Why listening to your body is where real authority lives
You can run a full day on caffeine, competence, and willpower, and still feel unsettled by the time you crawl into bed.
You’re productive, responsible, reliable — the kind of person people count on, and you come through.
Your calendar is full, your inbox never really empties, and slowing down doesn’t come easily.
You lie there, tired but wired, scrolling, thinking. Not unhappy exactly, just aware that something isn’t landing the way it should. That you’re doing life well, but not fully feeling it.
Does this sound familiar?
You’ve done what you were taught to do.
Built the career.
Raised the family.
Kept it together.
On paper your life works, yet in your body, it doesn’t.
You were taught that sovereignty meant control
being capable, certain and on top of it all.
That version of sovereignty lives in your head.
It rewards endurance and self-control.
It teaches you to push through discomfort and keep going.
But that’s not where real sovereignty is built.
Real sovereignty shows up in that split second when your body hesitates, even though the plan is already in motion.
Over time, you stopped checking in with yourself. Not because you didn’t care, but because listening started to complicate things.
When you listened, you hesitated.
You felt the weight of disappointing someone.
So you learned to go straight to the decision and skip the pause.
To trust what was efficient, expected, and acceptable, keeping your body out of it.
That made you incredibly adaptive.
But each time you pushed past your internal cues, you moved further away from your own inner authority.
Creating a Pause When You Can’t Seem to Find One
You don’t need more time or a perfect setting to begin listening to your body.
You just need a small pause you can take, right where you are.
Think of this as a simple practice you can return to.
First, don’t change anything about how you’re sitting or breathing.
No fixing your posture. No adjusting your breath.
Next, notice one place in your body that feels okay — or even slightly pleasant.
The warmth of your hands.
The pressure of your feet on the floor.
The support of the chair beneath you.
Stay with that sensation for three slow breaths, letting your body register: “this feels okay.”
No need to change it or make it better.
Then ask one question:
Does my body want more of this… or less?
If there’s no clear answer, that’s okay.
Simply stay with “this feels okay” for one more breath.
This is often how pleasure begins — through staying with what feels okay. Not as indulgence or escape, but as a way back to yourself.
Pleasure may be as simple as the warmth of the shower on the back of your neck, or the feel of soft fabric against your skin. It’s not just about the moment itself, but also about letting yourself stay with it long enough for your body to register what feels good.
Pleasure is where you start noticing what opens you — and what doesn’t. It shows you where you soften, where you tense, and where you come alive. Where you feel your sense of choice return, and with it, your power.
This is how sovereignty returns not with control, but with discernment. With the ability to feel what’s true for you and let that knowing shape your choices.
This is what sovereignty looks like in real life.
Staying connected to yourself, especially when it would be easier to disconnect.
Sovereignty was never missing. It comes into focus through pleasure; through what it reveals, and the authority you feel with each conscious choice that brings you home to yourself, again and again.
With all my heart,
Lisa Simone
PS. - This Week I Invite You To Gently Explore Using This Journal Query
- What does your body ask for that you usually push past — and what would change if you listened instead?
