We often think of stress as something to eliminate, fix, or fight. But what if stress isn’t a malfunction? What if it’s a message—one that our body has been trying to deliver for years?
In my work, I see stress as a signal. Not a sentence, not a flaw, and not a personal failure. Just a call for attention; an invitation to pause, listen, and respond differently.
Like waves shaping the shoreline, life’s pressures leave a mark. They wear away our resistance, expose buried patterns, and, if we let them, carve out something new. We don’t control the tides, but we can choose how we meet them.
Somatic therapy helps us do just that.
Through breath, touch, and present-moment awareness, we begin to decode the signals our nervous system has been sending all along. Tension in the jaw, tightness in the belly, shallow breath, restless sleep—these are not random symptoms. They are messages from a wise body that remembers everything.
When we stop bracing against stress and start listening to it, we discover something powerful:
Our body isn’t the enemy. It’s the doorway home.
You don’t have to wait until you “break down” to begin healing. You can start now, by treating stress not as something shameful, but as something sacred. A conversation waiting to be heard.
Come home to your body. Awaken your aliveness.
Mariel Camilleri, BSc., MSc.Ad