E062 | Why willpower isn’t healing you—and the body-led shift that finally will

What if willpower was never the problem?

You’ve done the protocols. You’ve pushed through the flares. You’ve followed all the rules.
And yet… you’re still stuck in a cycle of fatigue, inflammation, and second-guessing.

The truth is—healing isn’t about doing more.
 It’s about doing less, with more clarity.

In this episode of Embrace Your Healing Journey, I share the real reason women with chronic symptoms aren’t getting better—and how to start rebuilding trust with your body from the inside out.

💡 BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING TO THIS PODCAST EPISODE, YOU'LL DISCOVER:

• Why willpower keeps your body stuck in survival mode (and what helps it shift into healing)
• The hidden beliefs that are silently blocking your progress—without you realizing it
• A 5-minute belief flip that can rewire how your body responds to symptoms

This isn’t about giving up—it’s about giving your body back its voice.
 Tune in to learn how slowing down can actually speed up your healing journey.

🔗 OTHER LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

👉 Join our free Facebook group: Embrace Your Healing Journey
📖 Book mentioned: Mind over medicine by Dr Lissa Rankin

 Learn about the Body Wise Healing™ framework
Learn more about the Body Wise Reset HERE

✉️ Write to me at anindita@aninditarungta.com—I’d love to hear from you!

Chapters

• 3:13 The Silent Epidemic of Undiagnosed Patients
• 4:03 Understanding the Role of Emotions in Health
• 7:35 Limitations of Conventional Medicine
• 9:45 The Misinterpretation of Symptoms
• 12:21 The Need for a Body-Led Approach
• 12:49 The Impact of Limiting Beliefs
• 16:16 Creating a Safe Environment for Healing
• 17:11 Key Takeaways and Conclusion

Transcript

You've done the protocols, you've taken the supplements, you've done the tests, and yet your body still hurts. This episode is not about what you've done. It's about what you have been taught to ignore. So today, we are talking about the silent reason why so many smart, committed women are stuck in their healing journeys and why trying harder and more willpower is not the answer. So if your health feels like a battle that you just can't win and you're ready to do something different, then this episode is for you. Let's rewrite the healing script together. So you've tried harder than most people ever will. 

If you are listening to this episode, it likely means that you've tracked your symptoms, you follow different protocols, you've pushed through pain, and still your body is still not getting better. And that's not because you are doing something wrong. It's because you were taught to heal by overriding your body and your body's signals. And in this episode, I am sharing why willpower is not the missing piece and what you need to do instead. If you're ready to heal with less hustle and with more sustainability. So if you're constantly chasing results and you're still feeling stuck, then this episode is for you. 

Almost 40 years ago, my father was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph nodes. And uh, after the first, uh, surgery that was done, it was followed up by rigorous chemo and radiation for the next two years. And I remember some of that. Some of it is a bit hazy. I was quite young at that time, and almost two years to the day that he was diagnosed, or maybe less. Uh, he passed away from that cancer. He was only 44 years old. I was less than 12. My brother was six. 

You know that that is actually, a kind of an episode that stays with you for life. And his diagnosis and his illness and his treatment was largely responsible for my interest in medicine and healing arts and led me to functional medicine and health coaching. And then, of course, my daughter's own health crisis several years later, uh, actually was another trigger for me to figure out a way how to actually get into this line. And, several decades later from my father's death, I am in front of you as a functional medicine certified health coach and trying to find a way to reach, uh, you know, create awareness about these very, very important topics, uh, which is about body awareness, which is about self-trust, you know, but medicine has made amazing advances since my father was diagnosed with cancer. And there's a lot of much more treatment options that are available with much less side effects for many more cancers, etc.. 

But, one thing makes me feel really sad and that one thing is that while medicine has advanced by leaps and bounds, there is a growing group of people who are just slipping through the cracks. And what I mean by that is this is a group of people who have not been given a diagnosis, who don't really feel well, who are not living their best life, who are not thriving. And yet they don't know what is wrong with them. And the doctors have no clue either. 

I'm going to read out an excerpt from the excellent book and called Mind Over Medicine by Doctor Lissa Rankin. She explains this very well. 

While medical technology is advancing at a rapid fire pace, and our understanding of what prevents disease continues to grow. Our society is increasingly obese, hypertensive and diabetic, suffering from heart attack, strokes and cancer, or doped up on drugs for anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder. There's another category of patients who lies somewhere in between sick people and, well, people. They are not technically sick, but they are not exactly well, either. Their blood tests come back normal, their vital signs are stable. They are granted a clean bill of health on their physicals, and yet they don't feel vital. There's an epidemic of patients like this out there suspecting something is terribly wrong.

 Patients suffering from the epidemic go to the doctor knowing something must be wrong. The doctor runs a series of tests and winds up pronouncing the patient well. Only the patient does not feel well because doctors cannot find a biochemical explanation for the symptoms these patients experience, we tend to treat them with antidepressants and other catchall drugs that fail to address the root cause of the issues, and the patient often fails to experience relief. So the patient goes to another doctor and starts the whole process over again because something is clearly wrong and they are right. Something is wrong, but it's not what they think.

 And this author goes on to explain and describe the role of emotions in our physical health. The nervous system modes, the two nervous system modes that our body lives in, and why our modern way of living constantly in this fight or flight mode is impairing our body's ability to recover and repair itself, repair and recover. So, uh, you know this the thing is that your body knows what to do. It knows how to relax it, but it can only do that when it's in the rest and digest part of the nervous system mode, which is also called the parasympathetic nervous system mode. The other mode, which is the fight or flight mode, is what most of us are living in most of the time, and your body cannot be in both of them at the same time, so it can only be in one of these modes. Now, the issue with this is that when we are constantly living in this survival mode or the fight or flight mode, the body cannot do the repair work that is necessary to heal from any kind of condition. 

And what happens is that this group of people that I spoke to you about, that who's slipping through the cracks, who are not yet diagnosed, they go on to actually develop a disease in the long run. So a lot of it is actually preventable. And that's what makes me feel really sad. So there is a lot of advances, yes, in medication. But this medication and technology, medical technology, a lot more diagnosis, more accuracy. At the same time, a lot many more people are actually falling sick for, you know, for those reasons. So when your body is can switch on or lives in the parasympathetic mode, it can start working optimally because it can switch on the immune system, the self-repair mechanism, the immune system can start working optimally, and it can take the necessary steps to prevent disease progression and at the same time address any threat that already exists. 

So you can imagine how many more diseases could be prevented, and how much suffering and pain could be prevented if only we knew this. So the say the author goes on to say 

When the conscious for brain thinks positive thoughts and feels things like love, connection, intimacy, pleasure and hope, the hypothalamus stops triggering the stress responses. When you feel optimistic and hopeful, loved and supported in the flow of your professional or creative life, spiritually nourished or sexually connected to another person, the relaxation response takes the place of the stress response.

 So the hypothalamus is the primitive part of the brain, but the frontal part of the brain is the one that is most developed. But, uh, and that's something that we need to know about. And we need to consciously shift our nervous system mode, as I said, from living all the time in the survival mode to the rest and digest mode, and we can do that using our breath. And I've spoken about it in previous episodes, but this is not something that you will hear about from the mainstream medicine, because the conventional doctors are taught to address the disease from the paradigm of symptom management. So they are taught once the disease has manifested itself in the form of symptoms, what are the things that need to be done? They're not really taught in terms of prevention. So the conventional medicine works brilliantly in the case of acute cases, acute conditions where medications and surgery are required, like infectious diseases in which all conditions, all situations that need immediate intervention, but it fails miserably when it comes to chronic conditions, because chronic conditions stem from various factors and need a multifactorial approach. It's a completely different way of approaching. And that's where so many people, are stuck. 

So let me ask you something. Have you ever woken up already exhausted, even after 8 or 10 hours of sleep? Or do you feel like your body is in constant conflict with you? Like one day you can handle a walk, and the next day you don't know whether you can actually get up from the bed. So maybe you have tracked your food to the late, you know, like the smallest gram or your. But your bloating is still coming and going. You've cut out gluten, dairy, soy, sugar, nightshades, but your symptoms actually got worse instead of better. And you followed the supplement protocol that was given to you. But instead of relief, you felt more anxious, you felt more confused, and you maybe even pushed through yoga, detoxes, biohacking, extra, you know, and your body seems to be constantly pushing back. 

If that sounds like you, I want you to know that it's not your fault and your body is not broken. I know I keep repeating myself like a broken record, but that's the kind of messages that we get from the media. And that's completely wrong, because it keeps us stuck in fear. Because you've been taught also, you've been taught that healing requires discipline, willpower and control. But the problem is that just doing it in this manner actually disconnects you from the very thing that you are that is going to help you. That is your body's signals. Your body is constantly sending you these signals to help guide you signals like persistent fatigue. So this is your body's SOS for rest, not laziness. It's not laziness or your pain and flares. It's your body's way of saying, look here. Pay attention here in this area or the emotional volatility that is your nervous system telling you that, you know, it's it's overwhelmed and it needs you to bring it back to safety. It needs you to activate the parasympathetic response, the rest and digest response. 

Because, the thing is, the symptoms is not just about food sensitivities and hormone imbalances, but and usually that's what we end up talking about because your symptoms are not the problem. They are the messages that your body has been trying to pass to you all along. And you've been trained to treat symptoms as as enemies, actually, something to fix, something to suppress, something to medicate away. And that's what's keeping you stuck, because your symptoms are communication, not malfunction. And your body's way of saying that I can't continue like this. You need to help me here. 

And that's that's really, really tragic. Because, you know, the chronic fatigue is not just low iron. It's not just thyroid imbalance.  And yes, those are some of the things that I do look at when I do test run tests for my clients basic lab work. But that's not where things end. That's where where things begin, because it's your nervous systems way of saying that I don't feel safe. You know, you need to do something. Or the anxiety, the brain fog. It's your immune system's way of saying something is inflamed. Something is wrong somewhere you need to pay attention, or the low mood that seems to come along suddenly. So it might be the, you know, the weight, accumulated weight of the self-blame, the perfectionism, the procrastination. It's all overriding your body's wisdom. 

So these are all, signals. These are all communication from your body. And, uh, and a lot of the symptoms are actually signals of deeper disconnection. So most women are chronically ill. Not because their bodies are broken, because they are stuck, because they have been taught to override these kind of signals. And this disconnection between what you feel and what you act on is actually the real issue. Because when your nervous system does not feel safe, it body will hold on to inflammation. It will hold on to the excess weight, it will hold on to the pain, fatigue and emotional distress. It's like an armor. It's trying, trying to protect you. That's how it works. 

So you need to understand this. You need to accept this because your body is not against you. It is trying to keep you safe,. And this is the real reason why your symptoms persist, right? Again, not because your your weak or your body is weak, but your body is still waiting for you to listen to what it's been saying. So in fact, I'm going to just share a bit about a masterclass that I'm doing soon it's on this exact topic. I'll take you through a three step symptom decoder where which you will be able to, uh, actually develop a body led simple plan. Action plan. But first, I want to walk you through why so many women are stuck, you know, in this scenario, even after trying. 

And if you're anything like the women that I have worked with, maybe you have tried many of these things. So you have followed a strict elimination diet, maybe more than once. You've spent thousands on functional lab testing and never ending supplements tax. Maybe you've downloaded symptom trackers and your food logs and you track, you know, so many symptoms. Maybe you've tried hormone balancing protocols, detoxes, and maybe you've even bounced between doctors and nutritionist and different healing modalities. But none of it was sustainable, and none of it got the results that you wanted. So your symptoms come back, your energy crashes. Because here's the thing that no one's told you. The very strategies that promised you healing were built on a model that prioritized control over connection. And connection is the piece that you have been missing because more rules doesn't fix this, more willpower doesn't fix this, and more doing won't fix this. What you need is not another plan to follow. You need a way to find a way back home. You need to find a way back to your body. You need to find a way back to what your body has been telling you all along. And that's I'm going to share with you how you can do that.  

But what I want you to also understand that many women are actually walking around with these kind of limiting beliefs in their mind, so they often believe that if I really wanted to get better, I should be doing more, or my body is too unpredictable to trust, or other women are getting better. What's wrong with me? So I want you to do this very, very short journaling practice. 

In each episode, I share with you a small practice that you can start doing today to, you know, start seeing some results a bit shift. And I want you to today, I want you to do a small journaling activity that's going to have a powerful, uh, shift on the way that you're looking at this. So I want you to grab a pen and paper and you can pause this episode now, if you if you are doing it right now with me.

 So number one is write down one belief about your body or your healing that feels rigid or filled with blame, that feels heavy, rigid, or filled with blame. For example, I should be further along by now. I should have gotten better by now. Uh, I, so my body is actually like my enemy. It's like an alien. 

So any of these kind of beliefs and ask yourself, the next thing is ask yourself, where might this belief have come from? And what is it costing me to keep believing this? This is the this is the journaling part. Where might this belief have come from? What is it costing me to keep believing this and now reframe it to something that is more compassionate, more constructive, more body wise and flexible? Like I am learning to heal at my own pace and my timeline is valid. 

And if you can whisper the new belief to your body like you would to a friend who's struggling, this is what I call shifting your belief. And it's extremely powerful practice that I do with my own clients in my programs. Because you're not just decoding your symptoms, you're actually also decoding the stories that shaped them. And when you shift these kind of beliefs, your symptoms often shift to because if you don't question the beliefs that are quietly running the show from inside, you will keep trying to heal from a place of fear and control. And that's not really going to be sustainable, because you will stay stuck in loops like I need to try harder.

 I should be better by now. My symptoms mean that I'm failing, so those beliefs are actually maybe exhausting your body moan that your symptoms are so. No one tells you that even the most perfect healing protocol won't work if your nervous system does not fail. If there's only one takeaway from this episode, this is it that your nervous system and of course your body needs to feel safe. If it is to heal from any condition. So if your body believes it's under constant pressure, it will stay in protection mode. It will be stuck in inflammation, fatigue and resistance. This is the reason why so many women plateau. So you don't need more discipline. You don't need more willpower. You need a way to see what's really going on beneath the symptoms and to understand what your body is saying. And this is exactly what we're going to do inside the Decode Your Symptoms masterclass. This is not another protocol. It's an invitation to finally see your symptoms differently. I've shared the link in the show notes below.

 Sign up. It's on 29th May, and if, uh, I've shared the details, there are only ten spots available. And before I wrap up, I'm going to take you through the body wise. Wrap up what we covered today. 

Number one, willpower is not the problem. Disconnection is. 

Number two, your symptoms are not random. They are messages. That is because your body is not broken. It's brilliant. You just don't know how to listen. 

Number three, you've tried all the usual tools. So diet supplements, protocols. But they were all built on control, not connection. And that's why they are not working. 

Number four, you need a new way forward. One rooted in simplicity, self-trust, and clarity. 

Number five start with one belief shift, one unhelpful belief and you will start seeing your symptoms shift 

Number six- You don't have to do this alone. I have an upcoming masterclass on May 29th. Decode your symptoms, reconnect with your body, and walk away with a personalized healing roadmap. Again, I want you to remember healing does not come from hustling harder. It comes from tuning in. It comes from finally connecting with your body. Thank you for listening to Embrace Your Healing Journey. I'll see you inside the masterclass.