#24 The Real Root Cause of Muscle, Bone & Lymph Symptoms

You’ve been told your body is breaking down — that your pain is from age, your posture, or some missing nutrient.

But what if that’s not true?
What if your symptoms are actually your body’s way of trying to protect you?

In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on what’s really behind structural symptoms — the kind that show up in your muscles, bones, lymph, and joints — and why chasing physical fixes hasn’t worked.

You’ll discover:

• The hidden biological reason pain and weakness show up in the body’s structural systems
• The subconscious pattern that quietly fuels these symptoms 
• Why trying to fix the pain might be the very thing keeping you stuck

If you’ve been stuck in pain or injury with no real answers — this episode will change how you see your body, and your healing, for good.

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Thanks for listening! 

Transcript

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You've been taught that pain, weakness, and degeneration in your bones and muscles are just part of getting older. Or maybe that your posture, your diet, or a mystery deficiency is to blame. But that's not the truth. In today's episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on what's really behind symptoms in the structural systems of your body, like muscles, bones, ligaments, and lymph. And spoiler, it's not your age, gluten, or your exposure to EMFs. Here's what you'll take away today: the real biological reason behind weakness, swelling, and pain in the body's structural tissues, and the one subconscious pattern that almost every client with these symptoms shares. Why the pain you're trying to fix might mean your body is already healing, and how to support that healing instead of interrupting. If you've been stuck in a cycle of pain, injury, or chronic swelling and inflammation, this episode will help you see your symptoms through a whole new lens and finally start working with your body instead of against it. Let's get into it. Welcome to the Rebellious Healer, where we ditch the fear, decode the symptoms, and take healing into our own hands. I'm Jenny Peterson, a former holistic practitioner, turn symptom-free, mind-body rebel. I help women break free from protocols and step into trust, confidence, and full body healing. If you're done with rules, restrictions, and outsourcing your power, you're in the right place. You can't scroll social media or turn on the radio without being hit with some miracle cure for joint pain, muscle aches, or bone density. It's always some collagen powder, anti-inflammatory or aging breakthrough that promises relief. And while the world is busy chasing symptom control, no one's talking about why these symptoms are actually happening in the first place. We've normalized degeneration, injury, and weakness. We've normalized 10-year-olds with joint and muscle injuries. We've normalized 30-year-olds getting meniscus surgeries. We've normalized arthritis by 50 and hip replacement by 60. And when the masses call it normal, we start to think it's inevitable. But just because something is common does not mean it's natural. These kinds of symptoms aren't random. They're not because your body is failing, they're messages, and they all have something in common. They're rooted in how you perceive yourself. Let's break down the body systems we're talking about here when I say structural systems of your body. This includes the bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, your veins, arteries, lymphatics, fat tissue, and cartilage. These are the structural systems of our body, the parts of your body that give you the form, stability, and strength. Think of them as the two by fours and concrete of your internal house. So why would your body weaken these areas? Why would it cause pain, swelling, or inflammation there, especially if these tissues are essential for your survival? Because the body's job is to adapt to your internal perception of the world. And if your subconscious is sending the message that you are weak, your body will adapt accordingly because being weak is a risk to your survival. So let's take a look at the subconscious pattern behind these symptoms of what we call self-devaluation. At the root of nearly every structural symptom is one core pattern. It's the subconscious belief that you're not enough. It's I'm not strong enough. I'm a failure. I can't handle this. I'm useless. I'm a burden. These thoughts might sound extreme, but even small versions of them, like second-guessing yourself, always trying to prove your worth, or beating yourself up over little things, create the same biological response. If you feel weak emotionally or mentally, your body will try to help. It will adapt, not to hurt you, but to protect you. And that adaptation process looks like degeneration, followed by healing. Here's how the subconscious brain-body feedback loop works when it comes to structural tissues. So there's a perceived emotional threat, right? You feel inferior or not good enough. So your subconscious flags this as feeling unsafe. Remember, safety isn't physical, it's also emotional. Your body responds with a biological adaptation. It begins to break down tissue to prepare for rebuilding. Once that threat is gone, the healing then begins. And this is when swelling, pain, and inflammation is all gonna show up. This is where the rebuilding to make you stronger happens. And it's where most people panic, which we'll talk about here in a bit. Let me give you a little bit of a metaphor. Imagine your house has a cracked foundation. You can't just throw more concrete on top of it and hope that it holds. You have to tear it down first, break it apart. So you can rebuild it the right way. And that's what your body is doing. Pain and inflammation aren't signs that something is wrong. They're signs that healing is in progress. Really, no different than when you have pain and smelling from a cut, which we so easily can uh understand and are okay with, right? But when it comes to any other body system, we freak out. But because we've been trained to fear symptoms and we've also been trained to not be willing to be a little uncomfortable, we interrupt that healing. We suppress it with painkillers, ice packs, and panic. And that's how we get stuck in this cycle. I want to walk through what happens to most people with these symptoms. So you experience pain in your back or knees or wherever in your body. You assume something is wrong or that your body is broken. And that fear reinforces the belief of I can't do this. I'm not strong enough. So your subconscious flags yet another threat. So the body keeps adapting again and again because there's this constant message coming in of not feeling good enough. You interrupt the process by having the panic, by feeling like you're not good enough. So, you know, first of all, you have the injury, the injury makes you feel like I can't do this, and then the cycle just continues. And all the while you're living inside that same identity, the one who's not good enough. That's why it doesn't matter how many supplements or mobility routines you try, if the subconscious pattern is still running, your body has no choice but to keep adapting. I want to give an example here. Let's say there's someone we'll call her Michelle. Michelle has been dealing with a chronic right shoulder pain for over 10 years. It started as a dull ache after a stressful time at work and slowly became part of her daily life. She tried everything: chiropractic acupuncture, massage therapy, even anti-inflammatory diets, and so on. Sometimes that pain would ease up, but it would never go away. On the surface, it looked like a structural issue, but underneath her body was running a story it had learned decades earlier. Michelle grew up in a household where nothing she did ever felt good enough. Her parents were highly critical, not because they were bad people, but because they had high expectations and rarely expressed praise. Even when she brought home an A minus, the focus was on how she could have had an A plus. As a child, she internalized that message. If I want love, I have to be better. I'm not enough as I am. So then you fast forward to adulthood, and those patterns are still operating because that's how our subconscious works. Once we're programmed, we operate from that programming on autopilot. So those patterns continue to operate in her other relationships, especially in her marriage. And in her marriage, she never feels good enough. She feels like she's failing her partner, never good enough. Her partner never really recognizes the things that she does. He often criticizes her, very similar to what her childhood was like. And that's not that's not uncommon. We marry what we know, right? So her subconscious is going to do what it's always done. And it's going to send this message to her body that she's not strong enough and that she had to brace herself, carry more, hold things together. And her body is responding in the only way it knows how by adapting, by weakening the tissue and by sending pain to reflect the internal stress. And then this just continues because she doesn't know what to do with it. This is what she's always known is to feel this way, and never addresses the root issue. So when that happens, Michelle stays in what we call a hang and healing. Every time her body starts to repair, something in her environment re triggers that old pattern. Another misunderstanding in her relationship, another moment of not feeling seen, and the cycle just keeps going over and over again. But if she would address that deeper work, that pattern of not feeling good enough and where it all came from and sees that this belief is driving the bus, that's when this healing will finally take place. And that's not an overnight process, but it's a start when we just recognize that this pattern is running the show. And once that pattern is addressed and she steps into a new version of herself, her body is going to get the signal that it's now safe to heal. Again, this is all about internal perception. It's no one else's perception. It's not the events that actually happen. It's how we are perceiving and what we are telling ourselves based on our patterns. And that is what is the deep work. And that is how symptoms go away. It's not just about, I'm just going to start thinking positively. It's okay, I'm seeing all of these things in my life that I am seeing through this lens of I'm not good enough. And so you can see from the story that self-devaluation, this not feeling good enough, is not something that just happens one day when you're an adult. Most of the time, it's going to be all throughout childhood. Yes, there could be some situations where some people experience one or two big traumatic moments that made them feel this way, but most of the time it's the accumulation of these small perceptions from childhood. It's where a parent who was only praising you when you performed, uh, teachers or coaches who criticized more than encouraged, a sibling comparison that made you feel invisible, um, even classmates, you know, being in school uh rejecting you or not allowing you to be part of the crowd, or not getting the reaction you wanted after showing, you know, something that you did that you were proud of. These are all things that add up over time. One time something happening is most likely not going to cause this core belief to stick with you for the rest of your life. It takes several things to happen for your nervous system to make a note. Being me isn't enough. I must do more to be loved or safe. And those moments become memories, proofs in the subconscious, which become beliefs. And those are the patterns we operate from. Then the belief gets reinforced also by society, the social media, hustle culture, appearance obsession, you know, productivity standards, all of this stuff. What happens is we become really good at beating ourselves up. We're so good at it that we think it's normal and it just becomes who you are. But the body is constantly getting that message and having to adapt for that. So this is why most healing attempts fail. You can't out-supplement a subconscious pattern. You can't yoga, massage, or red light your way out of a belief that's running 24-7 under the surface. That's why so many people don't heal even after trying everything. They're doing everything except the one thing that matters: rewiring the subconscious, changing the identity, seeing themselves through a new lens. This isn't about going back to do one memory and cry it out and talk it out and have therapy around all the memories. That's not necessary. This is about choosing to operate from a new version of you, understanding where you came from is important. But then we have to spend our time, most of our time, stepping into what we call that 2.0 self and backing that identity with daily repetition, action, and support. So if you're experiencing symptoms that are back to the structural systems of the body, I can guarantee you you're operating from a belief of I'm not good enough. And you can start building awareness around this belief by building a practice around whenever you get triggered or something is bothering you. And you're gonna see that over time, if you keep doing this practice, that the same belief is gonna show up. And not necessarily with every single thing that you do, but probably at least 50% of the triggers that you experience, the things that bother you, are going to have this core belief. We see it with all of our clients that when they have the belief of I'm not good enough, and we have them do this practice over and over all the time and seeing how this is here, this is building awareness of, oh my goodness, I'm responding to everything in my life or majority of things in my life from this one perception that I'm not good enough. And with that awareness, you can then create change. So I'm gonna give you a simple practice you can start using right now because again, awareness is the first step to creating change in your life. Without knowing what needs to be changed, you don't know the work that you need to do. So when something triggers you, whether it's an emotional reaction or a moment of tension or a situation where you feel off, whatever it is, whatever is bothering you. And I want to make it clear, I don't want you to be focusing on your symptoms. Well, my symptoms are bothering me. No, I want you to put that aside. Your symptoms mean you're healing. We're not focusing on that. We're focusing on other things around you outside of symptoms, because we don't need to be symptom obsessed to resolve symptoms. We need to be looking at how we are responding to the life around us to resolve our symptoms. So we're looking at external things, not symptoms that are triggering us and digging into them with this approach. So when something triggers you, instead of brushing it off or spiraling in your head, I want you to pause. You can grab a journal and write down exactly what you're thinking and feeling. Uh, maybe if you can't do it right at the moment, just kind of make a note of it. And before you go to bed at night, then do this practice and just journal everything out that's on your mind. You don't need to make it pretty or polished, just let it all spill it on the page. And then I want you to ask yourself this question: what would I have to believe about myself to feel this way? Okay, that is a question that's going to help you identify the belief that's driving these feelings that you're feeling. So I want to give you an example of how that plays out. Let's say your partner makes a comment about how messy the house is. It's not harsh, but it lands wrong with you. You feel instantly irritated, defensive, and maybe a little ashamed. Okay, so your reaction feels bigger than the moment, and that's your clue. That's your clue that there's something driving this underneath. So there's a belief underneath it, and we want to write this out. So let's say you write out on paper, I feel like I'm failing. I already do so much. Why isn't it enough? I feel like I can't ever get it right. All right, with just those couple of sentences, then we can ask ourselves, what would I have to believe about myself to be feeling this way in this moment? What would I have to believe about myself to think that I'm failing? What would I have to believe about myself if I feel like I can't ever get it right? Okay, so that question, followed by the statement that you said, is going to identify the belief. And what would surface from this particular example would be, you know, a belief of I'm not good enough. I have to prove my value. If things aren't perfect, I'm going to be judged. You know, whatever comes up for you, it doesn't mean it's always going to be I'm not good enough. But, you know, the statement of if things aren't perfect, I'm going to be judged. But if you looked at a deeper level, is also the core belief underneath that is I'm not good enough. So a lot of these phrases are just going to sound very similar, but they're all mean the same thing. It's I'm not good enough. And that's the pattern. So once you name it and once you start seeing it consistently in everything that you're doing and how you're responding, you can stop being ruled by it because the goal isn't to fix the situation. You can't control what other people say. You can't control what happens, you know, around you. Uh, but you can control and understand how you're reacting. It's to understand what your reaction revealed in these situations so that it you can understand yourself. Understanding yourself and what is driving you to react is going to help you see what you need to change. This is why emotions aren't the root cause. Beliefs are. Your perception creates your emotional response. And your perception is built on the beliefs you've been carrying since childhood. When you shift the belief, the way you experience the world changes. And when your perception changes, your body no longer sees everyday situations as threats, which means it's no longer needs to stay in a survival loop. This is the power of awareness. You can't change what you can't see. But once you do see it, everything becomes possible. So what do you do when you're in pain? Just because your body is healing doesn't mean you do nothing, but it also doesn't mean you go into panic mode. Pain and inflammation, especially when they show up after a long period of emotional or internal stress, are signs that your body has moved into healing. And that's right, that the pain you feel now is often your body rebuilding what it had to temporary break down during the stress phase. This is that type of temporary pain that we get when we go for a long hike and we're in pain the next day. That is temporary, normal pain. It's part of the normal biological repair process. And during this time, your job is to support the body, not fear it, not fix it, not suppress it. So there are some things that you can do to support your body during this time. Using warmth, bring blood flow to the area. Don't use cold, uh, rest the area and minimize interference as much as you can. Avoid long-term use of anti-inflammatories or painkillers if you absolutely have to use those things and do that. But these interrupt that healing process. Um, if short-term relief is needed, use them consciously, not reactively. But just know an anti-inflammatory is removing the inflammation that is required for healing. And stay aware of your thoughts. Acknowledge that pain is not damage, it's restoration. But then we also have to look at the other side is but what if the pain doesn't go away, that it's now chronic, that it lingers for weeks, months, or even years? That's when we're no longer dealing with a temporary repair. That's chronic. And chronic pain means your body is stuck in what we call a hanging healing. And here's what that means the body started the healing process, but it never finished because the original conflict, the subconscious pattern, keeps getting re triggered. So every time healing starts, the body gets pulled right back into survival mode and the cycle starts all over again. This is why chronic pain isn't a physical problem, it's a pattern problem. If this is happening, no amount of bass or rest will resolve it. The body knows how to heal. It's trying. But your perception, the subconscious belief you're still operating from, is pulling the emergency brake every time. And that's where the inner work comes in. You must identify and shift the pattern that's sending your body mixed messages, the pattern that's telling your body, we're not safe, we're still not enough, we're still in danger. So if your pain is persistent, reoccurring, or just won't resolve no matter what you try, it's not because your body is broken. It's because your body is waiting for you to send a new signal. And that new signal starts when you do the deeper subconscious work to rewire your patterns and operate from a 2.0 self. One who sees pain for what it is and steps out of the loop that created it. All right, so your body is never working against you, even the pain, even the swelling, it's all part of the biological survival plan. And once you understand what it's doing, the fear starts to resolve. So let's recap what today's episode was really about and what you can walk away with to begin shifting your relationship with your chronic pain and structural symptoms. Number one, structural symptoms are not random, they're adaptations to a subconscious perception of weakness. When your subconscious is running the pattern of I'm not strong enough, your body responds, not because it's broken, but because it's adapting for survival. These symptoms aren't about age, wear and tear, or bad luck. They're messengers. And the message is coming from how you see yourself. And number two, the core belief behind these symptoms is I'm not good enough. Whether it's showing up in your joints, muscles, bones, or limb, the aren't Underlying pattern is usually rooted in some type of self-devaluation. That belief didn't come out of nowhere. It was formed in childhood and reinforced over time. And it's been running the show under the surface until now. Now you get to choose whether that belief still serves you. Number three, pain and inflammation are often signs that healing is already happening, not that something is wrong. When pain is temporary, it's a good sign, it means your body is repairing and rebuilding. But if the pain sticks around, it's a sign your healing is being interrupted by a recurring subconscious pattern. Your body isn't stuck, your pattern is. And it's that pattern that needs to shift for your body to finish what it started. So if today's episode hit home, if you've been dealing with pain, weakness, or symptoms in your bone, joints, muscles, or lymph, then it's time to look beyond the surface. These symptoms aren't random. They're not signs your body is failing. They're signs your body is following instructions. Instructions based on outdated subconscious patterns. Patterns that told your body it wasn't strong or good enough. So adapted to help you survive. And now it's up to you to give it a new message. If you know it's time to stop managing symptoms and actually heal the patterns creating them, this is your moment to take action. To find more information about the Evolve programs, click on the Start Here link in the show notes. Remember, you're not broken. Your body isn't failing you. Your symptoms are simply the language your body uses to say, it's time for change. You've got this rebellious healer. I'll see you in the next episode.