The Cough That Called Attention
Because sometimes, feeling good just needs a little spotlight.
He came to me with a deep cough—fluid in the lungs, a touch of bronchitis, the doctor had said. But I was curious what the body itself had to say.
I asked him to turn inward and sense where the cough began. He pointed to the top of his sternum. “It’s sunny and cool there,” he said. The image that followed was a prairie in late summer—grasses waving, queen anne’s lace, goldenrod, thistle. Some blooms spent, some just coming alive. He loved this prairie. It hovered just above him—close enough to feel, but not yet entered.
His spirit wanted to go in.
So we followed. Among the grasses, he found life—voles in the brush, bees floating from flower to flower, butterflies in soft white and vibrant yellow. And as he moved through this place, he noticed something familiar—ease. The same ease he had actually been feeling in his everyday life: more mobility, more strength, more flexibility. His body had been moving with fluidity lately, with less pain and more comfort.
And yet, it had gone mostly unnoticed.
“It feels good,” he said. “To move without restriction. To stoop and bend and not ache.”
His spirit felt happy, his chest muscles alive and stimulated. “Renewed strength,” he called it. Breathing deeper than he had in years.
That’s when it clicked: the cough wasn’t just a symptom to be treated—it was a signal. A call for recognition. Not of what was wrong, but of what was right. His body wasn’t crying out in distress—it was asking to be seen. Asking for appreciation. Reminding him that he had, in fact, been feeling good. That healing doesn’t only happen in crisis—it’s been happening all along.
Sometimes, it takes a small disruption to bring our attention back to the quiet brilliance of what’s working. The parts of the body that carry us so well, we forget to say thank you.
If your body could speak, what would it want you to notice today?
If you’re moving through a challenge—or if something in your body is calling your attention—I’d be honored to explore it with you. Sometimes healing begins not with fixing, but with finally seeing what’s already alive and well within you.
With warmth and awe,
Anne
*This story was drawn from client work and is shared with care and anonymity, as a window into what healing can look and feel like.
