Viktoria Hamma

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." It's one of the first things many of us were taught as children but I'm not sure I agree. Because words don't break like bones do, and then heal. Words stay. They settle into the subconscious mind, quietly, and they keep shaping how we feel about ourselves and our bodies for years — sometimes for a lifetime. Broken bones knit back together in six weeks. A sentence someone said to you when you were seven can still be running...

There is a version of you who is roughly four years old, and they are still making decisions on your behalf. Not metaphorically. You already know this if you have ever apologised for something that was not your fault, before you consciously registered you were doing it. If your chest has ever tightened at a particular tone of voice. If you have found yourself, well into adulthood, working for the approval of someone whose approval you do not want and do not need. You did not decide to do any...

What if the 3am wake-up with a racing mind isn't just stress? What if the afternoon slump isn't just about lunch? What if the anger that flares up out of nowhere, or the grief that surfaces at quiet moments, is your body trying to tell you something — through the very organ systems that have been holding those emotions for years? Your body is not a machine that runs the same way around the clock. It is a living, rhythmic system that follows an internal natural 24-hour rhythm or schedule — one...