This week, I talked to a doctor who fought her way out of two countries' worth of bureaucracy and a marriage built to keep her small, and a world-class cellist who spent four decades being one of the best at the only thing she'd ever known how to do.
This week, both conversations really made me think about how the body tells the truth long before the mind is ready to say it out loud.
Joy was in the middle of doing housework, on the floor, sobbing, before she ever let herself use the word divorce. Kate stood on a stage with a voice that shook, and a room full of people assumed she was grieving, when she was actually relieved beyond words. I keep coming back to how much composure we perform right up until our body just quits cooperating with the story we've been telling everyone, including ourselves. And how, by the time that happens, some part of us has already known for a while.
"I wasn't sad. I was feeling immense relief."
If something in that landed, here's where to go:
JOY KONG
a doctor who fought her way out of one country and one marriage to build a life entirely on her own terms
KATE KAYAIAN
a world-class cellist who finally let herself stop being the only thing she'd ever been — www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/s5e265
Until next time, Matt
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