Listen Up! Your Body is Speaking

We hear all the time, ‘listen to your body’. What does that even mean?

How can I know what it’s saying?

Listening to our bodies is a skill we develop over, what? TIME! It’s how you can become more connected with yourself.

You listen to your body by tuning in to yourself.

Remember back in the day when you’d try to pick up or tune into a radio station? You’d fiddle with the dial trying to land on the right frequency where the station was coming in clear. It means getting curious about yourself and your body, learning to trust your body's responses so that when you feel sad, pleasure or pain, etc., you are familiar with it and respond accordingly. It’s becoming familiar, intimate with your body. This calls for respecting yourself entirely.

You may not always be in a situation where you can follow what your body is asking of it. For example, you are in a work meeting and your body says, "I’m tired, I need a nap!" While you may not be able to leave and go lie down, you can acknowledge it:, ‘hey I hear you but I have to do (xyz) right now. I PROMISE, [and this is key, keeping your promises], that I will make time to lay down and rest. I hear you.”

While I know you may not be used to listening and talking to your body, believe me, bodies are like toddlers. They make demands until they get their way--one way or another. What starts as a tug on your sleeve can turn into a full fall-on-the-floor meltdown in public! Your body may have an occasional nagging pain, but left unattended that twinge can have you writhing on the floor in agony, crying out for help. We’ve all been there.

Our bodies want to be acknowledged. Why? Because its purpose is to function optimally for our benefit. When the warning light comes on, pay attention!

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How To Have A Healthy Relationship With Your Body

Our bodies know exactly what we need, and want to take care of us so it's time we learn how to listen and be there for ourselves.

The phrase "listen to your body" is often used when we are sick, injured, tired or otherwise not feeling good and we don’t want to push it.

But to actually listen to our body requires us to cultivate a relationship with our body where we are noticing the yellow lights our body flashes before we hit the red one!

Pay attention: Notice any tightness, clenching, temperature changes, twinges, pain, softening, heart rate, body language, and breathing.

Get curious about what those sensations are communicating. Don't zone or numb out. Notice if certain feelings or emotions occur in particular situations, or around certain people. Where do the emotions you feel show up in your body?

Self Inquiry: What is this sensation saying to me?

• If it could talk, what would it be saying?

• Have I experienced this sensation before?

• If so, when was the earliest time?

Can you honor the request from your body to slow down, or pause and change directions? Can you do whatever it is in the moment that your body needs?

As with any relationship, you have to learn your partner. Study your body,how it works, how each organ functions, how the systems connect. The more familiar you are, the sooner you will recognize any warning signals and begin the self-healing process. I bought "Biology for Dummies to help me remember biology 101!

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Beginning March 1 - April 9th, I am offering Wholly Holy: 40 days of Renewal through Ritual.

Forty is symbolic time of testing, purification, and renewal.

It's free! Each week, beginning March 1, I’ll be dropping a new module called keys in the S.h.e. Collective Facebook group. These keys are essential building blocks towards assisting you with 360 degrees of well-being; conscious, and whole: mind, body, and spirit.

Click below to join the Collective.

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