There is nothing wrong with you!

I was with a patient the other day who was struggling.

She had a health goal in mind and was diligently focused on achieving a specific result. She had made a great deal of progress — the kind of progress that deserves to be celebrated. She had transformed aspects of her life in healthy, lasting ways. Yet, she wasn’t happy. In fact, she was frustrated and disheartened.

“It’s not good enough,” she said. “What is wrong with me?”

It stopped me in my tracks — not because it was unusual, but because it was so painfully common.

In her case, she was trying to get pregnant. But it could have just as easily been about weight loss, blood pressure, mental health, chronic pain, or any number of personal goals. No matter the specific struggle, the underlying question is often the same: Why has my body betrayed me?

Our medical system doesn’t help much here. All too often, we’re told by professionals, “Let’s find out what’s wrong with you.” It’s baked into the language, the mindset, the messaging: that something is broken, and it needs to be fixed.

What if that’s not true?

What if there is nothing wrong with you?

Yes, our body may need support. we may need tending. But that’s not the same as being wrong. You are not a broken machine. You are a human being — complex, whole, and beautifully resilient.

I know how easy it is to internalize this kind of messaging. I’ve done it myself. As someone who survived childhood cancer, I’ve wrestled with the belief that my body betrayed me — that I was somehow fundamentally flawed. For years, that belief shaped the way I saw myself. And I know I’m not alone in that.

But healing doesn’t happen in a straight line. And it doesn’t always lead to the result we imagined.

Sometimes, the greatest progress happens in the quiet moments — the choice to rest instead of punishing ourselves, the courage to keep going despite uncertainty, the self-compassion to say, I am doing the best I can.

So, if you’re in a season of struggle, I want you to hear this:

There is nothing wrong with you.

You are not failing. You are trying. And that matters more than you know.