When the Body Speaks

By Allison Batty-Capps

One of the most common phrases I hear in trauma-informed and somatic healing spaces is: “The body never lies.” At the same time, I also hear the opposite: “You can’t trust your body — it’s just trauma.”

Both perspectives hold partial truth — and both can become limiting when taken as absolutes.

In this teaching, I want to explore a more nuanced, compassionate, and trauma-informed understanding of how the body communicates, how trauma shapes body signals, and why discernment is essential for true healing and spiritual awakening.

Because for many of us — especially those with attachment trauma, developmental trauma, or complex PTSD — the body does not speak in one consistent voice.

Sometimes it whispers.
Sometimes it numbs.
Sometimes it appeases.
Sometimes it over-functions.
Sometimes it explodes.

And without self-awareness, nervous system literacy, and parts awareness, we can easily misinterpret trauma responses as intuition — or dismiss important body signals altogether.

When the Body Speaks Through Trauma Adaptations

Our nervous systems are shaped in early relationships. If caregiving was inconsistent, unpredictable, emotionally unsafe, or overwhelming, the body learned multiple survival strategies, not just one.

This means body signals may not always feel clear or consistent.

At times, you may feel:

• Calm
• Open
• Regulated
• Emotionally attuned

Yet beneath this calm may live patterns of people-pleasing, appeasing, caretaking, emotional over-functioning, or self-abandonment.

Other times, you may suddenly experience:

• Intense activation
• Urgency
• Anger
• Fight energy
• Strong defenses

Both of these can be trauma responses — even though one feels gentle and the other feels intense.

This is why discernment matters.

Trauma Can Look Like Love — and Like Anger

One of the most misunderstood truths about trauma is this:

Trauma does not always look like fear or panic.

Sometimes trauma looks like:

• Excessive kindness
• Hyper-empathy
• Emotional responsibility
• Over-giving
• Chronic caretaking

These patterns can feel like intuition, compassion, or spiritual devotion — but may actually be survival strategies formed to preserve safety and connection.

Other times, trauma looks like:

• Anger
• Defensiveness
• Urgency
• Emotional flooding
• Withdrawal
• Shutdown

Neither response is wrong. Both are attempts by the nervous system to protect.

The healing work is not eliminating these responses — it is learning how to listen wisely.

Intuition vs. Trauma Response: Learning Discernment

Instead of blindly trusting every body sensation or ignoring them, I practice a trauma-informed approach rooted in self-awareness, parts work, nervous system tracking, and attachment understanding.

When something activates inside me, I pause and ask:

• Which part of me is activated right now?
• What does this part fear?
• What does this part need?
• Is this present-moment truth or a past survival strategy?

This pause creates space.

And in that space, discernment becomes possible.

Your body does not lie — but trauma can filter body signals. Healing is not about suppressing these signals, overriding them, or reacting automatically from them. Healing is learning how to integrate them accurately.

Why Self-Awareness Is Essential for Healing

Research suggests that while 95% of people believe they are self-aware, only about 10% actually meet the criteria for true self-awareness.

Without this awareness, we may:

• Mistake trauma responses for intuition
• Override real needs
• Abandon ourselves while believing we are being loving
• Escalate when slowing down would be more supportive

With self-awareness, something powerful happens.

We gain:

• Choice
• Clarity
• Emotional sovereignty
• Compassionate presence
• Regulation

And this is where deep healing begins.

Healing Is Becoming Divinely Human

Healing is not about becoming hyper-regulated, perfect, spiritually superior, or bypassing our humanity.

Healing is about becoming embodied, integrated, and fully human.

This is what I call being divinely human — learning to listen to the body with wisdom, compassion, and discernment, while honoring both our nervous system and our spiritual nature.

It is not about suppressing survival strategies.
It is not about judging our wounds.
It is not about forcing calm.

It is about meeting ourselves honestly, gently, and skillfully — and learning how to respond rather than react.

A Gentle Reflection

You might ask yourself:

• When my body speaks, do I pause long enough to listen?
• Can I hold curiosity instead of judgment?
• Can I stay present with my nervous system instead of bypassing it?

Your path back to yourself does not require perfection.
It only requires presence, compassion, and willingness.

Explore Deeper Healing

If this teaching resonates, you may wish to explore my book:

The Divine Within: Healing Ourselves to Heal the World — a trauma-informed bridge between spirituality, psychology, and neuroscience that offers practical tools for self-awareness, nervous system healing, and embodied awakening.

You can also explore my work, courses, and offerings at:
🌿 www.blossomingheartwellness.com

I’m sending you deep love and appreciation, and I trust that you will find your own way home to yourself.

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