Starting Over at 42: Healing Trauma After Survival — with Kelli Marsh
Choosing Yourself: A Reflection on Kelli Marsh’s Episode of Spiritual Friction
When Something Inside You Begins to Shift
There comes a moment—often quiet, often uncomfortable—when something inside us begins to shift and we ask for more. We start to listen to that small inner voice reminding us that we deserve safety. We deserve respect.
Not more productivity.
Not more resilience.
Not more pushing through.
But more care.
A Conversation That Feels Like an Invitation
In this episode of Spiritual Friction, I sit down with Kelli Marsh for a conversation that feels less like an interview and more like an invitation—an invitation to pause, to listen, and to choose yourself. Not someday. But now.
Kelli’s story is layered with honesty. She speaks openly about childhood trauma, anxiety, body image struggles, brain injuries, and years of believing she didn’t deserve more than survival. Like so many of us, she learned early how to repress her feelings, push forward, override her body, and keep going—even when it hurt.
What unfolds in this conversation isn’t a tidy transformation story. It’s something more real.
Kelli shares how self-sabotage once felt safer than hope. How fear shaped her relationships and her sense of safety. How disconnection from her body kept her stuck in patterns that no longer served her. And how, slowly—through awareness, boundaries, and compassion—she began to come back to herself.
One of the most powerful moments in the episode comes when Kelli reflects on what changed everything: allowing herself to shine her light and letting go of the people who couldn’t meet her there. In doing so, she describes how she finally “attracted her happy flies”—people who reciprocated her energy instead of drained it.
That idea lingers.
There’s humor woven through the honesty—
“If you’re doubting yourself because it’s scary, you should probably do it. You should go for it, because it’s the scary stuff that helps you grow. Yeah… unless it’s drugs. Don’t do drugs.”
And there’s so much grace for the lives we’ve lived—
“I was a Division I pitcher—all of my coaches used running as a form of punishment. When I finally changed the way I looked at exercise, it became so much easier, so much more exciting.”
Choosing Yourself Before Burnout Forces You To
So many of us have been taught to pour endlessly into others while neglecting ourselves. We tell ourselves we’ll rest later. Heal later. Choose ourselves once things calm down. But the truth is, life rarely pauses long enough to offer permission.
This episode gently challenges that pattern.
Choosing yourself means listening when your body says enough. It means questioning the stories that tell you you’re asking for too much. It means allowing care, rest, and nourishment to become part of your daily life—not a reward for exhaustion.
Kelli’s journey into holistic wellness, somatic awareness, and nervous system regulation wasn’t about fixing herself. It was about remembering who she already was beneath survival. About learning to feed her body, tend to her emotional world, and honor the wisdom she had been taught to ignore.
An Invitation to Begin Again
Before we began recording, I asked Kelli to write a letter to her younger self. What unfolded was a moment that left both of us in tears.
If you’re feeling burned out, disconnected, or quietly wondering if it’s too late to begin again, this episode is for you.
It’s an invitation to pour into yourself without apology.
To choose yourself without justification.
To trust that caring for your inner world is not selfish—it’s necessary.
If you’re feeling emotionally tender, unsure, or quietly carrying more than you let on, I invite you to listen. This is a conversation for the empaths, the sensitive souls, or the ones who think their self-worth is tied to what they can give to others.
This episode is for you—exactly as you are.
About the Guest
Kelli Marsh is a Licensed Massage Practitioner, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritional Coach, and Owner of Kelli’s Health & Wellness
Website: https://www.massagebook.com/therapists/kelli-s-health-wellness
Facebook: Kelli Rebbecca Marsh
“My boundaries changed everything.”
