MCAS vs Histamine Intolerance Why Your Body Reacts to Everything (And You’re Not Crazy)
Dear body, I’m listening
“A reaction is not a moral failure— it's information. Your body is just responding to something, and right now it's giving you signals that it doesn't want that or it needs some extra help.” —Donna Piper When every meal feels like a risk and symptoms seem to come out of nowhere, it can start to feel like the body has turned against us. Many in the chronic illness community are stuck between labels like “histamine intolerance” and “MCAS” while still getting no clear plan or validation. This conversation names what is happening in the body and why it is not “all in...
info_outline
Rest Without Guilt (When Your Worth Got Tied to Output)
Dear body, I’m listening
“Rest isn't a character flaw. It's what your body needs in order to heal from these invisible illnesses. And for some of us, it's also a grief process, because we're not just resting from task; we’re resting from the version of ourselves who thought we had to earn love through output.” —Donna Piper Ep 36 Shownotes: Podcast Platforms We talk about rest like it is simple, but for many bodies it brings guilt, fear, and shame. When worth gets tied to productivity, stopping can feel dangerous even when the body is breaking down. This conversation meets the tension...
info_outline
Is It POTS? When Standing Up Feels Like a Trap
Dear body, I’m listening
“You're not making it up. You're not weak, you're not failing. Your body is working hard to keep you upright, and you deserve support that matches the reality of that.” —Donna Piper Standing up should not require strategy, recovery time, or mental math. When heart rate spikes, dizziness hits, and showers wipe us out, the hardest part is not the symptom. It is being told nothing is wrong while our body says otherwise. Donna shares lived experience with POTS, dysautonomia, and multiple comorbidities, blending physiology with trauma-informed insight. Her work is shaped by years...
info_outline
Traveling with Chronic Illness: Germany Edition
Dear body, I’m listening
“If you're traveling with chronic illness, I want you to hear me. There is nothing wrong with you. You just have to prepare a little bit. You deserve to travel in a way that doesn't punish you, that helps you, that makes you feel good.” —Donna Piper Travel takes more out of the body than most people admit. For those living with chronic illness, the cost shows up before the suitcase is even packed. Energy drains through lines, noise, time pressure, swelling, and the fear of crashing far from home. Donna shares her real-time approach to spending a month in Germany while...
info_outline
Pack, Move, Fly, Heal: Why I’m Choosing Germany for Lipedema Surgery
Dear body, I’m listening
“Movement and less pain is why I'm doing this and why I've chosen to go to Germany.” —Donna Piper Big life changes rarely wait their turn. When health decisions collide with exhaustion, logistics, and uncertainty, clarity matters more than certainty. Donna shares the personal and medical reasoning behind traveling to Germany for lipedema surgery while managing multiple chronic conditions. This episode traces how lived experience, failed conservative treatments, and the need for long-term care shaped a choice rooted in mobility, pain reduction, and nervous system safety. Press play...
info_outline
Lipedema Surgery Vs. Non-Surgical Care… Do I Have To Choose?
Dear body, I’m listening
“Anything you choose is not weakness. It's the best for you… Instead of thinking surgery or no surgery, try this question: ‘What would make my next step safer?’... Safety is a step, not a switch.” —Donna Piper Pressure around medical choices can turn care into panic. When the body is complex and money, time, and fear are involved, certainty starts to feel like a deadline. This conversation slows that moment down and gives it room to breathe. In this episode, Donna shares her lived experience navigating lipedema and the long road of conservative care, research, and...
info_outline
Hot Flashes, Heavy Legs: Lipedema Meets Perimenopause & Menopause
Dear body, I’m listening
“Lipedema is not a willpower issue. Shame is not a treatment plan. Late diagnosis does not mean late reality. It means late recognition. Your best advocate is yourself. There's nothing wrong with you. You've just been navigating a body that hasn't been understood by the medical world yet. Be gentle with your capacity. Meet yourself where you are.” —Donna Piper Bodies can change in ways that do not follow the rules we were taught. Pain, swelling, and heaviness show up, and the explanations never quite fit. Many women carry this quietly for years, assuming it is just weight or age....
info_outline
How Trauma Rewrites Pain Part 4: Flare or Trauma Response? When the Body’s Signals Get Confusing
Dear body, I’m listening
“Flares and trauma responses often look the same because fascia remembers, the nervous system protects, and the immune system overreacts to help defend itself, and the body is trying to keep you alive, not confused. So your job isn't to decode perfectly. Your job is to offer safety consistently, because when the body feels safe, the symptoms soften, and when the symptoms soften, the story changes, and when the story changes, the healing becomes possible.” —Donna Piper The body can shift from steady to overwhelmed without warning, leaving confusion about what just took over. Pain,...
info_outline
Transformation Boundaries: Protect Energy And Design A Purposeful Life with Didi Selwa
Dear body, I’m listening
“Move forward, take action. It may happen, it may not, but it's just about putting one step in front of the other— doing that is so important. When you go forward, you realize, ‘oh, that's not for me’, but in the process, you discover what is.” —Didi Selwa Drop the guilt of being stuck and discover a movement that meets your body where it is. Press play to hear how embodiment, faith, and small practical steps shift shame, chronic illness limits, and stalled dreams into forward motion. Didi Selwa went from a 25-year banking career to a Certified Transformational Life...
info_outline
The Science of Feeling Safe: Gentle Practices to Regulate Chronic Stress with Ann Diment
Dear body, I’m listening
"We are the experts in our well-being and our own bodies, and it's important for us to advocate for ourselves. We're not defined by our past. Our past is gone. It's in the past, and the beliefs we formed about ourselves based on what we've been told by other people or experienced in the past aren't necessarily true." —Ann Diment Some seasons of life push us past our limits, and the body keeps score long before we understand why. Many of us try to outwork the chaos, yet the real shift begins when we finally question the version of resilience we were taught to admire. There is a quieter...
info_outline
“If you have felt left out of wellness culture, it's not because you've failed; it's because it was never built for you in the first place. No matter what we look like, what our experiences are, what we're dealing with, we are all worthy of care. Healing is not a branding opportunity, and it is a birthright.” —Donna Piper
Ever felt like wellness advice wasn’t written for your body—or your life? When smoothies, sunrise meditations, and superfoods feel more like pressure than peace, maybe the problem isn’t you… maybe it's the culture. If you’ve ever silently wondered, “Why does nothing work for me?”—this episode will hit home in the best way.
Donna has done all the things wellness culture says should work—only to discover they often do more harm than good. And when she finally realized how her invisible, complex conditions intersect with fatphobia, performative health, and outdated medical systems, she stopped chasing quick fixes and started building a sustainable path rooted in self-trust, rest, and radical honesty.
Join Donna as she reclaims healing as a birthright, unpacks the myths that dominate mainstream wellness, and gives practical, lymphatic-friendly tools that actually honor your body. You don’t need to be fixed—you need to be heard.
Connect with Donna:
Website: https://www.donnapiper.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lipedema_donna
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper
Episode Highlights:
01:21 Unlearning the Wellness Culture
04:43 The Complexity of Chronic Conditions
16:14 Supporting the Lymphatic System
24:36 Myths and Misconceptions in Wellness
28:21 Embracing a New Wellness Paradigm
Resources:
🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I’d love to hear from you!
Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show.
X:
Tired of being told to “just detox” when your body is fighting for its life? Your host, Donna Piper, unpacks the gaslighting in wellness culture + what real healing looks like. Tune in for truths, tools & lymphatic love.
#DearBodyImListeningPodcast #Lymphedema #lipedema #MCAS #ChronicIllness #WellnessMyths #WellnessCulture #Fatphobia #HealingJourney #RestIsMedicine
Quotes:
28:44 “If you have felt left out of wellness culture, it's not because you've failed, it's because it was never built for you in the first place. No matter what we look like, what our experiences are, or what we're dealing with, we are all worthy of care. Healing is not a branding opportunity, and it is a birthright.” —Donna Piper
02:11 “When you're navigating a complex diagnosis like lipedema, MCAS, hypermobility, the full spectrum of EDS to HSD, POTS and chronic fatigue... this wellness culture is not made for our bodies.” —Donna Piper
04:30 “There is no one map, one thing: Do this, and you'll get better.’ Actually doing those wellness culture things made me feel bad; it didn’t work.” —Donna Piper
04:55 “Even when I did get answers from my doctors, which—that was a relief—but they didn’t give me a straightforward plan.” —Donna Piper
07:34 “Our version of wellness isn’t what the mainstream version of wellness is.” —Donna Piper
10:07 “The only thing that's going to help realign your system is not about doing more, it’s about doing less.” —Donna Piper
10:57 “I had to stop viewing myself with harsh eyes and through other people’s expectations.” —Donna Piper
11:57 “You are doing healing right for you. We are not doing healing wrong.” —Donna Piper
12:26 “So much of wellness culture and just how people view things now… is rooted in ableism, fat phobia, and a polished aesthetic.” —Donna Piper
13:24 “It’s not about performative wellness. It’s not about trying to do things to force our bodies into a way.” —Donna Piper
23:11 “Resting—it's not laziness, it's not willpower—it's really more about biology. You need rest.” —Donna Piper
28:10 “I release all the shoulds. I let go of wellness shame and just feel good about that. I know that my wellness looks different, and I stand with pride in that.” —Donna Piper
Meet Your Host:
Donna Piper is a Relationship Coach, Trauma Expert, and Akashic Records Healer dedicated to empowering successful single women to transform their love lives and attract fulfilling partnerships without sacrificing their professional ambitions.
With a holistic approach blending therapeutic coaching, trauma-informed techniques, and Akashic Records wisdom, she guides clients to release limiting beliefs, heal emotional blocks, and cultivate unshakable self-trust. Her work focuses on aligning mind, body, and spirit to create lasting change—helping clients refine communication, deepen self-worth, and build the foundation for healthy, loving relationships.
Donna’s sessions are a safe haven for those ready to break cycles, embrace vulnerability, and design a love life that harmonizes with their thriving careers. For women committed to both personal and professional fulfillment, she offers tailored strategies to unlock their full potential and step into the relationship of their dreams.