The Body Remembers: Why Healing Begins with Listening to the Body

Click to Subscribe

Segment 1 · Episode 2

The Body Remembers

Why Healing Begins with Listening to the Body

The body does not just carry pain. It also carries peace, if we allow it. — Dr. Kidi

Reflection

I once had a patient in her early nineties.

She took two buses to get to the clinic, yet she arrived with her back straight and her steps steady, as if she moved through the world with her own kind of grace. Her presence entered the room before her voice ever did. She knew she belonged, and it showed.

In her Veiny hands, she carried a small black purse with a bronze snap. It looked like the kind that had held decades of stories, coins, tissues, and time. Her words were slow and deliberate, and I often had to lean in just to catch them. Being with her felt like stepping into a living archive.

She came at least once a month. Not because she needed medical care, but because she was checking on me. Her visits were never really about her health. They were about mine. She would choose the chair, not the exam table, and sit with the calm of someone who knew something worth knowing.

“How’re you holding up, doc?” she would ask.

After I answered all her questions, and there were many, she would reach into that purse, pull out a green and white mint wrapped in clear plastic, and hand it to me like it was her prescription for the day. Then she would stand, look me in the eye, and say, “Pay attention to your inside. You don’t see it, but it’s talking to you.”

At the time, I was too caught up in the whirlwind of my own pace to truly hear her. I scribbled her words into the small diary I kept tucked in the pocket of my white coat. Her voice became one more note in a sea of notes. I moved on to the next patient, the next task, the next chart.

It was only later, when I opened that diary again, that I felt the weight of what she had offered me.

She was telling me something sacred.

She was reminding me that the body remembers.

Some people cross our path and give us the best parts of themselves.

She was one of them.

Her words were the seed that became this reflection.

The Three Pillars of What Healing Knows

Before we step into this week’s reflection, The Body Remembers, let us return to the three foundational truths that shape this work: the pillars of What Healing Knows.

• The body carries a built-in intelligence and memory.

  This quiet wisdom is designed to heal, restore, and keep us alive. Our role is to guide the mind to notice, to listen closely, and to follow the body’s gentle instruction.

  
  

• Healing begins before we are born. 

  It travels with us through every stage of life. Healing is not something we earn. It is something we are born with.

  
  

• Medicine and science can support, but not replace the healing process. They offer tools, care, and insight, but they do not replace the wisdom already alive within the body.

  
  

This is the heart of this work.

And my goal is to guide your mind back to its connection with the body’s healing.

Recap: Begin Again

In Begin Again, the first episode of Listening to the Body, I shared a simple truth: It is always okay to begin again.

There is no scorecard. No judgment. No shame in starting over.

Some of your responses reflected how this stirred memories.

Moments when you stepped away from your healing and were unsure how to return.

Let me remind you.

Healing does not stop.

Healing does not wait for the perfect moment or ask you to have it all figured out. Healing continues day and night, because that is what the body does.

What may have paused was not your healing, but your ability to notice and participate. You may have stopped listening to what your body was asking for. But your body kept going waiting for you to begin again.

Healing does not begin with a diagnosis.

It is not something we switch on only when something goes wrong.

Healing is always present.

It is part of living.

I walk each morning, not because I am unwell, but because my body deserves to be heard before the world becomes too loud.

My grandmother used to count her prayer beads softly throughout the day. Not to fix anything, but to come back to herself.

These are not acts of urgency.

They are acts of connection and repair.

They are what keep us whole.

When illness arrives, healing rises to meet it.

When balance returns, healing finds its rhythm again.

It never stops.

It waits just beneath the surface, asking us to pay attention.

This is why the healing journey is not about timing.

It is about returning.

It is about reconnecting.

It is about honoring what the body remembers.

And the moment you choose to listen, today or in a decade, is always the right time to begin again.

The Quiet Work of Healing

Healing moves quietly, beneath the surface of your awareness, always at work. Even now, as you read these words, your body is renewing itself in ways you may never see or feel.

Every second, around two million red blood cells complete their cycle and are replaced.

Within days, the lining of your intestines is rebuilt, protecting and sustaining digestion.

Old bone tissue breaks down and is renewed, giving you an entirely new skeleton about every ten years.

And each day, your cells complete thousands of DNA repairs, quietly mending the wear and tear of living.

Even sleep becomes part of this healing process. While you rest, your body restores itself. Muscles are rebuilt, skin is renewed.

The body is always whispering, I am working for you. 

You are always in the act of becoming whole again.

Even when you feel broken, your body is already remaking you.

The Body Holds Memory

Every cell in the body remembers.

When the skin is cut, the cells know how to rebuild. They carry the blueprint for healing. They restore, renew, and bring balance back.

Science continues to show what many healing traditions have always understood. Memory lives not only in the brain but throughout the body. Cells in the kidneys, nerves, and gut can learn and adapt. They respond more strongly to signals they have felt before.

So even when we try to push away or ignore the body’s healing work, it continues.

Though it holds the weight of neglect and denial.

The body does not carry only pain. It also carries peace, if we allow it.

It stores every gesture of care, every breath of compassion, and every moment we choose to support it.

In Western medicine, the body’s messages are often called “symptoms” or “signs.” In many Eastern traditions, they are seen as “patterns.”

Whatever the language, the message is the same:

The body is speaking from memory.

To heal, we must choose to listen.

How Do We Listen to the Body?

Many have asked, “How do I listen to my body?”

Think of the times you reached for a snack, not because you were hungry, but because you were stressed. The mind said, “This will help,” even though the body had already turned off its hunger signal. Still, you ate.

Or the times you promised yourself rest after taking care of everyone else. Your body asked for pause. Your eyelids were heavy, your breath unsteady. But the mind said, “Just a little longer.”

In both moments, the body spoke.

You were not hungry. You were tired. The instructions were clear, but the mind led you to follow something else.

And the body remembers and it keeps the record.

Where?

In the tightness of your stomach.

In the heaviness in your limbs.

In the circles beneath your eyes.

These are not random signs. They are the body’s quiet plea to listen.

When we ignore that plea, the body turns up the volume.

Chronic stress begins to show up as high blood pressure or headaches.

Unfelt emotions may lead to migraines, autoimmune flare-ups, or deep fatigue.

Staying in constant survival mode can wear down the immune system.

Even our skin can become the canvas for inner unrest.

But here is the grace:

We can return to the body.

We can guide the mind to listen.

We can relearn how to follow the quiet instructions within.

It starts with one simple, intentional step. One simple reset.

Did you know? 

Most emotional reactions in the body last only about 90 seconds. If we pause, even for just a minute and a half, the intensity often begins to settle on its own. And if we give ourselves 3 to 5 quiet minutes, the nervous system often finds its way back to balance.

No fixing. No forcing. Just space.

The Dr. Kidi Reset: A Simple Guide

Next time your mind pulls you toward something your body does not want, like picking up your phone when you are overwhelmed, saying yes when your body feels tired, or eating when you are not hungry, follow these steps to reset:

Calm: Pause. Close your eyes. If closing your eyes is not possible, soften your gaze and focus gently on something in front of you.

Count: Follow your breath for 90 seconds. Inhale for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts, and exhale for 6 counts. This rhythm gives you about 12 deep breaths, enough to calm your nervous system and bring your body into balance.

Create: Create distance. Open your eyes if they are closed. Walk away, put away distractions, or imagine placing your thoughts on a cloud and letting them float away. Give your body time to reset without pressure.

Choose: Choose differently. Notice what your mind is urging you to do, then pause and ask what your body truly needs. Intentionally choose the opposite if it aligns with healing and peace.

This is a way you train your mind to listen to your body.

This is how you begin again.

This is what healing knows.

How to Measure Progress

For those who ask how to measure progress, I will begin by explaining the difference between curing and healing. These two words often live side by side, but they lead in different directions. Curing looks outward. Healing turns inward.

A cure is an end point. It is medical, often quick, and easy to measure.

It is the disappearance of illness, the closing of a wound, the mending of a broken bone.

Cure says, you are done now. You can go back to how things were.

Healing is a process. A becoming.

It may happen alongside a cure, or in its absence.

Healing moves through the body, but also through emotion, spirit, and relationship.

It invites you to listen, to change, to integrate what you have lived.

We are healed when we learn to live with chronic illness and still reclaim joy.

When we grieve what was lost and gently begin again.

When we face our trauma and choose to start over.

Healing says, even if the pain remains,

I can still grow.

I can live differently now.

I can embrace my new reality.

You may not be able to track healing on a chart.

But you will feel it.

You will notice it in the small shifts, in presence, in relationship, in the quiet moments when you find yourself saying:

I feel good. I feel whole. I feel like myself again.

A cure changes the condition.

Healing changes your relationship with the condition.

This difference matters.

Because sometimes there is no cure.

But healing is always possible.

This is what healing knows.

These moments may be small at first, but if you keep listening and reconnecting, they will grow.

Your body will begin to soften.

Your breath will slow and deepen.

Your mind will feel less loud and less urgent.

Your nervous system will begin to trust your choices.

And as you return to yourself, others will notice too.

Not because you explained anything, but because you are becoming someone your body recognizes as home.

The Hope

The body does not give up.

It is patient.

It keeps calling you back.

With every mindful meal, every pause to rest, every quiet moment when you stop and say, I hear you, you begin to partner with your healing. These small choices may seem subtle, but they matter. Over time, they become a new pattern. You may not notice the change right away, but the body does.

Your body is on your side.

It has been with you through every chapter, waiting patiently for you to listen.

And that is hope.

And perhaps that is what my ninety-year-old patient was telling me all those years ago, when she pressed a mint candy into my hand and whispered,"Pay attention to your inside. You don’t see it, but it’s talking to you."

So I invite  you to  pause, listen and reset.

Reflection Space for What Healing Knows

Knowing you should listen to your body is not the same as listening.

It becomes real when you pause and practice it at this moment.

Pause: A Moment to connect
An invitation to pause, soften, breathe, and reconnect.

The Dr. Kidi Quick Reset

Find a comfortable position, sitting, standing, or lying down.

Let your body be supported.Let your hands rest loosely.

Pause

One quiet second to let your body settle.

Close your eyes

Or soften your gaze.

Breathe

Count your breaths for 90 seconds.

Breathe naturally or inhale for 4 counts and exhale for 6.

Let your body soften and your mind ease.

Create distance

In your mind, step back from what was pulling at you.

Let yourself rest in this space.

Choose differently

Ask, What does my body want instead.Listen. Choose that.

This is how you begin again.This is what healing knows.

You can return to this practice any time during the day, especially when you feel the pull of old habits.

Pause. Close your eyes. Count your breath. Create distance, by walking away if you need to, so you can hear what your body truly needs and Choose differently .

Let this pause be your first medicine.

Let it guide you back to the part of you that already knows the way.

Invitation to Reflect
Write by hand. It slows you down and helps you connect with your words.

My mind keeps pulling me toward ..., and I think it is because...

Healing words to Repeat
A simple phrase to repeat that brings you back to what is true.

Find a quiet moment each day to sit or lie down, close your eyes, and take a slow breath.As you exhale, gently repeat the phrase for a few breaths, letting it move with your breath and settle into your body.

My body remembers. I am ready to listen.

Call to Connection

I would love to hear how this practice moved through you.

Have you tried my Pause and Reset meditation practice? What challenges did you face with the practice? What questions came up as you tried to listen more closely? I would love to hear from you.

Share your reflections in the comments on the blog so we can continue the conversation. If you decide to share on social media, tag me on Instagram @drkidi.healing so we can stay connected and walk this path together.

Until next time, trust the quiet. Keep listening. Healing knows the way.

Click to Subscribe