68. I Was Pulling the Rope. My Body Was Pulling Back Harder.

68. I Was Pulling the Rope. My Body Was Pulling Back Harder.

From Courageously Expressed | Post-Traumatic Purpose Reclamation by Chelsea Bartell-Smith

March 6, 2026 · 41 min

About this episode

Amanda Rurik shares her journey of overcoming debilitating anxiety and learning to listen to her body after years of struggle.

You've been fighting your body for years. Controlling the food. Pushing through the workouts. Managing the schedule. Holding everything together. And the harder you pull — the harder it pulls back. Amanda Rurik thought she was doing everything right. Mother. Business owner. Clean eating. Supplements. A type-A work ethic she wore like a badge. What she didn't know was that her body was quietly tallying every skipped meal, every sleepless night, every emotion she swallowed to keep moving. Then her second baby came. And the rope snapped. In this episode Amanda gets raw about the moment debilitating anxiety forced her to stop white-knuckling her health — and start actually listening to it. What she found wasn't weakness. It wasn't a disorder. It was a body that had been screaming in the only language it knew. We get into: The secret internal impacts anxiety has The moment two doctors told her she was "fine" and she knew they was more to her story Why trying to force symptoms away makes your body grip them harder The at-home hair test that revealed what a decade of bloodwork missed What it looks like to stop fighting your body and finally start living in it This is for the…

People in this episode

Host: Chelsea Bartell-Smith

Guest: Amanda Rurik

Topics covered

  • anxiety
  • health
  • body awareness
  • mental health
  • self-care

Keywords

  • anxiety
  • health
  • body
  • mental health
  • self-care
  • clean eating
  • workouts

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