Inside a Root Cause Report: Why Playing It Safe Is Keeping You Sick

Click Here to Listen to this Podcast!

By Jenny Peterson

Today, we’re going inside a real Root Cause Report I created for a client who had been struggling for years with chronic intestinal issues and anxiety. Despite all the effort and dedication, their body still wasn’t healing.

What I found underneath wasn’t physical at all. It was subconscious protection — the same kind I see in nearly every chronic case.

By the end of this breakdown, you’ll learn:

• The patterns truly at the root of chronic anxiety and gut issues

• The fear silently preventing healing action

• And why the tools being used weren’t what the body actually needed to heal

Belief in Healing 

Before looking at biology or symptoms, I always start with one question: “Does this person truly believe healing is possible?”

Most people want to believe. They show up, do the work, and keep searching for answers. But under the surface, there’s often hesitation. This person wanted to heal but had their doubts. 

And here’s the truth: doubt isn’t weakness — it’s protection. The subconscious says, “If I don’t get my hopes up, I can’t get let down.”

But that guarded belief tells the body, “We’re not safe.”And when the subconscious senses danger, it holds healing back — not because the body can’t heal, but because it’s not convinced it’s safe to.

What to Do Instead

You don’t force belief with mantras. You build it with evidence. Show your subconscious that safety exists now.

That might look like:

• Catching “what if it never changes?” and shifting to “what if it already is?”

• Noticing how the body is working today — breath, heartbeat, digestion

• Responding to symptoms with curiosity instead of panic

Belief isn’t a mantra. It’s a pattern. It’s wired through repetition — small, daily choices that tell your body: “We’re safe now.”

Symptom Response — Safety or Threat?

The way you respond to symptoms tells your subconscious whether to feel safe or threatened.

In this person's case they were going into control mode — analyzing, researching, fixing. This is very common and it makes sense; that’s what we’ve been taught to do.

But here’s the paradox: Every attempt to control your symptoms tells your subconscious, “Something’s wrong.” That control actually triggers another protection cycle — the very one you’re trying to end.

If you can’t stop thinking about symptoms or find yourself constantly scanning your body for evidence, that’s not obsession — it’s survival.

Your subconscious is saying, “Stay alert, there’s danger.”  But the danger isn’t real. It’s remembered.

Healing doesn’t come from control. It comes from teaching the subconscious that symptoms are safe and the body can be trusted.

The Patterns Behind Gut Issues and Anxiety

This person's case centered around intestinal issues and anxiety — two symptoms that might seem unrelated but share the same root: a subconscious that doesn’t feel safe.

Intestinal Issues

When the gut is involved — IBS, Crohn’s, constipation, bloating — it often represents an indigestible conflict:

“I can’t digest what happened to me.”

For those who avoid confrontation or suppress emotions like anger or frustration, the body will often “digest” those emotions for them.

The gut starts adapting to process what the mind can’t.It’s not malfunction — it’s protection.

The body is saying: “You didn’t process this emotionally, so I’ll handle it for you.”

Anxiety

Anxiety is not a random chemical imbalance. It’s the body’s biological alert system, designed to keep you one step ahead of danger.

The anxious mind says, “If I can predict it, I can prevent it.” But that constant anticipation keeps the body stuck in survival mode — always scanning, never resting.

Anxiety is the subconscious saying, “I don’t feel safe in the present moment.” And until that belief shifts, the body will continue adapting as if danger is near.

Both symptoms — gut issues and anxiety — are signs that the body is working for you, not against you.

They’re adaptations meant to keep you safe.

Where These Patterns Begin

Suppression doesn’t start in adulthood — it’s learned in childhood. Maybe expressing emotions wasn’t safe, or anger was punished, or peacekeeping was the only way to stay accepted.

So the subconscious built protection around expression. The same goes for anxiety: if you never learned internal safety, you’ll always reach outside yourself to feel safe — and that will never create lasting peace.

When similar dynamics appear later in life, those old subconscious programs reactivate. The body still thinks it’s protecting a younger version of you.

That’s why healing requires retraining your subconscious through new lived experiences.

Practicing New Safety

Start showing your subconscious new evidence by:

• Speaking up when something feels unfair

• Letting yourself feel anger without labeling it “bad”

• Taking small steps to express needs even when it’s uncomfortable

Being uncomfortable is part of healing. Each time you do something different, you teach your body: “It’s safe now.”

Fear of Failure — The Hidden Resistance

This person's hidden subconscious resistance was the fear of failure. One of the strongest resistance patterns I see.

This fear isn’t laziness — it’s protection from pain. The subconscious learned long ago that “failing” meant rejection, shame, or loss. So it built strategies to avoid that pain:

• Overthinking

• Perfectionism

• Hesitation

• Endless preparation

If you never fully try, you never truly fail. But here’s the twist: the same pattern that protects you from failure also blocks your healing.

You’ll stay in research mode, over-prepare, or choose only the “safe” healing tools that don’t risk emotional vulnerability — things like journaling, meditating, or saying affirmations.

They feel productive, but they don’t rewire safety.

Real rewiring happens when you take imperfect, uncomfortable action that challenges your identity. That’s when your subconscious learns it’s safe to show up fully — even without guarantees.

Supportive Tools vs. Rewiring Tools

This person listed the things they were currently doing to heal. Like many people, they had plenty of supportive habits: journaling, meditating, red light therapy, tapping.

They’re all good — but they’re not rewiring tools.

Supportive tools soothe the surface and in the moment. Rewiring tools change the pattern.

The subconscious doesn’t change through temporary calm. It changes through repetition and real-world action that prove safety in everyday life.

Healing isn’t what you do for ten minutes during meditation. It’s what you practice for the other twenty-three hours — in how you think, respond, and choose differently.

Root Cause Report Summary

So let’s recap what came up inside this Root Cause Report.

What stood out right away was that the belief in healing was guarded — not because there wasn’t a desire to heal, but because hope still felt risky. There was effort and intention, but underneath, the subconscious was holding back, saying, “If I don’t expect too much, I can’t be let down.”  That kind of self-protection makes total sense, but it also keeps the body waiting.

Then there was the instinct to control symptoms instead of trust them. Every time a flare or sensation showed up, the automatic response was to fix, analyze, or manage it. And while that might seem logical, it actually kept reinforcing the same subconscious message of danger — which told the body it wasn’t safe to fully relax and repair.

The intestinal symptoms revealed a long-standing pattern of suppressed emotion — unresolved frustration, anger, and situations that felt hard to “digest.” The body had been processing what the mind couldn’t. At the same time, anxiety was showing up as a way to stay one step ahead — scanning for what could go wrong, constantly preparing for the next problem. Both were different expressions of the same thing: a subconscious still living in survival mode.

A deeper look also uncovered a strong fear of failure running underneath everything. Not fear in the sense of laziness, but a fear of emotional pain — the kind that says, “If I don’t fully try, I can’t truly fail.” That belief was quietly keeping this person from taking the consistent, uncomfortable actions that healing actually requires.

Finally, there were daily thought loops centered on safety and control — especially around the future — which only kept the mind focused on fear instead of forward movement.

When all of this was put together, the truth became clear: there was never a broken body here. What this report really revealed were patterns of protection — survival programs that once kept the system safe, but now keep it stuck.

And the moment those patterns start being replaced with new evidence of safety — through consistent, aligned action — the body finally gets permission to do what it’s been designed to do all along: heal.

Want your own root cause report?

If you’re ready to see exactly what patterns are keeping your body in protection mode, that’s what I uncover inside the Root Cause Report.

It’s a personalized written report that reveals the subconscious patterns that have been holding you back —so you finally understand what’s been missing and what your next steps actually are.

You’ll walk away with clarity, direction, and a new understanding of what your body’s been trying to say all along.

---

Jenny Peterson is a Chronic Illness Expert, the Founder of MBR (Mind Body Rewire), and the host of The Rebellious Healer Podcast. She helps those struggling with multiple chronic symptoms reclaim their health and freedom—without diets, detoxes, or pills.

For 10 years, Jenny worked as a holistic practitioner, relying on supplements, diet, and detox protocols to support healing. But when she faced her own chronic health struggles, those methods failed her.

When Jenny was on her healing journey, she struggled to find a protocol that provided the structure needed to rewire the subconscious. So she created her own process to heal—and that process became the foundation of the Heal & Thrive Framework, a structured, step-by-step method that helps clients identify the subconscious patterns behind their symptoms and rewire them for lasting relief.

Using this exact process, Jenny fully resolved Lyme disease, digestive issues, panic attacks, skin conditions, cystitis, and more. Her own transformation ignited a mission: to help others break free from chronic symptoms and take back control of their health.

At Mind Body Rewire, we have an unwavering belief that healing chronic health issues doesn’t have to be complicated when the focus is on the root cause: the subconscious. We believe every person is fully capable of creating the health and life they desire when they unlock the subconscious programs influencing it.

Ready to say good-bye to symptoms and hello to freedom?  START HERE