A message echoes through most of the spiritual and self-development world, telling us to feel better, think better, be better. That if we just shift our mindset, elevate our vibration, and hold onto a higher frequency, our lives will align. And while there is absolute truth in this, what often gets overlooked is the part of us that doesn’t respond to mindset at all. The part that lives in the body, in the cells, in the nervous system, where past pain still lingers unspoken and unmet.
Today’s world glorifies positivity as the highest virtue, where every scroll through social media and every piece of self-help advice tells you to raise your vibration, think better thoughts, feel better feelings, align with joy, and visualise the version of yourself that has it all.
And I get it. Yes, your dominant emotion shapes your vibration. Yes, consistent practice of a feeling can shift your inner world. Yes, the Law of Assumption and the Law of Attraction respond to your internal state.
But what no one tells you, what is so often ignored, dismissed, or misunderstood, is what happens when the body isn’t ready for the shift.
Because the body is not a mindset, the body is memory, the body is the subconscious.
And if you’ve been through trauma, and most of us have, in ways big or small, then your body has been shaped by more than just thoughts. It has been shaped by experiences where you didn’t feel safe, where you couldn’t express what you were feeling, where something in you had to shut down in order to survive.
So what happens when you try to manifest a new life and start feeling amazing, aligned, high-vibe, but your body still carries a deeper truth?
It’s like pressing the accelerator and the brake at the same time.
Something expands, yes, but something also resists.
Something opens, but something else clenches.
I know this because it happened to me.
For months, I practised uplifting feelings. I practised it with full devotion. I aligned my thoughts, my emotions, and my daily actions. And it worked, I got myself out of homelessness! In the following months, miracles began to show up, opportunities flowed in, and I found myself in a life that looked and felt closer to the one I had always wanted. But the truth is, I couldn’t hold it.
Fantastic opportunities were showing up, but I was not ready to take them. If I dared take the opportunity, despite my body not being ready, disaster would happen.
Even though my energy had shifted, on a deep level, my body hadn’t caught up and needed to return to the familiar.
And as soon as a very challenging situation arose, one that touched an old wound, one that mirrored an unresolved trauma, my body responded in a way that no positive emotion could override.
That response was a message. It was a part of me that had never been allowed to speak, finally asking to be expressed. And no matter how much I tried to feel better, it refused to be bypassed.
Because expression is what the body needs. Not pressure. Not positivity. But the permission to express.
We are told to align, to assume, to step into the identity of our future self. And that is powerful when the body feels safe enough to hold that version. But if there is a split, if the inner child, nervous system, the trauma imprint, or the suppressed emotion doesn’t feel safe, it will always pull us back to the familiar.
Because something still wants to be heard, felt, expressed, not ignored, and not erased. What happened was important to the body at the moment of occurrence, and it was important for the body to be expressed, but instead, it was suppressed or shut down, made inadequate, or overlooked.
This is the part that is missing from so many teachings. And this is why manifestation, for many, becomes a cycle of temporary highs followed by confusing crashes.
The truth is, no manifestation, no abundance, no deeply loving relationship can stay when the nervous system doesn’t feel safe with the level of expansion you’re calling in.
So if you’ve ever asked, “Why does it feel like I’m doing everything right, but still stuck?”
This may be the reason.
You don’t need to force yourself to feel better. You need to let your body speak. And sometimes that means shaking, sometimes it means crying, sometimes it means rage, grief, collapse.
Underneath it all is a self that wants to be free, and expression is the door to freedom. I don't mean venting, but truthful self-expression without self-censorship.
This is the work I love to do with my clients - not bypassing, not layering over pain with shiny affirmations, but creating a space where the body can finally breathe, where the unsaid can be spoken, and where what was once suppressed can move, release, and return to flow.
When your body is safe, your life expands. When your body is safe, your desires become possible. And when your body is safe, you stop performing alignment and start living it. You and your body are life's expression, or the divine expressing itself. Through expression, you allow it to unfold.
There is nothing wrong with you.
There never was.
But there may still be something inside you that is waiting to be felt, waiting to be expressed, waiting for the moment you say, “I hear you. You’re allowed. You have my full permission to express everything and anything you want, in any way you want. I am here for you, I listen, I protect you, and I love you no matter what you express.”
That moment changes everything.