"ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is more than just fatigue. What we do, or specifically what we don't do, actually aids in more healing. So doing less equals faster, better outcomes."—Donna Piper

A focused revisit to the Perrin Technique that zeroes in on practical steps for easing crashes and brain fog. This is part 2 of our series on The Perrin Technique. This week, Donna dives into chapter 10 to pull out clinician-ready moves and patient routines. Her experience shows how targeted lymphatic drainage, thoracic mobility, and pacing change day to day tolerance over months. Donna describes weekly clinic work and daily self-care that turned theoretical protocol into measurable recovery, and why slow, gentle practice mattered most. Play this episode to hear the chapter 10 breakdown and actionable next steps. • Chapter 10 deep dive from Dr Raymond Perrin 2nd Ed • Perrin Technique steps for neuro-lymphatic drainage • Contrast bathing and thoracic region protocols • Cervical and cranial sacral techniques explained • Pacing and rest as core treatment strategies • Practical self-care routines and when to seek a certified practitioner

Connect with Donna: Website: https://www.donnapiper.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lipedema_donna Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper

Episode Highlights: 01:28 The Perrin Technique: Chapter 10 Intro 10:13 Real Talk: ME/CFS— More Than Fatigue 16:14 Connective Thread: A Systemic Dysfunction 35:25 Myth Buster 41:15 Feel Good Flow 45:02 Shared Education &Lived Experience

Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to [email protected], and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15 💗Books: 📖The Perrin Technique: How to diagnose and treat CFS/ME and fibromyalgia via the lymphatic drainage of the brain, 2nd Ed: https://amzn.to/4sV1ehf 📖The Concise Perrin Technique: A Handbook for Patients: https://amzn.to/47JSEcG 📖https://theperrintechnique.com/self-help-guide/

X: DO LESS, HEAL BETTER. The Perrin Technique Chapter 10 unpacked: contrast baths, cervical drainage, thoracic mobility, and severity scoring to track recovery. Tune in and get clear actions to discuss with your clinician. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #ThePerrinTechnique #DrRaymondPerrin #MECFS #ChronicFatigue #fibromyalgia #LymphaticHealth #NeuroLymphaticDrainage #AutonomicNervousSystem #ThoracicSpine #Inflammation #ContrastBathing #SelfGuidedMovements #StressReduction #DietAndNutrition #Hypermobility

Quotes: 05:30 "Pain equals no gain; more equals no gain; more actually makes me worse." —Donna Piper 07:14 "For healing, you want to look at it as a few years that you're going to be doing this. It's taken a long time to get sick in most cases, so it does take a while to get better. This is not a miracle… You probably are going to feel worse because you're going to be detoxing. Some of these toxins are going to be coming out, so you might feel worse. And then that is how you know that it's working." —Donna Piper 19:08 "When you have ME/CFS, you're not just tired, you're having a whole body problem with drainage, nervous system stress and physical dysfunction."—Donna Piper 26:08 "You're not doing anybody any favors, including yourself if you push yourself through the pain barrier. Pain is the body's natural protection; it tells you when to stop." —Donna Piper 36:09 "ME is one of those conditions that punishes excess. Too much stimulation, that's a problem. Too much activity is a problem. Cognitive effort is also a problem. Too much emotional stress is a problem. Too much treatment, believe it or not, is also a problem." —Donna Piper 39:27 "Some healing is microscopic at first. You can't see that healing that it's doing inside of your body. You may notice you're crashing less violently. You may see that you recover a little faster… You have slightly more room between effort and consequence, and that is really where the nuances are, and that's what counts." —Donna Piper 40:15 "Don't let the internet, or what you think you should do, or a timeframe bully you into thinking subtle progress is fake progress."—Donna Piper 46:09 "ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is more than just fatigue. What we do, or specifically what we don't do, actually aids in more healing. So doing less equals faster, better outcomes."—Donna Piper

Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.

"Take a look at everything that's been going on with your body and your health, and see if you can be at least okay with the knowledge that this is something that you need to treat in a different way, and relish in the fact that it is not something you've been making up and it there are some real treatment out there." —Donna Piper

A clogged brain drainage system rewires energy, hormones, and recovery so daily life becomes a series of compromises. This matters now because new research and hands-on approaches reveal a physical route to symptoms often written off as psychological. This week, Donna walks through her Perrin technique diagnosis and yearlong treatment journey after unexplained fatigue, showing how structural, autonomic, and lymphatic factors converged to create measurable change. Her story reframes chronic fatigue syndrome and ME as treatable physiological conditions. Tune in to hear the practical breakdown: Perrin technique and neuro lymphatic drainage How hypothalamic dysfunction drives ME/CFS symptoms Common structural and autonomic signs to watch for Self assessment basics and when to see a practitioner Realistic timelines and treatment expectations Related conditions: fibromyalgia, EDS, MCAS

Connect with Donna: Website: https://www.donnapiper.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lipedema_donna Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper

Episode Highlights: 01:01 Discovering The Perrin Technique 06:22 Real Talk: Dr. Raymond Perrin and His Life Work 10:35 Connective Thread: 7 Facts 25:57 Myth Buster: Not Psychological, But Physiological 27:48 Feel Good Flow 29:59 Shared Education and Lived Experience

Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to [email protected], and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible

💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v

💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15

💗Books: 📖The Perrin Technique: How to diagnose and treat CFS/ME and fibromyalgia via the lymphatic drainage of the brain, 2nd Ed: https://amzn.to/4sV1ehf 📖The Concise Perrin Technique: A Handbook for Patients: https://amzn.to/47JSEcG 📖https://theperrintechnique.com/self-help-guide/

"When you have these chronic illnesses, it's not a sentence. Saying that you have a disease is empowering, as long as you don't hide behind it." —Donna Piper

A fresh start does not always look productive. Sometimes it looks like a missed week, a body that feels louder again, and the quiet fear that progress is slipping. This conversation sits in that space where healing feels uncertain and hard to trust. Donna shares where things stand right now, preparing for a second surgery while navigating the return of chronic fatigue symptoms, and how that tension is shaping a more honest approach to healing. Press play and stay with the conversation as it unfolds. • chronic illness and non-linear healing • chronic fatigue syndrome flare-ups • preparing for surgery with medical trauma nervous system patterns and shutdown • rebuilding self-trust in the body • the Perrin Technique and future tools • redefining what progress really means

Connect with Donna: Website: https://www.donnapiper.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lipedema_donna Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper

Episode Highlights: 01:14 Season 2: A Very Human Beginning 02:48 Real Talk: Surgery #2 07:32 Connective Thread: What Actually Helped 17:28 Myth Buster: 22.44 Feel Good Flow: Micro Moves, Macro Reliefs 25:30 Shared Education and Lived Experience

Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to [email protected], and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15

X: Starting over is not always clean. Sometimes it is messy, delayed, and honest. Donna talks about surgery prep, chronic fatigue flare-ups, and rebuilding trust with the body. Press play! #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #healingtools #selfregulation #lipedema #fatigue #healingprocess #chronicillnesssupport #healingjourney #chronicfatigue

Quotes: 04:24 "There's a practical side of getting ready for surgery: the logistics, the packing, the timing, the body prep, the emotional prep. And then there's a deeper layer that's underneath it: the vulnerability, the uncertainty, the memory of what it means to go through something intense in the body again." —Donna Piper 12:00 "There is no magic fix. My surgery is helping with my lipedema, but I'm always going to have it, so I do need to manage it. So if there's anyone saying you don't need to manage your symptoms forever, that's just not true." —Donna Piper 13:28 "When you have these chronic illnesses, it's not a sentence. Saying that you have a disease is empowering, as long as you don't hide behind it." —Donna Piper 16:16 "Everything is connected, and you just have to find the one thing that resonates with you and to look for it in your daily lives." —Donna Piper 16:48 "When you're dealing with chronic illness, fragments matter a lot. Because sometimes, those fragments can become your lifeline, sometimes they become a framework, sometimes they become the thing you return to when your body gets louder again." —Donna Piper 18:14 "A symptom return does not cancel the healing that's happened." —Donna Piper 22:03 "You did not fail. Your body's just changed." —Donna Piper 23:20 "Maybe beginning again is not being together. Maybe it's about being more truthful." —Donna Piper 26:22 "When we have more understanding with ourselves and we know more about what's going on with our bodies, we feel safer, we feel more relaxed, we feel more connected." —Donna Piper

Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.

"Maybe the depression that shows up after recovery is not a sign you're doing it wrong. Maybe it is a sign that your body finally feels safe enough to tell the truth." —Donna Piper

Depression after recovery can arrive right when energy improves and symptoms ease, and it can feel like the rug gets pulled out from under us. Chronic illness shapes our identity, routines, relationships, and sense of safety for years, so when the body finally stabilizes, old grief, guilt, and fear often rise to the surface. This episode sits with that reality and treats post-surgery depression and chronic illness recovery as a nervous system story, not a personal failure. Donna shares her journey through lipedema, POTS, hypermobility, and ME/chronic fatigue syndrome, including lipedema reduction surgery that brought more energy than she expected and a wave of depression that arrived weeks later. Her story, clinical background, and research into survivorship and post-treatment depression come together to name what so many of us experience but rarely hear described. Press play to feel less alone in depression after recovery and explore how our bodies, brains, and hearts try to make sense of life after long illness, including: • Depression that shows up after recovery from a chronic illness or surgery • How chronic illness reshapes identity, relationships, and daily life • Grief for lost years, missed moments, and a self that never got to exist • Survivor's guilt when progress arrives, and others are still suffering • Research on survivorship and why depression can appear years after treatment • The nervous system's role in delayed emotional processing • Simple body-based practices to honor grief without losing our progress

Connect with Donna: Website: https://www.donnapiper.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lipedema_donna Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper

Episode Highlights: 01:41 Depression After Recovery 04:44 Real Talk: Healthy Lifestyle But Not So Healthy 21:26 Connective Thread: When the Story Meets the Science 31:23 Myth Buster: Less Hype, More Health 33:51 Feel Good Flow: Micro Moves, Macro Reliefs 36:24 Shared Education and Lived Experience

Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to [email protected], and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15 📖Free 32-page Hypermobility Posture Guide: https://www.chimera-health.com/hypermobility-posture-guide-donna-piper

🔬Research Mentioned • Taylor WD, Yabroff KR, Mariotto AB, et al. "Late-Onset Depression in Older Adults Among 5-Year Survivors of Cancer." JAMA Network Open • Brandenbarg D, Maass SWMC, Geerse OP, et al. "Prevalence of Symptoms of Depression in Long-Term Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." PubMed • Götze H, Brähler E, Gansera L, et al. "Depression and Anxiety in Long-Term Survivors 5 and 10 Years After Cancer Diagnosis." PubMed • Cheshire A, Ridge D, Hughes J, Peters S, Panagioti M, Simon C. "Sick of the Sick Role: • Narratives of What 'Recovery' Means to People With CFS/ME." PMC • Bury M. "Chronic Illness as Biographical Disruption." PubMed • Andersen BL, et al. "Management of Anxiety and Depression in Adult Survivors of Cancer." • Journal of Clinical Oncology / ASCO Guideline • Raison CL, Capuron L, Miller AH. "Inflammation and Its Discontents: The Role of • Cytokines in the Pathophysiology of Major Depression." PMC • Review on chronic stress and depression mechanisms. PMC

X: Recovery is not a movie montage. It is pain, progress, then a strange emptiness when life gets quieter. Tune in for a grounded take on post-surgery depression, survivor's guilt, and rebuilding a self after long illness.#DearBodyImListeningPodcast #survivorship #postoprecovery #depressionafterrecovery #healingjourney #nervoussystemhealing #griefwork

Quotes: 04:53 "When you've been sick for years, illness becomes a whole ecosystem. It shapes your schedule. It shapes your relationships. It shapes your identity. It shapes how much hope you allow yourself to feel, how much joy you have. It even shapes what you believe you're allowed to want." —Donna Piper 11:07 "Now that you're in a new stage, you're actually feeling better. It opens your eyes on a different level, with a different pair of glasses, and you might be feeling years you lost, or a version of you that never got to exist." —Donna Piper 18:02 "Take two minutes, feel the sadness, feel the guilt, and then replace it with something that you're feeling now." —Donna Piper 21:12 "Having the slow, being depressed, having all these complex feelings, is just part of the process, the other part of the chronic illness wheel." —Donna Piper 25:52 "survivorship research absolutely shows that depressive symptoms can show up or keep showing up after the worst part of the treatment is over… Some studies found that new depression diagnoses still appear five to 10 years later. In other words, this is not just in the middle of the crisis, saying it can land later." —Donna Piper 26:46 "Identity disruption, chronic illness, and or cancer — any of that can change who you think you are, and recovery changes that identity again. So now you're not just healing physically, you're renegotiating your entire sense of self." —Donna Piper 31:42 "You can be relieved and grieving. You can be healing and heartbroken. You can be better than you were and devastated by what it took. Those things are not opposites. They're roommates. Sometimes depression after recovery is not your body being negative— it's just your body being honest." —Donna Piper 35:04 "I am allowed to grieve as I heal." —Donna Piper 36:40 "Maybe the depression that shows up after recovery is not a sign you're doing it wrong. Maybe it is a sign that your body finally feels safe enough to tell the truth." —Donna Piper

Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.

"Slow is not only okay… but maybe it's even better than fast." —Amy Behimer

Some days, chronic symptoms run the entire show, even when labs look "fine." Fatigue, brain fog, flare anxiety, and the pressure to stay positive can turn life with chronic illness into a full-time mental job. This conversation is about creating a steadier inner world so our bodies do not have to carry everything alone. Amy Behimer shares how multiple autoimmune diagnoses, including MS, pulled her out of quick fixes and into science-backed mindset work and habit change. Her story shows how belief "seeds," tiny actions, and nervous-system-aware support can change how we relate to our body, even when symptoms stay complex. Press play to tap into grounded hope and practical tools for life with chronic illness and autoimmune disease, including: • How mindset and language around symptoms drain or protect our energy • What autoimmune disease and MS can look like day to day • Loneliness, invisible illness, and the reality of being misunderstood • Belief seeds and habit science for reshaping chronic illness mindset • Why tiny habits on bad days still create real progress • Rest, slowing down, and building a nervous-system-safe life • Community, coaching, and systems that bend with flares and fatigue

Connect with Donna: Website: https://www.donnapiper.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedonnapiper Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper

Resources: 📝Free Quiz: https://amybehimercoaching.com/quiz Learn the 1 thing your body needs to reduce inflammation & start getting your energy back! 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to [email protected], and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15 📖 Get Tricia's Book: Heal Your Hunger: 7 Simple Steps to End Emotional Eating Now

Episode Highlights: 02:56 Meet Amy: A Journey with Autoimmune Diseases 09:53 What Is MS? Autoimmune Basics, Myelin, and Types of Multiple Sclerosis 15:06 How Much Do You Share? Finding Safe People and Protecting Your Energy 25:48 Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast: Redefining Productivity With Autoimmune 31:45 Why Goals Fail: Building Flexible Systems for Flare Days and Low Energy 41:17 Tiny Habits, Big Impact: Trusting Small Actions on Bad Health Days 48:37 Club Habit Hub & Autoimmune Health Secrets 52:15 The Long Game: Decade-Long Mindset Shifts, Joy, and Gentle Discipline

"Your body is at its max, and you're tired, and it's not because you're lazy, and it's not because you're weak, and it's not because you're bad at consistency, it's just because you might be overspending your energy on stability." —Donna Piper

Our bodies can be flexible and still ache all the time, crash after "healthy" workouts, and collect headaches like a part-time job. Many of us are told it is anxiety, deconditioning, or lack of willpower, while our nervous systems work nonstop just to hold us together. This episode sits in that gap, where chronic symptoms, hypermobility, and exhaustion overlap. Donna shares how a lifetime of dance, marathons, and teaching movement lived alongside mysterious pain, gut issues, and fatigue, and how learning about symptomatic hypermobility and connective tissue changed everything. Through her work with Dr. Melissa Koehl's Ground Control approach, she reframes exercise, posture, and recovery for hypermobile bodies that are already working at their limit. Press play to hear this conversation and explore how we can honor our capacity and support our bendy bodies with less push and more stability, including: • Why hypermobility often shows up as fatigue, brain fog, GI issues, and headaches • How connective tissue, blood flow, and mast cells link to chronic symptoms • Why "just exercise more" can backfire for ME CFS and hypermobile bodies •The problem with more stretching and end-range work for symptomatic hypermobility • Practical shifts for posture, stability, and daily movement that protect energy • A short, hypermobility-friendly grounding and breathing reset • How programs like Ground Control can support chronic pain and dysautonomia

Connect with Donna: Website: https://www.donnapiper.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lipedema_donna Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper

Episode Highlights: 02:10 Hypermobility + Fatigue + Brain Fog + GI Issues + Headache 04:49 Real Talk: Healthy Lifestyle But Not So Healthy 09:53 Connective Thread: When the Story Meets the Science 12:16 Myth Buster: Less Hype, More Health 15:13 Feel Good Flow: Micro Moves, Macro Reliefs 18:30 Shared Education and Lived Experience

Resources: 📝Free Quiz: https://amybehimercoaching.com/quiz Learn the 1 thing your body needs to reduce inflammation & start getting your energy back! 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to [email protected], and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15 📖Free 32-page Hypermobility Posture Guide: https://www.chimera-health.com/hypermobility-posture-guide-donna-piper 🎙️Listen to: Ground Control for Bendy Bodies: How to Move Without Pain (Finally!) with Melissa Koehl: YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ecs0eBwjOoo Libsyn https://five.libsyn.com/show/episodes/view/39071105

X: Our joints can touch our toes, but a flight of stairs wipes us out. Hypermobility is not a party trick; it is an energy leak. Hit play while we unpack fatigue, brain fog, GI chaos, and "no pain no gain" myths. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #Hypermobility #ChronicPain #Dysautonomia #ChronicFatigue #PostureGuide #GroundControl

Quotes: 04:25 "Posture is one of those things that takes a lot of our energy." —Donna Piper 06:42 "So I used to think, if I'm sore, I should push through, that I needed to do more when actually, I just really needed to do less. Hypermobile bodies don't respond to 'more' at all. Sometimes more is what creates a flare." —Donna Piper 09:37 "Your body is at its max, and you're tired, and it's not because you're lazy, and it's not because you're weak, and it's not because you're bad at consistency, it's just because you might be overspending your energy on stability." —Donna Piper 12:00 "If you're breaking down tissues faster than you can repair them, you get that downward spiral: more pain, more fatigue, more flares, more confusion." —Donna Piper 12:32 "A lot of hypermobile bodies need stability, not more range. So hanging out in your range can cause more flares because your body's over-stretched anyway." —Donna Piper 18:19 "Don't go further. More is not better with all of this hypermobility stuff, so just take it up tomorrow." —Donna Piper 19:51 "Remember to be gentle with your capacity. Meet yourself where you are." —Donna Piper

Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.

"For me, it's not hype about when people say [lipedema surgery] is life-changing. It has been because it's just been so much relief." —Donna Piper

Chronic pain can sit in the background for decades until it becomes the entire storyline. When lipedema surgery suddenly shifts that pain and heaviness, the body and nervous system do not just "bounce back" because the procedure went well. This conversation stays with the messy middle of recovery, where compression garments, swelling, and fear that relief will disappear all collide. Donna shares the realities of traveling to Germany for lipedema surgery while living with ME, chronic fatigue syndrome, POTS, MCAS, hypermobility, and long-standing medical trauma. Her story traces every step from missteps in pain management and communication with an anesthesiologist, to the quiet miracles of walking with less heaviness and having enough energy to participate in her own rehab. Press play to sit with a real-life picture of lipedema surgery recovery and why nervous system work matters as much as compression and MLD, including: • What went wrong and right during the first lipedema surgery in Germany • How chronic illness, anesthesia sensitivity, and pain management interact in the hospital • Practical tools that made recovery bearable, from flat knit class 2 compression to inflatable wedges and MLD • Why more energy after surgery is not "in the head," and how reduced pain load frees capacity • The emotional whiplash of living in a smaller body after years of lipedema pain • A science-informed mirror and nervous-system capacity practice for post-surgery body image • Reframing the myth that improvement will not last in chronic illness healing

Connect with Donna: Website: https://www.donnapiper.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lipedema_donna Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper

Episode Highlights: 03:20 Real Talk: The Misses 10:28 The Hits 15:22 Things I Can't Live Without 18:27 What I'm Looking Forward To 21:03 Connective Thread: Surgery-Recovery 23:41 Myth Buster Moment 26:03 Feel Good Flow 34:15 Healing Is Spiral, Not Linear

Resources: 📝Free Quiz: https://amybehimercoaching.com/quiz Learn the 1 thing your body needs to reduce inflammation & start getting your energy back! 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to [email protected], and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15

"You have a living problem, not an eating problem." —Tricia Nelson

Food rules, lab results, and shame spiral thinking keep showing up, yet the body keeps sending the same distress signals. Chronic symptoms, weight swings, and late-night eating start to look less like a lack of discipline and more like the body asking for a different kind of help. This conversation goes straight into that gap between "knowing what to do" and not being able to do it. Tricia Nelson shares how decades of emotional eating, strict dieting, and self-loathing turned into a path of mentoring, research, and a practical framework that helps emotional eaters understand what food has been doing for them. Her story shows how addressing buried emotions, people pleasing, and stress patterns can transform both our relationship with food and our sense of safety in our own body. Press play to explore a kinder, more honest way of working with emotional eating and chronic symptoms, including: • Why emotional eating is a living problem, not an eating problem • How stress, people pleasing, and overdoing keep bingeing and stress eating in place • The PEP framework and what food is actually doing for our pain, escape, and self-punishment • Why traditional diets and willpower backfire for emotional eaters • The role of community and speaking up in releasing shame around food • Simple self-care practices that calm the nervous system and support food freedom

Connect with Donna: Website: https://www.donnapiper.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedonnapiper Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper

Resources: 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to [email protected], and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15 📖 Get Tricia's Book: Heal Your Hunger: 7 Simple Steps to End Emotional Eating Now

Episode Highlights: 04:35 Meet Tricia: Struggles with Emotional Eating 07:54 The Role of Emotions, Stress, and Habits in Emotional Eating 24:57 Practical Tips for Overcoming Emotional Eating 28:56 How Coaches Can Help 35:50 Feelings of Failure 40:06 The Importance of Community and Support

X: Emotional eating is not a food problem. It is a life problem. Hit play for a smart gut check on stress, people pleasing, chronic illness, and the PEP method for food cravings. Our snacks have receipts. #DearBodyImListening #EmotionalEating #lymphbreath #movementherapy #eightloss #foodaddiction #stresseating #selfcarehabits #communitysuupport #selfesteem

Quotes: 12:21 "Our emotions impact our health, our gut health, our immune health, and cancer. We've got to figure this out, or we're going to die from burying our emotional selves and not using our voice." —Tricia Nelson 14:01 "We don't get taught how to deal with anger and shame… we're not an emotionally intelligent society." —Donna Piper 14:14 "You're not just your weight, you're not just your spirit, you're not just your mind, we all work together." —Donna Piper 15:06 "You have a living problem, not an eating problem." —Tricia Nelson 17:34 "Over-eaters are overdoers. Every time, we'll trash ourselves getting it done. We want that approval, so we are working for it, and that comes at a high cost to our health. So that's a problem, because stress causes stress eating." —Tricia Nelson 21:54 "We need to get together and laugh about the crazy things we've done, because otherwise, we'll live in isolation, which just perpetuates the problem… It's not food we're really craving. We need connection." —Tricia Nelson 34:33 "We're not only overeaters, but we're also over feelers, and we feel guilty about everything." —Tricia Nelson 39:07 "We have to practice this. We need to be schooled in changing our belief system about ourselves. It's just it's hard to come by strong self-esteem without working at it." —Tricia Nelson

Connect with Tricia: Tricia Nelson is an internationally acclaimed author, transformational TEDx speaker, and Emotional Eating Expert. Tricia has successfully helped thousands of people heal their relationship with food. Born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts, Tricia's own struggles began in early childhood, where she attempted to cope with life's stresses and emotional pain by overeating and other destructive behaviors. Continuing into adolescence, she began binge drinking and eventually gained more than 50 pounds. After years of experimentation with 12-step programs, therapy, and self-help books, Tricia finally hit a spiritual and emotional bottom. Tricia attended Amherst College and began her career working at the Seattle Art Museum. While in Seattle, she began working with a spiritual healer who helped her recognize and heal the root causes of her addictions. By creating a lifestyle steeped in positive self-care, self-love, and improved self-esteem, Tricia was able to stop drinking and overeating. She has maintained a fifty-pound weight loss for over 30 years now. Tricia has spent the past three decades studying the addictive personality and shares her findings in programs, workshops, and retreats online. Many doctors, psychologists, and other health practitioners benefit from her insight about what drives people to overeat and how to stop.

Website: https://healyourhunger.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/triciagreaves Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TriciaNelson_ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HealYourHunger Book: Heal Your Hunger: 7 Simple Steps to End Emotional Eating Now

"Grief is not the opposite of healing. Grief is a part of making room for your real life. You don't get over this, you learn how to carry it without it swallowing you whole" —Donna Piper

Some days, the hardest part of chronic illness is not the symptoms, but the quiet grief for the body and life that used to feel possible. Plans shrink, energy disappears without warning, and ordinary tasks start to feel like marathons no one else can see. Grief and gratitude sit side by side, and our culture often gives us language for neither. Donna shares how chronic illness restructured her body, work, and identity, from marathon days in Chicago and full client loads to lipedema surgery and unpredictable flares. Her training as a psychotherapist, body worker, and spiritual practitioner meets her lived experience, and together they shape a grounded way of moving with chronic illness grief instead of around it. Press play to hear a real-time grief toolkit for chronic illness and to explore gentler ways of living with a body that changed without consent, including: • What chronic illness grief looks like when there is no funeral, flowers, or casserole train • How gratitude and grief can coexist without canceling each other out • The roller coaster nature of symptoms and stamina in conditions like lipedema, MCAS, hypermobility, and chronic fatigue syndrome • Why the nervous system stays on high alert with chronic illness and medical dismissal • The identity whiplash of going from strong and reliable to "limit days" and cancellations • Naming specific losses so grief does not harden into shame and self blame • The "two lives list" and how it helps separate old expectations from current capacity • A "wave plan" for grief ambushes, including anchoring, breath, and timers • Reframing flares from personal failure to information from the body • Building a soft identity that honors essence, not productivity or stamina • Mythbusting chronic illness grief, including "others have it worse" and "I should be over this by now" • A short feel good flow for safety, permission, and resting without guilt

Connect with Donna: Website: https://www.donnapiper.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lipedema_donna Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper

Episode Highlights: 02:46 Chronic Illness Grief Without Funerals or Flowers 04:26 Looking Great ❌ Functional 08:55 How Chronic Illness Hijacks Your Nervous System & Sense of Safety 15:47 Two Lives List 19:16 Feeling Grief Safely: Wave Plans, Timers & Letting Emotions Move 24:05 Myth Busters: Acceptance, Grief Moves, Pain Competition, Timing 28:33 Gentle Grief Practice: Breathing, Self-Permission & Soft Identity

Resources: 📝Free Quiz: https://amybehimercoaching.com/quiz Learn the 1 thing your body needs to reduce inflammation & start getting your energy back! 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to [email protected], and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15

X: Looking "fine" while our body rewrites every rule is its own heartbreak. Queue this episode for real talk on stamina loss, medical gaslighting, and building a softer identity with chronic illness.#DearBodyImListeningPodcast #chronicpain #lipedema #MCAS #hypermobility #CFS #grief #identityloss #spoonielife #mentalhealth #bodychanges #newvoussystem #selfcare #acceptance #healing

Quotes: 02:57 "Grief doesn't mean you're negative. Grief means you're honest. When your body changes, your life changes, not always in dramatic ways, sometimes in 1000 tiny, weirdly humiliating ways." —Donna Piper 04:26 "Looking great is not the same thing as feeling functional." —Donna Piper 06:50 "Grief is not a weakness. It's our human response to loss… and it needs its space. It needs its time. It needs its recognition to really help you navigate this." —Donna Piper 09:07 "When life is predictable, your system can relax. When life is unpredictable, your system starts scanning for danger. And for most of us with chronic illness, our bodies are trying to catch up." —Donna Piper 10:40 "Grief isn't just emotional, it's biological because uncertainty is stressful on the nervous system… So you're not just grieving your physical ability. You're grieving who you thought you'd be, what you thought your life would look like, what you assumed was guaranteed, the version of you who didn't have to negotiate with her body all day." —Donna Piper 11:52 "Grief is not the opposite of healing. Grief is a part of making room for your real life. You don't get over this, you learn how to carry it without it swallowing you whole" —Donna Piper 20:50 "Stop interpreting your symptoms as personal failure." —Donna Piper 23:47 "Remember you're not your stamina. You're a whole person. So you can be all these beautiful things you always were. That's who you are, just your body needs a different way to be treated, and grieving helps." —Donna Piper 24:54 "What keeps people stuck is pretending they're fine. Grief moves when it's allowed." —Donna Piper 26:14 "Don't go comparing your issues to other people. Your pain and how you feel about your body is yours, and it's justified, and it needs recognition." —Donna Piper 27:25 "My timing isn't always the timing my body needs." —Donna Piper 29:41 "You don't have to love your reality to belong in it… Honor where you are. Allow yourself some time and space. Give yourself permission to be here, safe, and feel —Donna Piper

Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.

"A reaction is not a moral failure— it's information. Your body is just responding to something, and right now it's giving you signals that it doesn't want that or it needs some extra help." —Donna Piper

When every meal feels like a risk and symptoms seem to come out of nowhere, it can start to feel like the body has turned against us. Many in the chronic illness community are stuck between labels like "histamine intolerance" and "MCAS" while still getting no clear plan or validation. This conversation names what is happening in the body and why it is not "all in the head." Donna Piper shares decades of lived experience with connective tissue disorders, chronic fatigue, and relentless food and environmental reactions, and how finally understanding mast cell activation and histamine load changed the way she navigates daily life and medical care. Her story becomes a practical map that blends science, self tracking, and nervous system care. Hit play for grounded support and real language around symptoms that are often dismissed, including: • The difference between histamine intolerance and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) • How connective tissue disorders, hypermobility, lipedema, POTS, and ME/CFS intersect with mast cell issues • Why food reactions can seem random and show up hours or days later • The "histamine bucket" idea and how overall load from stress, hormones, sleep, and environment matters • Three trigger buckets: food, environmental, and internal factors • How to track symptoms without spreadsheets using simple logs or voice notes • Why leftovers, storage time, and food freshness can change histamine reactions • A practical reaction scale and when symptoms call for urgent care • Exact phrases that can help doctors take MCAS and histamine intolerance more seriously • Common myths about sensitivity, inconsistency, and "it is just anxiety" • A short pre meal nervous system practice to make eating feel safer

Connect with Donna: Website: https://www.donnapiper.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lipedema_donna Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper

Episode Highlights: 01:10 Why Your Body Reacts to Everything 05:30 Connective Tissue Disorders, Hypermobility, and Chronic Symptoms 09:45 Histamine Intolerance Explained 15:00 HIstamine Intolerance vs MCAS 18:00 Three Trigger Buckets: Food, Environment, and Internal Stressors 23:00 The LeftOver Rule 27:52 Myth Busting: It's My Fault, It's All in My Head, & Inconsistent=Not Real

🔬Research and Studies Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic+2PMC+2 JACI In Practice+1 JACI In Practice+2PMC+2 📝Free Quiz: https://amybehimercoaching.com/quiz Learn the 1 thing your body needs to reduce inflammation & start getting your energy back! 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to [email protected], and you just might hear your answer on the show. 💲Discount Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0 Click the link: https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included. 5 days battery life Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring Designed for illness, not fitness HSA/FSA Eligible 💗Springrose Give $20, GET $20 When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love. https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v 💗Equip Fuel With Real Food Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15

X: Our body is not overreacting. It is overprotecting. Hit play to hear how MCAS, histamine intolerance, and our "histamine bucket" can turn meals into landmines, and why it is not in our head. Listen now for real talk, science, and tools. #DearBodyImListeningPodcast #MCAS #MastCellActivationSyndrome #HistamineIntolerance #LowHistamineDiet #ChronicIllness #InvisibleIllness #GutHealth #Hypermobility #Lipedema #POTS #MECFS #NervousSystemRegulation #HealthPodcast #WomensHealth #PatientAdvocacy

Quotes: 02:22 "You deserve to eat without feeling like you're playing a horror movie called, What will my body do next?" —Donna Piper 16:20 "Instead of what's wrong with me, the more helpful question is, 'what is filling my bucket? What drains my bucket?'" —Donna Piper 17:16 "The three trigger buckets: food bucket…environmental bucket…then the internal bucket. So if you only track food, you'll think that it might be more random, but if you track all three, you could start to see patterns that show themselves." —Donna Piper 26:20 "Sometimes, you just have to know the magic words to say to your doctors in a way that makes sense to them as they do your deferential diagnosis." —Donna Piper 28:03 "A reaction is not a moral failure— it's information. Your body is just responding to something, and right now it's giving you signals that it doesn't want that or it needs some extra help." —Donna Piper 28:35 "Histamine and mast cell mediators are real chemistry. They have real implications in the body. They have real jobs in your body, and when those jobs are overworking, and you're having symptoms, and you're not feeling good, then they're doing it too well. So you need some sort of intervention." —Donna Piper 29:41 "It's consistently inconsistent, and that's one way to look at it if you're always cycling through these symptoms. A little bit of data gathering is going to be so beneficial for you and your doctor." —Donna Piper 32:45 "There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. You've just been living in a body that's been misunderstood. Science doesn't have all the research to go to and or the training." —Donna Piper

Your Host: Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions. With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships. Donna's sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.