How Worth Wounds Keep You From Trusting Your Natural Rhythms
A journey back to trusting what your body has always known
Today, I’m sharing something really close to my heart—a story about the lifelong journey of learning to trust our body’s natural rhythms.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re living someone else’s life, pushing through when your body is asking for rest, or struggling to honor what you know is true for you… this one’s for you.
I’m getting vulnerable about my own 30-year journey from knowing what my body needed to actually having the courage to honor it. And I think you’re going to recognize yourself in parts of this story.
Learning to Listen: My First Body Wisdom
I learned to listen to my body out of necessity when I was just a kid.
Metabolic issues meant I had a very specific rhythm: breakfast, a mid-morning snack in the nurse’s office, lunch, an after-school snack, another snack, and then dinner. For a couple of years, this was the only way I could maintain healthy blood sugar.
Looking back, this was my first introduction to tuning in and really noticing my body’s natural rhythms.
Fast-forward to my late teens in the 90s. I got off birth control and started doing natural fertility tracking. I read “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom” by Dr. Christiane Northrup, and everything clicked. I learned about menstrual cycles, moon cycles, and the incredible wisdom of being in a female body.
I was so inspired. I had this vision of building my career and life around these natural rhythms. I dreamed of taking the new moon week off, of honoring the ebb and flow that I could feel in my bones.
But here’s the great irony - I didn’t do it.
Not in college when I first learned about it. Not when I started my business. Not for twenty-five years.
When Worth Wounds Hijack Your Rhythms
If I’m really honest, my mid-twenties through my forties were when I was working through my worth wounds. I was the first person in my family to go to college, and that felt like enormous pressure. I worked two jobs while taking 15-18 credit hours. I took on way too much.
And I see now that this taking on too much, of doing too much, was my compensation for feeling not enough. It was how my worth wound expressed itself.
Even in my thirties, when I’d been running Conscious Movements for years and had complete control over my schedule, I’d occasionally think about shifting to honor my natural rhythms. But somehow, I didn’t believe it would work. I thought I had to follow the cultural norms of the business world. I needed to be available. I needed to prove I was legitimate.
What I see now—and what I see in my clients—is this compulsion. It’s more than a push. It’s this urgency that feels like “I HAVE to do this. I HAVE to get this done.” There’s a drive to keep working, push through, do more.
This isn’t rhythm. This is nervous system activation from those worth wounds.
The Twenty-Year Reckoning
I didn’t start taking the new moon week off until about a year ago, right around my 50th birthday. My business was approaching twenty years, and there was something about hitting that milestone while still not honoring the rhythm I’d known was right for me since I was eighteen… it hit me hard.
How could I teach people to honor their bodies when I still wasn’t honoring mine?
So I just decided to do it.
My first new moon week off was fantastic. I still worked, but I let myself be guided by creativity and curiosity instead of that familiar compulsion. It was delightful. I felt rejuvenated, refreshed, rested.
When I announced it, people responded beautifully. Several people emailed saying they, too, had wanted to do something similar — but hadn’t. Others said they were inspired to look at their own flow.
But here’s the next layer of conditioning I had to work through - it took me another six months to bring this rhythm into my Embodied Well membership. At first, I brought in guest instructors to cover those weeks. Then it finally dawned on me: I could leave that week blank and encourage my members to also be guided by their curiosity. I could let the membership model the capacity to honor your rhythm.
From Compulsion to Choice: Breaking Free from Worth Wounds
When clients feel that same compulsion to push through, I have them tune in and feel what that urgency actually feels like in their body. Then we do a practice to really examine it: Is this 100% absolute truth? Would you bet someone you love’s life on it?
99.999% of the time, the answer is no. It’s not that urgent. They don’t need to push through.
But how do you actually tell the difference between compulsion and authentic motivation? Here’s what I’ve learned to notice:
Compulsion feels like:
Tightness in your chest or throat
Shallow, quick breathing
A sense of urgency that feels almost panicky
“I HAVE to” or “I SHOULD” language in your internal dialogue
Feeling like something bad will happen if you don’t act immediately
Energy that feels driven from outside of you
Natural rhythm and authentic choice feel like:
A sense of spaciousness, even when you’re motivated to act
Deeper, more relaxed breathing
“I want to” or “I’m called to” language
A feeling of alignment between your body and your decision
Energy that feels like it’s arising from within you
The ability to pause and still feel good about your choice
The practice I use with clients is simple: When you feel that urgent “I have to” energy, pause. Take three deep breaths. Place your hand on your heart and ask: “What would I choose if I knew I was already enough, exactly as I am?”
Often, the answer is still to do the thing - but from a completely different place. Instead of proving your worth, you’re expressing your authentic self.
Once they gain a sense of how they feel in their body and release the attachment to urgency, they get to be at choice. Sometimes the choice is still to do the activity, but now they get to do it from a different place. They get to feel the potency of being at choice rather than the compulsion of doing.
Same activity, completely different energy. That’s where real freedom lives.
Your Body Remembers: Reclaiming Your Natural Rhythms
Here’s what I know after two decades of somatic work and fifty years of learning to trust my body:
Your body holds the memory of your natural rhythms. Even when you’ve spent years overriding them, abandoning them, living by someone else’s schedule - that knowing is still there.
The question isn’t whether you have natural rhythms. You do. Every living system operates in cycles of activation and rest.
The question is: What’s keeping you from trusting them?
Often, it’s those worth wounds. The belief that you have to earn the right to rest, to honor your needs, to take up space exactly as you are.
Coming Home to Yourself: Healing Worth Wounds Through Body Trust
This is part of what we’re exploring at Root & Resonance - not just the concept of having natural rhythms, but the deeper work of healing what keeps us from honoring them.
Because when you live someone else’s rhythm, you lose yourself. But when you come home to your own natural flow, everything changes.
Your nervous system settles. Your energy becomes sustainable. Your work becomes an expression of who you are rather than proof of your worth.
You remember that you don’t have to earn your place on this earth. You already belong here.
Key Takeaways: Healing Worth Wounds to Trust Your Body
Worth wounds often manifest as compulsion to do more, push through, and prove legitimacy
Natural body rhythms exist in all of us, even when we’ve spent years overriding them
The gap between knowing what your body needs and honoring it often stems from worth wounds
Nervous system activation from worth wounds feels like urgent compulsion rather than natural rhythm
Breaking free from compulsion creates space for authentic choice and sustainable energy
Honoring your natural rhythms is an act of self-trust and healing, not selfishness
Your body holds the memory of its natural flow - that wisdom is always accessible
Living by your authentic rhythms settles your nervous system and creates sustainable energy
Ready to Come Home to Your Natural Rhythms?
What would your life look like if you truly trusted your body’s rhythms? What’s one small way you could honor your natural flow this week?
If you’re ready to explore the deeper work of learning to trust your body’s wisdom, join me in the Embodied Well Membership. Through somatic movement, breathwork, and seasonal-inspired meditation practices, you’ll discover what it feels like to honor your authentic rhythms without the compulsion of worth wounds driving your choices.
Learn More About the Ebodied Well and begin your journey back to trusting what your body has always known.
