Somewhere along the way,
we learned to treat our symptoms as the problem.
If we're anxious, we try to quiet the anxiety. If we're exhausted, we push through. If our relationships feel hard, we look for better ways to communicate.
Sometimes those things help. Sometimes they're exactly what we need.
I've noticed though, that the same patterns have a way of circling back.
Not because people aren't trying hard enough. Not because we're broken.
But because we've become so focused on the fruit,
we've forgotten everything begins with the roots.
Imagine an apple tree.
When the apples stop growing, we don't usually dig down to nourish the roots. We prune the branches instead, then wonder why our harvest keeps getting smaller.
Everything the tree becomes- begins underground.
We're no different.
One of my favorite parts of this work is curiosity.
When someone sits across from me and tells me they're anxious, my first thought usually isn't, how do we make the anxiety go away?
It's…
I wonder what your body has been carrying.
Our bodies are incredibly wise.
Anxiety isn't random. Neither is depression. Neither is emotional numbness, burnout, or that lingering feeling that no matter how much you've healed, something still feels unfinished.
Sometimes those symptoms point toward a nervous system that's been living in survival for years.
Sometimes it's grief that never had a safe place to land.
Sometimes it's the result of abandoning yourself for so long…
that your body had to start speaking louder.
Hormones. Sleep. Gut health. Energy.
We're whole people.
Our minds, bodies, relationships, and environments are constantly influencing one another.
We're shaped by what we've lived through.
The families we were born into. The beliefs we inherited. The experiences that nourished us… And the ones that broke us.
What was planted in your roots?
What messages did you receive about your worth? About love? Safety? Your voice?
We don't choose those things as children.
But as adults, we have the opportunity to become aware of them—and to decide what WE want to grow.
Maybe you were a pear tree - planted in an apple orchard.
Always measuring yourself against the apple trees.
When instead, we could be using our energy to grow into the pear tree we were always meant to be.
This thought process has led me to continue my education in Ayurveda, concurrently deepening my work through breathwork, embodiment, and somatic healing.
Healing asks us to look at the whole person.
Mind.
Body.
Spirit.
Relationships.
Environment.
They all interconnect.
When we begin working at the root instead of the symptom, something shifts.
Anxiety becomes information, not the enemy.
Your body becomes something to listen to, instead of something to fight.
Healing becomes less about fixing yourself…
and more about remembering yourself.
Who were you before fear taught you who you needed to become?
Who did you come here to be?
This doesn't happen overnight.
Root work asks for patience.
It asks for enough safety,
that your nervous system no longer has to protect you quite so fiercely.
It asks for a space where you don't have to perform.
You can simply be.
One where we become deeply curious.
