You know that moment when you say yes even though everything in you was whispering no? That split-second decision can shift the course of your life, often in ways you can't undo.
For me, it was getting on the back of a motorbike when I knew I didn't want to go, breaking my leg in the process. It was choosing to study advertising when my heart longed for psychology. It was forcing my body to exercise when it was undernourished and exhausted until injury stopped me in my tracks.
This post is about those moments: why we override our inner knowing, the "not enough" wound that so often sits beneath them, and how coming home to the body helps us live in alignment again. It's for anyone who recognises themselves in a pattern of self-abandonment, including those of us who have expressed it through food or our relationship with our bodies.
What Self-Abandonment Looks Like
We've all had moments like these, moments when we abandon our inner knowing to please, avoid rejection, the unknown, or the grieving process, and to be seen as agreeable, strong, or successful.
In the moment, these choices may offer validation or temporary safety, but over time, they pull us out of alignment. They leave us feeling disconnected, depleted, and unsure of ourselves. They create an ache—one we may try to ignore, silence, or numb, sometimes through food or by hyper-fixating on our body size.
Why Do We Override Our Inner Knowing?
Maybe you learnt from others around you that your inner guidance system was too 'woo' or 'irrational.' Maybe you were taught the mind is superior to the body, or that trusting yourself is dangerous. Maybe deep down, you carry the belief that you are inherently bad.
The Belief Beneath the Silence
Here's a real-life, personal example: for years, I've yearned to sing. No one around me sang when I was growing up (which led me to believe singing was a "weird" thing to do), and I never had positive or affirming experiences that made me feel singing was worth exploring. And yet, I longed to let my voice join around the ceremonial fire, to feel the vibration of sound moving through my body.
Yet, when the opportunity arose, I would freeze, shrink, and stay silent.
Beneath that silence lies a belief: I don't have a good voice. Beneath that, if I sing, I'll be rejected and I won't be able to handle the pain of rejection. And deeper still, rejection means I don't belong. I am unworthy. I am not enough.
I suspect many of you know this belief too: I am not enough.
The 'Not Enough' Wound and the Meaning Crisis
This belief is the root wound so many of us in the modern world carry. In trying to cover up this wound, we find ourselves living in a culture that teaches us to dominate, suppress, and control — our bodies, our emotions, and the Earth herself. We've stepped out of right relationship with ourselves and the world around us. And we see the consequences everywhere.
The breakdown of political, economic, and environmental systems isn't just about climate, governance, or finance—it's what cognitive scientist John Vervaeke calls a "meaning crisis” a world untethered from significance, purpose, and connection. In our pursuit of proving our enoughness, we've become more separate than ever.
Our systems have been built on the story of separation, and we have tethered ourselves and our identities to those systems. I don't believe anything built on narratives of separation can hold for long.
When we become untethered from what truly brings meaning by pursuing dominance and control (to feel enough), we lose our centre, and we find ourselves in crisis.
Crisis as a Choice Point
But crisis is also a choice point. When things start to break down, paths diverge, new possibilities open up, and we have a choice: What do we wish to build?
As spiritual teacher Grandmother Jyoti puts it: notice what is breaking down, but more importantly, pay attention to what is breaking through.
As a collective, we are standing at a profound choice point. We are being invited to realign, build new systems, and live in a way that honours reciprocity, respect, responsibility, and relationship.
This choice point asks us to come home to the body, the Earth, and the wisdom that has always been within. We are being asked to remember that we are not separate but woven into the great web of life—and because of this, we are enough.
Eating Disorder Recovery as Coming Into Right Relationship
I've come to see eating disorders as mirroring this macro imbalance on a micro level: a starvation from the self, a hunger for deeper meaning, and a craving to belong and feel enough.
Indeed, recovery is not about controlling or fixing the body. Recovery is about coming into right relationship. At its core, it is the practice of re-nourishing body, mind, and spirit. To restore balance, we must learn to receive, to trust, and to fully inhabit ourselves again. Recovery is about meeting ourselves and life fully.
That kind of re-nourishing deserves support. Embodiment practices and coaching can sit alongside professional care from a doctor, therapist, or dietitian, not in place of it, so you're held from every side as you find your way back. For more information: An Embodied Approach to Personal Recovery.
How to Reclaim Your Core Self
At the heart of healing is reclaiming the core self—our sacred inner ground.
We can cultivate core self through courageous embodiment: practices that align body, heart, mind, and spirit.
We can refine our values: clarifying what truly brings us meaning.
We can explore psychedelics, with care and support, which can help us remember our inherent belonging, reclaim our innate worthiness, and rediscover what nourishment our souls need to thrive and flourish.
We can develop interoceptive awareness: deepening our capacity to feel and respond to our body's wisdom.
Without this core, we become fragmented, discombobulated, unable to attune to our emotions or access inner safety.
Modern culture has severed the core connection between mind and body, spirit and Earth. This rupture has left us unmoored, and diet culture, in particular, reinforces disconnection, keeping us externally focused, measuring, and striving rather than inhabiting ourselves.
Healing is the process of cultivating our core self—the steady ground within us that allows trust and deeper dialogue with life to emerge. This is what psychedelics have taught me, what spiritual teachings speak of, and what our inner guidance system is constantly nudging us closer towards.
What Plant Medicine Can Help Us Remember
The body is not the problem. It is the portal. It is the path back to centre, to balance, to right relationship with all of life.
This is why I find psychedelics so powerful. They have the potential to reveal what is already true—our interconnection, our place in the web of life, the rhythms that guide us if we listen. They can help us remember the intelligence of our bodies and the Earth, dissolving the false walls of separation, and catalyse us to step into our authenticity and purpose.
In my experience, the wisdom plant medicines offer is precisely what we need to navigate these collective times of transition and the change we experience in our individual lives.
Plant medicine isn't right for everyone, or for every season of healing. If you have a history of disordered eating, take medication, or are still finding your feet in recovery, medical screening, careful preparation and a skilled, trauma-informed guide matter enormously, and this work is best woven in alongside your care team. If you’re curious about psychedelics, you can download the Free Microdosing Guide.
From Nourishment to Service
This is the time to align with your truth and live in accordance with your true nature, sharing what was gifted to you.
We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness. — Thich Nhat Hanh
When we connect with ourselves by inhabiting our bodies more fully, with enough safety and mindfulness, we can serve the greater whole. Being of service, offering our unique gifts, and sharing generously with others brings some of the greatest forms of nourishment, fulfilment, and meaning.
And the world needs all of us right now. The Earth needs us awake, nourished, and embodied so we can show up regulated and resourced, make wise choices, and build a new world grounded in ancient wisdom, in harmonious balance with all of life.
Now is the time to step back into balance and to move in rhythm with your deepest truth.
Your body is remembering.
Your soul is speaking.
The Earth is calling.
Are you ready to listen?
Thank you for being part of this great remembering and recovering what truly matters.
Ready to Stop Abandoning Yourself?
If you saw yourself in these pages, saying yes when everything in you whispered no, this is the work I do 1:1. Together we rebuild trust in your body and your inner knowing through somatic, nervous-system-led coaching, with optional microdosing support if that feels right for you.
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