The Story Your Body is Telling You

In my journey through providing and receiving care, I’ve reached a resounding revelation: The patient narrative—their story—is missing from healthcare assessments and treatments.

This absence struck me profoundly as I continued to ponder the gaps that exist in care for those suffering chronic health challenges. I hear repeatedly of consultations where symptoms are addressed with tests and subsequent supplements and prescriptions, but the stories behind those symptoms were just shadows in the room.

Simultaneously, there’s a growing trend to seek answers outside of ourselves in our personal health quest. We scour the internet and chase the latest diets, vitamins, and fitness fads with a constant peripheral gaze. Something must exist somewhere over the horizon. This external pursuit leads us away from tuning into the narratives written by our bodies and experiences.

We’ve become so intent on finding information outside ourselves—in Google or a guru—that we’ve neglected the rich, contextual stories our bodies tell us. Stories that are critical in guiding our decisions and next steps.

How can storytelling constitute medicine or support medical care? Stories transcend mere anecdotes. They are gateways to better comprehending complex health scenarios, enabling patients and healthcare providers to navigate them more effectively.

During a narrative medicine exercise, Melinda, a client managing type 2 diabetes and Hashimoto’s disease, shared memories related to controlled food access in her childhood. Her mother’s focus on maintaining a specific body size—for herself and Melinda—drove the control. This environment fostered a complex emotional relationship with food and body image.

Any notion of “food as medicine” felt more toxic than supportive to Melinda. Eliminating inflammatory foods, as might be prescribed for her conditions, triggered fear and alarm. Experts in physiology recognize that such stress responses are counterproductive, hindering the body’s ability to manage immune responses and blood sugar balance effectively.

Acknowledging the impact of psychological factors and early life experiences on Melinda’s eating behaviors was crucial to making any progress. My awareness of this background allowed me to customize my nutrition counseling approaches, holistically considering her triggers alongside her physical health needs.

This revised approach was considered, caring, collaborative, and customized. It led to more meaningful and sustainable health changes because we respected her experiences and fostered a healthier relationship with food.

Your stories are not just background noise. They are vital chapters in your ongoing health narrative, deserving of attention and respect. Your held stories are as much a part of you as your muscles and mitochondria.

Let me share a personal example. During a narrative medicine workshop, I was prompted to think of a song whose music enhances the power of the words. This simple exercise unlocked a profound memory.

My late husband was obsessed with music. We’d walk down the hills of San Francisco to boutique record shops, their CD cases clicking as he flipped through them. Archer Prewitt was one artist he discovered, and whenever a particular song came on, it struck a chord of sadness and longing within me.

In his last week of life, when he could no longer speak due to a brain tumor, I asked if he knew which song always made me cry. He raised his pointer finger—our sign for ‘yes’—and gave me an ironic smirk: Yes, I know. But of course I cannot tell you.

After Isamu died, I found the song in his alphabetized CDs: “I’ll Be Waiting.” This personal reflection underscored how narrative medicine connects individual experiences to broader insights about healing and loss.

Healthcare today often focuses on “curing”—eliminating evidence of disease. But healing means becoming whole. Your health journey isn’t just about managing symptoms; it’s about navigating another aspect of your life’s journey.

In examining disease, we gain wisdom about anatomy, physiology, and biology. But in examining the person with disease, we gain wisdom about life. This approach moves beyond symptom management to explore the unique stories underlying chronic health challenges.

We must redefine what it means to be a patient—becoming active stakeholders in our health journey, bringing what nobody else can to the table. As patients, we possess invaluable insights that can inform and enrich the care we receive.

The tools of narrative medicine are accessible no matter where you are in your health journey: active listening, reflection, and prompted writing. That’s it.

If you say something like “I have always had trouble sleeping” or “I’ve always been constipated,” I invite you to go back in time. When was the first time you remember experiencing these challenges? Where were you? What did it feel like? What do you remember about that first time you can put memory around the sensation?

Listen to the messages from your body—both the whispers and shouts—as they can guide you on your health journey.

This represents a paradigm shift in understanding and managing health by placing your story at the center of healthcare. The complete guide to narrative medicine practices, including specific writing prompts, interactive exercises, and frameworks for reading your body’s story, is in my full exploration: Read: “Exploring Narrative Medicine: A Personal Perspective”