I’ve been working with a client for almost a year now – I’ll call her Sarah.

Sarah was ignoring and overriding her recurring digestive issues for months. Like so many of us do, she’d been telling herself she was fine. She’d get over it. But clearly, she was not.

It wasn’t until one episode landed her in the emergency room, and her doctor told her she’d have to have surgery soon, that she decided to reach out to me for help.

Sarah took in everything we explored together about what her unique body needed to thrive, and she paid extra close attention to the dietary and lifestyle information we covered together.

As is the case with so many of my clients, Sarah thought that as soon as she’d mastered the food and diet things, her health would improve, and she’d be able to carry on with her life, business as usual.

But then, even with the dietary and lifestyle improvements in place, she had another episode. Not only was it a physically painful experience, but she was deeply confused, too.

With all of the diet and lifestyle improvements she’d made, why was she still having these episodes?

I shared with her that although diet and lifestyle are incredibly important when it comes to healing our physical bodies, if our bodies are still sending us messages that all is not well, then it’s time to look even more deeply at what else could be contributing to her condition.

We talked about the other areas of her life that were feeling stressful, unsettled, or unsatisfactory to her. She named her primary relationship with her long-time girlfriend, and the fact that they hadn’t had sex in almost a year.

This was incredibly painful for Sarah. Although she still shared a high degree of intimacy with her partner, she missed the closeness and shared pleasure their sex life used to give her. Her partner had experienced a significant loss 10 months previous and had been in a deep state of grief ever since.

Sarah had so many feelings and needs she didn’t feel she could express to her partner. She had taken on extra projects at work to distract herself from what was missing in her life and was now working close to 85 hours every week – a workload she knew was too heavy, but nevertheless she persisted.

This is when I talked with Sarah about the many levels of honoring ourselves. Yes, tending to our physical health in an ongoing and devotional way is incredibly important to our health. But we can’t neglect the other parts of our lives if we want to truly thrive.

As much as I understood why Sarah had taken on so many extra work hours to distract herself, it was clear that the stress of it was taking its toll on her health. Diet and lifestyle improvements could only take her so far.

We also talked about how much energy it takes to push down our feelings and not express our needs and desires to others.

Interestingly enough, when Sarah would have a digestive episode, one of the ways it would manifest was through almost uncontrollable vomiting. It’s as if her body was trying to push something out that she was hell bent on keeping in.

I don’t want to be overly reductionistic here. Simply speaking your truth isn’t a cure-all for digestive woes or major vomiting.

But in this case, it was a contributing factor. As were her work hours, and the lack of communication, intimacy and pleasure she once enjoyed with her partner.

As Sarah began addressing these deeper layers of her life, her overall health improved. Over time she had fewer digestive episodes. Eventually, they stopped happening altogether.

The compound effect of bringing attention and care to every area of our lives is what creates deep and abiding health in our bodies.

Yes, we must address our physical bodies and give ourselves what we need to truly thrive.

But more often than not, dissatisfaction and/or dysfunction in the other areas of our lives has an equal if not more powerful impact on our health..

We also cannot underestimate the impact our cultural attitudes have on our health, too. Race, class, gender, level of financial security and more can also have a deep impact on our vitality and wellbeing over time.

Although we can’t control everything, we can make better choices for ourselves. We can choose what we think and believe about ourselves. We can choose who we surround ourselves with, the kind of media we consume, and who we allow access to us.

I love sharing about Sarah and the improvements she experienced by making choices that prioritized her health and wellbeing on so many levels. We live in a culture that rewards us for neglecting and abandoning ourselves in the name of productivity and stoicism. But the price we pay is so incredibly high when we do.

Sometimes the things we need to do to elevate our health are straight forward and clear, and other times we have to dig deeper.

Reach out to me if you’re facing a health challenge or you want to lose weight. I can help you find the answers you’re looking for, even if they’re deep below the surface.