Is Wellness Working? Why Your Body Holds the Answers (Not AI)
Dear Inner Child Copilot,
“I’m at a breaking point. I’ve been in the healing space for a decade, doing ALL the things to heal my anxiety and depression - and I’m still struggling. Does healing ever end?”
Dear ‘Burnt Out on Healing’,
First things first: I hear you - you’re not the only one asking this.
I recently read that 40% of therapists report being depressed (I’ll save empathic anxiety for another post), and 60% of adult Americans have a chronic illness.
And there’s a reason that a book titled The Anxious Generation became a best-seller this year 🫠
My husband and I (mostly while standing over my overflowing supplement drawer) continue an ongoing conversation:
Is wellness working?
We have access to more information than any generation - adaptogenic drinks, supplement subscriptions, at home gut checks, meditation apps, $27 Instagram courses on literally any symptom, customized protocols from AI 😉
Is the translation that wellness is not working?
Or that… so many options 😵💫 on so many screens 📱 makes it impossible to feel clear on our own direction?
My working theory: The endless hunt plus unlimited access to “answers” has disconnected us from the one place the answer lives:
In your own body.
In your own story.
In your own symptoms
I’m sure you’ve already done this, and I know I’m preaching to the choir, BUT since I forget to do this daily, I’m reminding myself as much as you.
Here’s what I’d do first:
Tap & Ask:
If my body were sharing a story through my symptoms - What story would it tell?
How old is the version of me who first wrote this story?
Tap & Affirm: I am open to trusting my inner voice and acting on what I hear.
Your body holds the answers.
And it can tell you a more nuanced, customized plan than any specialist.
If we were in workshop, I would demo EFT on tracing chronic symptoms to the root. But since the Level 1/2 workshop doesn’t start till October, I’ll share a story of what I found when I led myself through this exercise a few years ago.
Healing My Skin
I’ve had bad skin in my whole life, up until a few years ago.
A few years ago, a skin specialist told me my acne and rosacea (like my anxiety) were genetic. She gave me a prescription for a topical cream.
Instead of going to the pharmacy, I tuned in to how I felt about the red patch and inflamed cysts (ew, I know).
I felt frustrated.
After all I’d done, how healthy I ate, how much I restricted myself, I still had an inflammation-based skin disorder?
I tapped on the rage:
It’s not fair.
It’s frustrating, doing everything right, and it’s not working.
It seems so easy for everyone else.
Why am I so sensitive?
Then I tapped and asked a question I’ve taught many new tappers to ask:
How old is the ‘I’ in I feel…?
How old is the ‘I’ in it’s unfair?
How old is the ‘I’ in “Why does it seem easier for everyone else?”
Is it your voice saying, “Why am I so sensitive?” Or Someone else’s?
I saw little me on the NJ school bus. While the other kids were absorbed in effortless childlike chatter, I was consumed by the loud chaos of my anxious and angry (parentified) mind.
My parents had just divorced. I was mad at them for the two-bag shuffle, anxious about what I may have forgotten to pack, and annoyed by teachers who blamed me when I did inevitably forget (my dang flute). I was embarrassed by my sister, who didn’t stuff down her feelings like I did, and tired of hiding my feelings under a sweet smile because god forbid I burden anyone with them.
As Mr. Rogers says, “What will you do with all the MAD 😡 that you feel?”
I stuffed mine down, and 20 years later, it was blooming out in my chronic skin issues.
If I had Googled how do I heal my skin, would it have told me to tap on anger at my parents’ divorce?
To tap on a soul-contract to not burden people with my feelings?
To tap on the shame around hiding both (divorce or feelings) in a catholic town that didn’t believe in either.
No.
Google would have given me positive self-talk tapping like: My skin is healing now. I am full of radiant health.
But a few affirmations are like putting ice down your sports bra on a hot day. It will cool you down, but eventually it will fade.
Google told me to cut out coffee and inflammatory foods. Like you, I had already done that. What I now needed was to detox the inflammatory memories from my body.
Within two weeks of my embarrassingly specific tap & rant, my rosacea was gone.
It didn’t come back. I ate the foods on my inflammation list - and there was no resurgence of symptoms.
I didn’t just throw away the topical cream; I threw away a generational pattern of anger and suppression.
I have a thousand stories like this from clients - migraines, infertility, back pain, endometriosis, cysts, eczema, cancer, STDs, autoimmune - and all of them share this truth:
Under every unexplained symptom is an unprocessed emotion.
Is wellness working?
A one-size-fits-all wellness culture? Definitely not.
A deeply embodied, specifically customized approach to healing? Always.
So here’s my A to your Q:
Healing is a lifestyle, not a finish line.
Find a tool that you love + is simple enough to do daily + is effective enough to see results: I obviously favor my special sauce of EFT + breathwork + polyvagal. The reason I’ve been teaching evidence-based Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT Tapping) for 10 + years is because, unlike other somatic tools, once you learn it, you can use it for life - no dependency on an expensive practitioner.
Commit to a daily practice of talking to your body, so it doesn’t have to interrupt your life to talk to you (hey, pimple patch!)
Work with a trauma-informed healer, or become a trauma-informed self-healer so you can get to the root and safely pull it up.
Girl, I’ve been there (like this morning): It’s fun to tap on positive affirmations, apply the essential oils, and take the supplements.
Guilty (and proud) as charged.
But sometimes the time comes to PAUSE distracting quick fixes and YES to the quiet core truth speaking through your body.
When you pull the root, you're planting an orchard for generations to come.
xo,
Your tapping fairy godmother, mentor and trainer.
Jackie Viramontez
EFT Tapping Master Trainer & Reiki Master
Accredited EFTInternational Mentor & Trainer
P.S. If you want to finally get to the root of a chronic pattern, break a legacy that’s been stealing your peace, and learn the tools that fill my personal toolkit, join me live (or via recording and lifetime access) as I go live starting the weekend of October 11–12. Limited seats.