In this episode, I sat down with Dr. Jen Rapkin, naturopathic doctor, body worker, former dancer, and author of The Feeling Muscle: Sitting With and Outlasting Hard Feelings, and I walked away from this one with so much clarity around something I've personally been navigating — the relationship between what we hold in our bodies and how it shows up as physical symptoms, dis-ease, and emotional patterns we can't seem to shake.

In this episode, we explore:

• What it means to be a "frequent feeler" — and why that's actually a gift, not a burden

• How the messages we were raised with ("grow thicker skin," "boys don't cry," "grin and bear it") trained us to armor up and disconnect from our emotional body

• Why emotion is a pre-verbal, physical experience — and how learning to locate feelings in the body changes everything

• The concept of "shaking the hand" of a feeling — a simple, powerful practice for beginning to sit with what's coming up rather than numbing or distracting

• Why Dr. Raphkin's approach is NOT about excavating trauma — it's about exercising your feeling muscle one small moment at a time

• The connection between unprocessed emotions and physical symptoms (gut issues, hormonal imbalance, chronic illness) — and why the nervous system is always part of the conversation

• How we've become conditioned to outsource our health, our answers, and our healing to strangers on the internet — and why the most powerful answers already live inside you

• Why safety and permission are at the root of emotional processing — and how childhood conditioning shapes our nervous system well into adulthood

Let's dive in!

Thank you for joining us today. If you could rate, review & subscribe, it would mean the world to me! While you're at it, take a screenshot and tag me @jennpike to share on Instagram – I'll re-share that baby out to the community & once a month I'll be doing a draw from those re-shares and send the winner something special!

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• Instagram | @drjennrapkin

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• The Feeling Muscle: Sitting With and Outlasting Hard Feelings | Get Your Copy HERE

• Website | drjennrapkin.com

This episode is sponsored by:

• St. Francis | Go to stfrancisherbfarm.com and save 15% off your all your orders with code JENNPIKE15

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• *code doesn't apply with Black Friday sale*

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• Functional Testing | jennpike.com/testing-packages

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Connect with Jenn:

• Instagram | @jennpike

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• YouTube | Simplicity TV

• Website | The Simplicity Project Inc.

Have a question? Send it over to [email protected] and I'll do my best to share helpful insights, thoughts and advice.