You used to be able to handle so much more stress than you can now. Work, kids, travel, hard conversations, not enough sleep, and you kept going. Now your neck is always tight, your digestion is off, you're wired at 11pm and exhausted at 3pm, and you can't figure out what changed.

Hormones are part of that. But there's a second thing happening, and almost nobody talks about it: your body may be carrying the physical residue of decades of stress it never got to finish processing.

Dr. Carli Axford, a chiropractor with more than 30 years of clinical experience (who has never cracked a back!) and the founder of the Spinal Flow Technique, is here to get specific about what "the body stores stress" actually means. Not metaphorically. Physiologically. Where it goes, what it feels like under a practitioner's hands, and why it tends to surface in your 40s and 50s after years of you managing just fine.

Carli explains why women who come in with digestive problems often have stored emotions higher up in the spine, how she can tell the difference between chemical stress and emotional stress by touch, and the one question that tells you whether that knot between your shoulder blades is from your workout or from something you have been carrying for years.

What we get into:

• What "storing stress" actually means physiologically, and why the spine is where it lands
• The three kinds of stress, emotional, physical, and chemical, and how each one feels different in the body
• Why women who come in with digestive issues often have an older stress pattern sitting higher in the spine
• Why your capacity for stress drops in perimenopause, and what fluctuating estrogen and progesterone have to do with your nervous system's resilience
• How to tell whether that knot in your back is a pulled muscle or a pattern you have carried since childhood
• What you can do at home, in a few minutes, to move your body out of fight or flight

Dr. Carli Axford is the founder of the Spinal Flow Technique, a healing modality now practiced by thousands of certified practitioners worldwide. She is recognized internationally for her work on stress, trauma, and the body's capacity to heal itself. Her book Awaken Your Spinal Flow is forthcoming from Hay House in May 2027.

Connect with Dr. Carli Axford:

drcarliaxford.org | @dr.carli.axford

I want to hear from you. Send me a text or voicemail!

Jessica's freebies and resources:

😴 Sleep better tonight with my free 10-minute audio breathwork session. (https://your.belongwellness.com/sleep)

⚡️Join the Keep Your Cool Collective, my 6-week group breathwork experience for women over 40 who are ready to feel f*cking GREAT. This program launches October 5th. (https://your.belongwellness.com/hnly-beta-sales-page)

✨For more midlife advice on perimenopause, hormone health, nervous system regulation, and living with purpose in your 40s and 50s follow me: @midlifeadvicepodcast | @heyjessicalong