These monthly updates are where I share what this body-led approach looks like in real life
‘It’s not right. They should be able to help to sort you out by now’.
I’d just told my mum that I’d had another reaction, probably to pollen – but it might have been some ingredient I hadn’t noticed had slipped into my meal, or that I had got more stressed than I’d wanted…
I understood how she felt.
I’d been dealing with these reactions for years.
And honestly?
On bad days a part of me wonders the same thing.
When you can reach for a painkiller that stops your headache within minutes it’s easy to assume that’s how health should work: problem, solution, back to normal.
But what if you take the pill or follow the advice and nothing improves?
That’s one reason I started looking at my body differently – as a messenger instead of a problem.
Because when the advice doesn’t work as expected, most of us are left wondering what to try next.
Still unwell?
Spring-time is always my worst season.
I get lulled by the winter, no pollen, no grass-cutting, no gardening, less outdoor walking and honestly I happily hibernate inside.
And then Spring arrives with warmer sunny days and I am tempted outside – well and I have a garden that needs attention.
And this adds another layer of triggers and reactions my body has to ‘protect’ me from.
And so the first ‘tree-pollen’ reaction not only knocks me back but is a shock.
Am I still unwell?
Shouldn’t I be better by now?
If I was getting better I shouldn’t still have reactions, extreme fatigue, painful swollen joints, or any other symptom, should I?
Learning to listen..
Honestly, it’s easy to miss what the first signs of improvement can look like, because we naturally focus on the big painful in-your-face symptoms.
I know that’s what I did at first when dealing with the aftermath of that reaction. All I could see was that my body was still reacting.
Luckily I have been listening to the subtle day-to-day feedback from my body as well.
I still have to think carefully about food.
I still react to things.
I still have days where my body says “not today.”
But something has shifted.
This month, despite that early reaction, I started noticing the first signs of getting better – and it would have been very easy to miss them
No dramatic healing.
No sudden transformation.
Just…
less reactivity overall
Quicker recovery.
More stability.
Fewer moments where everything suddenly spiralled for no obvious reason.
When you’ve spent a long time struggling with your health, it’s easy to look only for the big obvious signs that something is working.
Meanwhile, the quieter signals go unnoticed.
Unexpected proof
One thing that really brought this home was a recent dental check-up.
I sat nervously waiting in the dentist chair while my dentist studied my X-ray behind me.
‘Miss Oliver, please come and look at your x-rays’.
My heart sank.
But instead she was excited to point out that (at age 60) my x-ray showed improvements compared to 3 years ago!
Considering my dental health became much worse when I first developed MCAS and SIBO, I had resigned (and braced) myself for ongoing dental problems.
So seeing actual improvement (between x-rays) felt emotional in a way I didn’t expect.
Not because everything is suddenly “fixed”.
But because it reminded me that the body can still repair when we begin supporting it in the way it needs.
When small improvements add up
This month I was reminded of my time in the clinic.
When a client would return for their second or third appointment and I would ask ‘how have you got on’.
And they shrugged because they still had their main uncomfortable symptom.
But once we started going through their assessment including many of the little niggles and symptoms that they just lived with and thought of as ‘just my body’..
They gradually realised that many of them had gone – completely un-noticed.
Because the first signs of improvement are usually small.
As a therapist I relied on an assessment that helped me detect these improvements.
I created the feedback finder and other tools to help me notice the subtle signals and messages from my own body.(because I couldn’t do the assessment on myself)
When I reflected back on these this month I noticed
The difficult days weren’t lasting as long.
My system was settling faster after reactions.
Even during Spring pollen season — usually a difficult time for me — my body felt more resilient overall.
Not perfect.
But different.
And your body will give you your own set of early signals that will look very different to mine. But equally small and easy to miss.
The value of noticing your first signs of getting better is that it shows you that the changes you have been making are working. It confirms to ‘keep going’ in this direction.
Real health and recovery is built day by day and takes the body time.
Which is why learning to listen to my body, while it is in the messy working hard to recover stage, is so helpful.
That growing confidence in your self-care choices and that your body knows what it needs to rebalance itself, is priceless
If your own results have felt confusing lately,
and you’ve been wondering whether anything is actually helping,
the free Body Feedback Finder is a simple way to start noticing your own body’s feedback more clearly.
