When Speaking My Truth Healed My Body

A story about surrender, integrity, and an unexpected path to healing.

The most unexpected thing happened yesterday day, and I’m still processing it.

If you have young kids, you know they bring home a lot more than arts and crafts from school and daycare - there are viruses too, and some of them are brutal.

My daughter had just recovered from a 14-day gastro virus. Fourteen days. I barely slept and spent most of that time in a fog of worry wondering why my healthy, resilient little girl wasn’t bouncing back like she always does.

Then, the day after she finally recovered, it hit me. Monday morning, same symptoms, full force. Meanwhile, my calendar was packed with important meetings. I warned a colleague: If this continues, count me out of the 2 o’clock call. I’ll be in bed.

But my first meeting of the day, required some prep - reflecting on issues for a report based on staff input. As I gathered my thoughts, something shifted. I realized I didn’t want my input to be anonymous. If I wanted to move the needle, I needed to share my perspective directly with the person who could make change - the head of the organization. And that was my second meeting of the day.

Of all days, right? Here I was, barely keeping food down, and suddenly feeling compelled to speak truth to power. I don’t like confrontation, but when I feel that pull to highlight injustice or hypocrisy, I can’t ignore it. It feels less like a choice and more like something choosing me.

So, I stayed the course and remembered a tool I learned from Dr. Kim D’Eramo’s Be Your Own Healer: the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), also known as tapping. Honestly, it sounded like nonsense to me at first - tapping on acupressure points to heal? Even my alternative healing instincts cringed. But I’ve tried it before with success, and something told me to try again.

I tapped while reminding myself: I’m safe. It’s okay to feel nervous. I’m safe right here, right now. Then I went back to prepping: how to raise a tough issue without pointing fingers, and how to frame it with solutions.

And then something wild happened: the stomach pain, diarrhea, weakness: all gone. Completely gone. And it didn’t return.

This isn’t the first time EFT has helped me, but I sometimes wondered if it was a coincidence. Maybe I would’ve gotten better anyway. But this is the third or fourth time this year that symptoms disappeared after tapping. I’m starting to believe there’s something to it.

During the meeting with the big boss, I kept tapping discreetly on the first meridian point whenever anxiety surfaced. It’s a physical signal to my body that all is well.

Afterward, I wondered: Was it the tapping? Or the fact that I showed up in integrity, and spoke my truth? Maybe both.

Either way, it felt cathartic to speak my piece kindly and constructively. My whole life, I believed it was safer to stay quiet than to share my feelings. Now, it feels empowering to use my voice and to have tools that help me meet my body where it’s at, instead of feeling like a victim to whatever virus is circulating.

I’m becoming more embodied. Surrendering to my truth. Accepting what comes.