Week 1: When Your Body Knows Before You Do

The signs I didn’t recognize

Most of us don’t ignore our bodies on purpose. We dismiss symptoms because life demands momentum.

Fatigue becomes “just stress.” Anxiety becomes “just nerves.” Weight changes become “just age.” Brain fog becomes “just a busy mind.” And so we push through.

For years, I didn’t know anything was wrong with me.

When I look back at pictures from around the year 2000, I see it clearly now — I was unusually small, my eyes were bulging, and my face carried a strain I couldn’t feel at the time. There were moments when my heart would race so intensely I thought I was having a heart attack. Anxiety lived in my chest like a constant hum. Still, I didn’t think much of it. I kept going.

It wasn’t until a co-worker — an RN, and now one of my closest friends — looked at my neck one day. She didn’t just look. She felt. And then she said the sentence that changed everything:

“You need to get your thyroid checked.”

That moment was a divine interruption. Sometimes God uses people who understand both the body and the courage to speak.

For years, my body was waving red flags — quietly at first, then loudly — and I didn’t have the language to name what was happening. Like many women, I normalized symptoms. I pushed through. I assumed anxiety, stress, or life itself was to blame.

This January, during Thyroid Awareness Month, we slow down and tell the truth: the thyroid may be small, but when it’s off, everything feels off. Awareness is not fear. It’s stewardship.

This series exists because awareness changes trajectories. It shortens the gap between symptoms and understanding. It replaces self-blame with clarity.

Body Wisdom Takeaway: Symptoms don’t always shout. Sometimes they whisper for years.

Next, we move from awareness to understanding — naming what happens when the thyroid itself is out of balance.