What’s Really Scary After 40? Ignoring Your Body’s Messages

This sweet note came with orchids from my clients while I was recovering from sepsis. Their love and support showed me the true meaning of kindness, which I will never forget.

How a near death experience taught me to trust my intuition again

The scariest moment of my life was sepsis. Here’s what it taught me about listening to my body.

It started with something that seemed small, a red patch on my skin. The doctor said it looked like psoriasis and decided to do a biopsy, just to be sure.

Something inside me said no. It wasn’t fear. It was intuition, that quiet, calm voice that we often silence because we don’t want to seem difficult or overreacting.

I remember sitting there thinking, this doesn’t feel right, but I said nothing. I wanted to trust the process. I wanted to believe that someone else knew better.

That small decision changed everything. A few days later, I ended up in the hospital with sepsis. My whole body was shutting down. I could barely move, my skin was burning, and I could see the panic in the nurses’ eyes. The infection spread so fast that the doctors told me if I had waited one more day, it might have been too late.

That was the scariest moment of my life.

The voice I ignored almost cost me everything.

I kept replaying the moment I said yes to the biopsy. That quiet inner voice had warned me, and I had ignored it.

It wasn’t that I didn’t care about my body. I was healthy, strong, active. I worked in wellness. But that day, I dismissed my own instinct because I didn’t want to seem resistant or difficult.

How many times do we, as women, do that? We feel something’s off, but we smile, nod, and keep going because we don’t want to make a fuss.

In that hospital bed, I realized that listening to your body isn’t just about noticing pain or fatigue. It’s about trusting your inner knowing, even when others say otherwise.

Healing takes more than medicine

The first weeks after sepsis were brutal. I could barely walk to the kitchen. My body was weak, my skin was hypersensitive, and my mind was filled with fear.

But the hardest part wasn’t healing physically. It was the emotional collapse that followed. I felt small, uncertain, fragile.

My family couldn’t come because they didn’t have a visa. I was alone in Canada. And in that time, my clients became my lifeline. They cooked for me, brought groceries, checked in, helped me feel human again. I’ll never forget that kindness.

But deep inside, I was still weak, not just in the body, but in spirit. And when you don’t feel strong inside, you look for someone to hold you up. That’s when I met the man who would later become my husband.

I didn’t see it then, but I was trying to fill an empty space.

When I look back, I see it clearly now. I was recovering from trauma, desperate for comfort, and I mistook attention for care.

I ignored red flags the same way I had ignored my intuition before the biopsy. I wanted to believe that love would heal what pain had broken.

It didn’t. Instead, I found myself in a marriage that slowly broke my confidence, piece by piece. And once again, my body started sending me signals, sleepless nights, anxiety, tension, exhaustion, and once again, I tried to explain them away.

It took me years to understand what really happened. I had repeated the same pattern, just in a different form. I didn’t listen to my intuition, and it cost me my peace.

Rebuilding strength and emotional healing meant learning self trust

When I finally started healing, truly healing, it wasn’t just about fitness or hormones. It was about learning to trust myself again, completely.

I stopped chasing approval. I stopped trying to please everyone. I stopped searching for someone else to make me feel safe.

I realized that the real recovery from sepsis wasn’t only about my immune system, it was about my boundaries, my confidence, my voice.

Now, when I say your body never lies, it means more than health. It means your emotions, your energy, your gut feeling, all of it is part of your body’s wisdom.

Today, I’m strong in every way that matters. Physically, emotionally, psychologically. I don’t need anyone to validate my worth. I am enough.

Reflection

If I could go back, I wouldn’t change the story, because it taught me everything I needed to know about strength.

Sepsis showed me the power of intuition. The wrong marriage showed me the cost of ignoring it. And rebuilding myself taught me that self trust is the foundation of true freedom.

If you’ve ever silenced your intuition, let this be your reminder.  Your body, your energy, your instincts, they always know.

Your body never lies. Your time is now. Share this with a woman who needs to remember her own strength.

Ready to rebuild your strength and self trust? Explore my Unlimited by Mila programs.