They Say Attention Is Currency. But What Happens When It Is Stuck on the Past?
We live in a world obsessed with health hacks. New diets, supplements, and endless wellness trends dominate the conversation. But what if the real answer to healing is not in what you add, but in what you release?
According to today’s guest on Attention Is The Currency, true health often begins with one word: forgiveness.
Hannah Cook is the founder of The Life You Want and I Thrive, and she is globally recognized for her work in emotional healing and hormone balancing. She helps high-performing women break free from deep emotional patterns that sabotage their health, especially those struggling with burnout, hormone imbalances, and emotional overwhelm.
Her message is simple but profound. If you want real health, you must release what is weighing you down emotionally.
From Tragedy to Transformation
Hannah’s path into this work was not theoretical. It was forged through one of the deepest losses imaginable.
In 1996, she lost her husband in an armed robbery. Living in a remote area of Lesotho, South Africa, there were no arrests, no justice, and no resolution. Left with a 16-month-old son, she faced a choice: let grief consume her or find a way forward.
“I knew I had to forgive,” Hannah explains. “If I didn’t, that tragedy would emotionally kill me as well. I had to keep living—for my son and for myself.”
That decision to embrace forgiveness became the foundation of her life’s work.
Why Forgiveness Is the Missing Link in Health
Most people assume poor health is about lifestyle: diet, exercise, or sleep. Hannah challenges that idea.
She explains it like this: imagine you have ten units of energy each day. Four go to work, play, and relationships. Six are needed just to keep your body functioning—immune system, hormones, nervous system, digestion.
Now add trauma or resentment. Suddenly, those six units are cut in half. Your body doesn’t have the “workers” to restore and repair. Even if you eat perfectly or exercise daily, your body cannot heal properly if unresolved conflict is stealing your energy.
“It’s not about what you eat,” she says. “It’s about what eats you.”
Holding onto grudges drains the body, disrupts hormones, weakens immunity, and accelerates burnout. Forgiveness restores energy to where it belongs—healing and thriving.
The Science Behind the Shift
Hannah connects emotional pain to physical health through the body’s meridian system. Negative thoughts and resentment restrict energy flow, especially in the circulation sex meridian, which impacts hormonal balance. Forgiveness, she explains, is the antidote.
She has seen clients heal conditions that doctors struggled with. One army major came to her with debilitating endometriosis, bleeding up to ten days a month and living in constant pain. After three months of forgiveness work, her symptoms vanished. Her period stopped as expected, pain disappeared, allergies cleared, and medication use dropped dramatically.
The transformation was not driven by new prescriptions or diets. It was powered by forgiveness.
Breaking the Cycle of Resentment
Why do so many people hold on to grudges even when they know it is toxic?
Hannah says many believe forgiveness means condoning bad behavior or letting people back into their lives. Others see grudges as a shield, a way to prevent hurt from happening again.
The reality is the opposite. Holding on keeps you stuck. It is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Forgiveness does not excuse actions, nor does it mean reconnection. It is about acceptance, self-forgiveness, and choosing to move forward.
“The question isn’t why did this happen,” Hannah says. “The question is how can I move forward and what can I learn?”
A Simple Technique to Release
Hannah teaches her clients a practical method to interrupt cycles of anger and frustration. By placing two fingers lightly on the forehead—on the points known in kinesiology as emotional stress release points—you activate the prefrontal cortex and diffuse the emotion.
You then acknowledge the feeling without replaying the story. “I give myself permission to feel frustrated. I forgive myself for feeling this way.”
Within minutes, the intensity drops. What once felt overwhelming becomes manageable. This opens space for wisdom and solutions instead of reaction and revenge.
Forgiveness as a Path to Freedom
Forgiveness is not about others. It is about reclaiming energy, peace, and power for yourself.
Hannah sees forgiveness as the bridge to freedom—freedom from the emotional loops that keep us circling back to the same pain. Freedom from the weight that keeps the body from healing. Freedom to focus on the life we want, rather than what went wrong.
When asked what people should stop spending their attention on, she is clear: stop giving it to the past, to negativity, to what you don’t want. Instead, invest it in what you do want.
“Happiness is an inside job,” she says. “Forgive yourself, choose where to place your attention, and focus on what you want to create.”
Final Word
Hannah Cook is living proof that forgiveness is more than a spiritual idea. It is a science-backed, life-changing tool for healing and freedom. From personal tragedy to global impact, she has shown that forgiveness can unlock health, restore balance, and transform lives.
You can explore her work at The Life You Want and through the I Thrive app at ithrive.zone. She also offers a free meditation, Release and Relax, designed to help let go of guilt and tension.
If this conversation resonated with you, share it with someone carrying the weight of the past. Because healing does not start with another diet or supplement. It starts within.