from away from other people thinking that I'm not good enough, or trying to run towards other people thinking that I am good enough, and trying to really force the way through that by performing, by constantly doing, doing, doing, and acting, acting, acting, and like doing it with so much pressure every single time without even having a choice. The person who leaves from force, they don't have a choice, they don't understand that, oh, they can slow down. They are terrified of slowing down. They are terrified of coming back to themselves and asking, what do I really want? It's it's it's all about how can I how can I serve my clients, how can I serve my family, how can I serve my husband, how can I serve my parents, how can I serve my relatives, friends. Where am I? Their priority on them is never there. Power is when I'm wearing the mask on myself first, like in the airplane. Power is when I fill my cup first to then being able to give even more to others. Power is when I put myself first. Power is when we are moving from have to um must or should to to get to choose to and love to.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Love that.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

I get to do this thing. I choose to take care of my kids right now, I choose to take care of myself right now. I love taking care of my clients, I love taking care of myself. That is the power of being fully inside your own strength and serving yourself first. Not from selfishness, right? Not from selfishness, but from the arra from the idea that like it's my first responsibility on this earth to serve me first. As mums especially, many women think that well as soon as I give birth to that kid, my life is over in a way. I have to give them everything. I have to provide. I have to give them childhood better than I had. And then they lose themselves. They lose what they really want, what they truly desire. And of course there is that movement and wanting and feeling I want to be strong, I want to prove everyone that I am strong, but it comes from the prerequisites that we are still leaving in this generation to prove everyone that women are strong. Because previously we were seen as weak.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Which is the greatest myth. There is something I always tell a lot of my friends who are mothers or women in business, your foundation needs to be solid, meaning you have to work on yourself. And if you don't, you become sinking sand. So everybody that you are taking care of, your children, your husband, your family, your business, all of that starts sinking as well. So I do agree with you and wanted to just give a different perspective where your foundation has to be solid. You have to make sure you are good in order to take on those additional responsibilities that we just naturally take on. So it's It's one of those things, and I greatly appreciate you driving that home. What is the one thing every woman that is listening right now, what can they be doing today to reconnect with her body?

SPEAKER_01 23:59

I love to invite them to really start with that practice of awareness of their body, and I personally love to put a timer for ten minutes and just sit down. Just sit down with no distractions. And I don't want to call it a meditation because I know that there are some preconceptions about meditations and some people it is very hard. I'm not telling you not to think, I'm not telling to remove the thoughts. But I really invite you to take deep breaths and feel what your body is feeling. And here, like I love also to call it a connection with your intuition. When we are running, we can't really tap into what we really want and what our intuition is telling. But as soon as we can slow down for at least ten minutes a day, it can create so much awareness for how do you really feel right now? You can even sit down and ask yourself, how do I really feel right now? I'm not interested, of course, in just answer good or bad. I'm interested in really like how is your heart feeling? How is your chest feeling? How is your sh how is your shoulder feeling? How is your toe feeling? Can you really focus on how is your toe feeling? That is kind of like interesting, interesting, playful moments to reconnect with yourself and to really allow yourself that moment of stillness, that moment of self-love, self-compassion, and s and self-nourishment.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Walk us through what you do and and the expectations where if a woman is listening right now, be like, yeah, I need Ali, what does that look like on the onboarding? What do you provide? How long does this all take?

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Yeah. I first started always with really understanding why do they think that they need me. And I would love to just really say that it's not that they don't I I don't believe that anyone needs me. I do believe that they are complete and powerful by themselves. I'm not giving them anything completely new that they don't have already inside them. But what I do do is to really help them to connect with that everything that they have inside them and to reconnect with themselves and to come back to themselves. So the first thing that we are doing is usually scheduling a call where we can come back to just really I want to understand like what are they feeling right now? What is happening in their body, in their emotions, in their head. Where are they right now? And where do they want to go? And I always start with a free session so they can understand whether my approach works for them or not, and I can understand whether my approach worked for them or not, because I don't want to um invite someone into working with me uh before understanding that my approach worked for them. And then I have two options. I can either invite that person to a group program if I understand that that would be the best for them, or I can invite them into one-on-one if that person wants to, right? Because I really want to see them believing that that is possible for them. But if you really want to leave pain free, that's one of the chances for you to start really reverting your life rather than keep being maybe moody, maybe angry, maybe frustrated on that thing in your life that you still cannot deal with or cannot do anything about it. And again, I cannot guarantee that your pain will go away, but I can guarantee that there is something new will open up. I don't know what it is, you don't know what it is, but if you're open to, let's go.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

That's amazing. I love that. For the woman who feels exhausted, overwhelmed, or trapped in pain, what would you want her to learn from you today?

SPEAKER_02 27:44

You can be pain free.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

You can be pain free if there is only one thing that you can really believe in and learn from that conversation is I don't know your story. I don't know your trauma, I don't know your hurdles that you overcame, but I've seen stories of miracles. I've seen people who've been in pain for decades and decades and they really lost hope. And even them experienced a big shift and a transformation. And it all starts from that belief, I can be pain free. If you can only do that and come back to it every single day, just to that awareness, I can be pain free, I can be pain free. It's hard to believe when you've been when you remembered yourself only in pain, but at the same time, as soon as you truly do it, not from your head, not because Ali told you to believe, but dropping into your heart and feeling it deeply, deeply, deeply down into your heart. That's the starting point for your miracles to come into your life. I love it. Tell folks where they can find you. The best way is on my website is alibreathe.com, a-l-y-b-re-a-t-h-e.com. Um you can find all of the links there. You can uh send an email there to me and I will answer you. Or you can find me on any social media, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, um, Facebook, everywhere. It's Alibreathe. And yeah, I just I would love to hear your story. I would love to hear what resonated with you, even if you don't feel that you want to start working right now. I just really want to connect with as many people as possible to understand what resonates because together um we can bring more healing and more help for other people who are really in need right now.

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Absolutely. Ali, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your wisdom with our community. I greatly, greatly appreciate you.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

If you like to learn more about Ali's work or connect with her directly, you'll find all of the information and links in the show notes. Until next time, keep elevating personally, professionally, and from within. And before I go, if no one told you that they loved you today, I love you. So, Ali, I love you.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

I love you, Sandy too. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Take care. Bye. If this conversation resonated with you, you're not alone. That's exactly why this space exists. Elevate within as for the high-achieving women in the messy middle, the space between who you were and who you're becoming. The architecture of reinvention is an invitation to pause, to reflect, to heal, and to begin the process of unbecoming everything you were told you had to be, so you could become who you were always meant to be. Be sure to join us each Friday for our Architecture of Reinvention Roundtable discussions, where we continue these conversations and explore the deeper lessons, insights, tools, and reflections that emerge from each story. And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube so you never miss an episode. For Apple Podcasts listeners, I would be grateful if you leave a rating or review. It helps reach more women who may need this conversation right now. And if you'd like to go deeper, join us on Substack at Elevate Within. There, you'll find weekly essays and honest conversations about burnout, grief, reinvention, resilience, healing, and the messy middle. Free subscribers receive full access to all public content, while paid subscribers receive bonus essays, early access to upcoming series, behind-the-scenes recording, and opportunities to engage directly with the community. If you know of a woman who needs to hear this conversation today, please share it with her. You can find me on LinkedIn under Sandra Davis, on Substack at Elevate Within, and if you're in need of fractional COO work or would like to book a discovery call on how I can help, you can reach out to me at ElevateOpsAdvisory.com. You'll find all those links in the show notes. Until next time, keep elevating personally, professionally, and from within.