When Stress Speaks: A Personal Wake-Up Call from the ER

I didn’t expect to start this blog post by saying I recently ended up in the emergency room. But here we are.

I’ve always known that stress affects the body—but experiencing it firsthand in such an intense way changed something in me. It forced me to pause. To really look at the habits, expectations, and patterns that I’ve been carrying around like they were necessary or non-negotiable.

The truth is, stress had been speaking to me for a while. I just hadn’t been listening.

The Quiet Weight of Stress

As someone who leads, consults, advises, and holds space for others—stress can become an invisible companion. It’s easy to normalize being “on” all the time, to push through headaches, skip meals, justify restless nights. But the body doesn’t normalize anything. It stores, it signals, it responds.

Looking back, I can see the signs: fatigue I chalked up to being busy, poor eating habits I brushed off as temporary, mental fog that I figured was just part of the hustle. Until suddenly, my body said, enough.

When Lifestyle Catches Up

Stress isn’t just a mental state. It’s physiological. It shows up in the way we eat (or don’t), how we sleep (or can’t), and in the choices we make when we’re too overwhelmed to prioritize ourselves.

In my case, I realized how often I put my needs last—fueling my day with caffeine instead of nutrients, skipping rest in the name of productivity, ignoring the signals that my body was desperately trying to send me. We can’t run a business or lead others from a place of depletion. Eventually, the imbalance catches up.

The Culture of “Pushing Through”

In professional spaces, especially for women, especially for Black women, there’s this unspoken pressure to perform resilience. To keep going no matter what. To be fine even when we’re not. But that mindset comes at a cost.

I had to ask myself—why did it take an ER visit for me to take my well-being seriously? Why do we wait for things to fall apart before we give ourselves permission to rest or reset?

Choosing Something Different

Since that experience, I’ve been making small but significant changes. More mindful meals. More honest conversations. More grace. I'm not seeking perfection—I'm seeking presence.

This moment has reminded me that self-care isn’t a luxury, it’s a leadership strategy. It’s how we sustain our energy, our clarity, our creativity. It’s how we show up—not just for clients or teams—but for ourselves.

What This Means for My Work

At Taylor Madison Consulting, I’ve always been passionate about helping individuals and organizations navigate complexity with clarity and purpose. This experience has deepened that commitment. Because it’s not just about the external systems and strategies—it’s about what’s happening within us, too.

If you’re reading this and feeling stretched thin or disconnected from yourself, I hope this serves as a gentle invitation to check in. Not because something is wrong—but because you matter.

Let’s normalize care. Let’s normalize rest. Let’s listen when our bodies whisper, so they don’t have to scream.

With care,Taylor