Covert Narcissism Destroyed My Family | Here's Why With Emma Lyons

The body keeps score even when your brain refuses to read the scoreboard.

That's what stuck with me after talking with Emma Lyons on the podcast. She broke her leg and suddenly everything she'd been ignoring came crashing down. Not because the bone snapped, but because her body finally made her sit still long enough to listen.

Your body is smarter than you think. It knows when you're drowning in toxic patterns. It feels the weight of shame you've been carrying since childhood. And when you ignore it long enough, it finds creative ways to get your attention.

Emma calls it the inner narcissist. That voice in your head constantly moving the goalposts. You hit your target and suddenly it's not good enough anymore. You work harder, push more, hustle until you're exhausted, and still feel empty inside.

Here's the wild part though. We're taught to sit with that shame. Feel it. Process it. Send it love.

But what if shame isn't something to process at all? What if it's more like a house guest who's overstayed their welcome and needs to be kicked out?

Emma's got this thing called the BREAK method. First letter stands for breaking the trance, because that's what shame really is. A spell. A pattern. A loop playing on repeat in your mind that you mistake for truth.

The rest of the method is about refusing to engage, exposing the lies, anchoring back into your body, and finally kicking that voice to the curb. No therapy sessions with it. No negotiations. Just a firm "not today" and moving on with your life.

Your body already knows this stuff. It's been trying to tell you for years through aches, pains, mystery illnesses that doctors can't figure out. All that unprocessed family trauma sitting in your nervous system like old boxes in a basement nobody wants to sort through.

But here's where it gets good. Once you stop trusting that shame voice and start trusting your body again, everything shifts. You're not chasing goals anymore. You're not proving yourself. You're just here, fully present, and suddenly life stops feeling like such a grind.

I recorded the full conversation with Emma our recent episode of The Conversations. We went deep into family trauma, narcissistic patterns, and why hustle culture is really just shame wearing a motivational poster.

If you've been stuck in that loop of never feeling good enough no matter what you accomplish, this episode might just crack something open for you.

Listen now and maybe your body can finally stop keeping score.