Suzy Malhotra, Seed’s Holistic Business & Life Coach in Henley, shares her cancer journey and how she feels learning to live an aligned life contributed to her recovery.
“I used to believe I was doing everything right. I exercised. I ate well. I was resilient. While life was throwing curve balls at me – divorce, my father’s illness…. I just kept bouncing back. I thought that was enough.
But what I didn’t understand back then is that health isn’t just about the body. You can fuel it, strengthen it, push it to its limits… and still be deeply unwell.
Because the body doesn’t work alone. It’s in constant conversation with the mind, heart, and soul. And when those conversations are filled with stress, pressure and misalignment, the body listens. It holds onto everything we refuse to process. And eventually—it speaks back.
For me, it spoke through cancer. A message I couldn’t ignore. A shock I didn’t see coming.
The Cost of Living Out of Alignment
We live in a world that glorifies resilience. The ability to ‘push through,’ to ‘handle it all,’ to keep going no matter what. I had spent years proving that so called resilience. Running a global business. Managing teams. Breadwinner, Mum to 2 …just pushing past exhaustion. I thought I was coping.
But coping isn’t the same as thriving. And stress isn’t just an emotional experience, it’s a biological one.
When you live in a constant state of stress, your body shifts into survival mode. Cortisol, the stress hormone, floods your system. Your nervous system stays in high alert, never fully resting. Inflammation rises, immunity weakens, healing slows. And this is where illness takes root, not overnight, but over years of living misaligned.
I didn’t see it. I thought my tiredness was normal. I thought my irritability were just ‘part of the job.’ I thought this is just what happens when you’re running a business, a life, a family. I was wrong. I was chasing the wrong thing.
Why Balance Was Never the Answer
For years, I chased balance.Tried to juggle everything. Keep all the plates spinning. Told myself that if I could just manage my time better, rest a little more, everything would even out. But balance is fragile. One shift, and everything topples. It wasn’t balance I needed. It was alignment.
✨ Alignment of mind, where my thoughts, choices, and emotions supported me, not drained me.
✨ Alignment of body, where I listened instead of just managing the symptoms.
✨ Alignment of heart, where I honoured my deeper needs instead of performing for expectations and following the ‘should’s.
✨ Alignment of soul, where I stopped chasing someone else’s version of success and built something that felt like mine.
Because when you’re out of alignment, your body will let you know, first with whispers, then with shouts. As Bessel van der Kalk says.. ‘ The Body Keeps Score’. I ignored the whispers for years. Cancer was the shout.
The Healing Isn’t Just Physical
Treatment was one thing. Healing was another. Because healing wasn’t just about removing the cancer. It was about rebuilding my entire way of living.
I had to redefine what success looked like. I had to unravel the deep conditioning that told me I had to ‘earn’ rest, ‘deserve’ ease. I had to start living from a place of alignment, not obligation, not fear, not exhaustion. I had to dig deep into what mattered to me most, my values and live by those.
That’s when I discovered Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Instead of hiding the cracks, Kintsugi highlights them, making the broken parts more beautiful, more valuable. It teaches us that our scars don’t diminish us; they make us who we are.
That’s how I see my journey now. Not something to ‘fix’ or ‘smooth over’, but something to honour. A life that has been broken open, realigned, and rebuilt with more clarity, strength and purpose than before.
Helping Women Find Alignment Through Their Work
Now, I help other women find that alignment through their business and their work… Women who feel exhausted by the endless hustle, who sense that something isn’t quite right, who want success but on their own terms.
✨ I help them redefine success not as something they must chase, but something they create with intention.
✨ I guide them in leaning into their intuition because business strategy isn’t just numbers; it’s energy, instinct, and knowing when something feels right.
✨ I help them understand what their body is telling them because business shouldn’t be built at the cost of your well-being.
One of my favourite coaching exercises is Body Wisdom Mapping where we tune into what different areas of the body are holding.
We start with a simple check-in: What’s feeling heavy? Where do you feel tension? If that tension could speak, what would it say Because your body always knows when something is out of alignment before your mind is ready to admit it. And when we listen? That’s when everything shifts.
Your Body is Speaking—Are You Listening?
If you’ve been feeling it, the stress, the fatigue, the quiet knowing that something isn’t quite right, don’t ignore it. Because alignment isn’t just about making life feel better. It’s about making life sustainable. And your health, your whole health, depends on it.
Read more: “How Kintsugi helped me move on from cancer” – https://www.suzymalhotra.co.uk/suzy-malhotra-business-mentor-wellness-entrepreneurs/b/how-kintsugi-helped-me-move-on-from-cancer
For more information about Suzy Malhotra, visit www.seedwellness.co.uk/suzymalhotra
