If you have ever caught yourself thinking, “I need to be a good partner, a good mom, a good friend, a good person,” only to instantly swallow your own needs, you are not alone.

For high-achieving women, being “good” often becomes tangled up with being endlessly available. So when people talk about boundaries in relationships and what they are or what they look like, your body might tense up. Maybe the concept feels foreign, or maybe it feels selfish.

Because for you, saying no does not feel like a boundary.It feels like disappointing someone.It feels like breaking an unspoken rule.It feels like you are doing something wrong.

That is the root of the struggle. Not the boundary itself, but what you learned it means about you.

I’ve been thinking a lot about that quiet emptiness we sometimes feel-the one that shows up even when everything in our lives seems “perfect.” You know the feeling: maybe your career is going well, your home feels settled, you’ve got a friend circle you love, and maybe even a dream trip on the calendar… and yet, something still feels missing.

We often talk about stress in terms of how it feels mentally—overwhelming, exhausting, nonstop. But what we don’t always talk about is how much stress gets stored in the body. And when we carry too much, for too long, it starts to throw us off physically and emotionally. If you’ve been feeling like you’re out of sync, disconnected from yourself, or just “off,” this might be why.

Let’s talk about the signs, the deeper meaning, and how to start realigning—both physically and personally.