Letters to You: August 3, 2025

When it feels like your body has betrayed you

Dear You (the one who feels betrayed),

I'm sitting here after my morning coffee, thinking about this conversation I had yesterday with a friend who's 43. She looked at me with these tired eyes and said, "Caroline, I feel like I'm living in someone else's body. Nothing feels how it used to."

I felt that.

You know what I wanted to tell her? What I want to tell you if you're reading this feeling the same way? Your body didn't betray you. It has been carrying you through everything - every late night, every stressful deadline, every time you put everyone else's needs before your own, every hormonal shift, every season of your life where survival mode was the only mode.

Your body has been so damn loyal.

I think about my own journey - how I used to hate looking at pictures of myself or cross my arms in front of me, to hide the softness around my middle after babies. The way my shoulders rounded forward from years of carrying kids on my hip. The exhaustion that seemed to live in my cells no matter how much I slept.

I was so angry at my body. Like it was supposed to stay frozen in time while my life kept moving forward.

But here's what I've learned working with hundreds of women: your body is not your enemy. It has been adapting, protecting, surviving. Sometimes that adaptation looks like holding onto weight when you're chronically stressed. Sometimes it looks like creating tension when you feel unsafe. Sometimes it looks like storing energy when your hormones are shifting in ways that feel completely out of your control.

Your body is actually brilliant. It has been keeping you alive and functioning even when you haven't been taking care of it the way it deserves.

Ask yourself, "what do I need right now?"

Some days it’ll be gentle movement. Some days, rest. Some days it’s strength. And some days it’s just acknowledgment.

Shifting your perspective will change everything. Not just how you move, but how you exist in your own skin.

If you're reading this feeling disconnected from your body, feeling frustrated or betrayed, I want you to know that reconnection is possible. It doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen by forcing your body back to some previous version of itself.

It happens by meeting your body where it is right now, with compassion and curiosity instead of criticism.

You're not broken. You're not behind. You're not failing.

You're human. And your body is doing its best to carry you through this incredibly complex, beautiful, challenging life.

Keep going,