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Your Body Is Communicating
Our bodies and their parts are constantly in communication with us but are we listening? We have all most likely experienced a time when we learned of losing a loved one or had a breakup with a significant other. Remember how instantly your heart communicated its pain to you?
Our bodies also communicate with us about not-so-major events or happenings such as what we are eating, how we are coping with stress, or how we are coping with our environment. Think about a time when you considered eating something and your stomach turned or your brain said, NO!
We get so busy and involved in our conscious day to day routines that we often neglect to hear what our bodies are telling us. Most of our aches and pains, especially if chronic, are tied to something we need to deal with. For example, if you have shoulder pain constantly or feel stiff in that area, it is often tied to being overly stressed, overly responsible for others, and generally having the weight of the world on your shoulders.
Or, let’s say your feet are bothering you and you can’t figure out why… this may be due to a struggle you are having with making decisions that might alter your life’s path. Once the decision is made, the feet will often stop communicating their discomfort. Another phenomenon is that people struggling to move forward will often experience discomfort or restlessness in their legs.
Listen Up!
Many of us ignore these messages from our bodies refusing to recognize that our emotions affect our physical bodies and tissues. Everything that happens to us gets recorded in our bodies. So, if we process what happens to us in the moment, great! It gets processed. If we don’t process the emotions and shove them deep within us, they get stuck in our tissues, and will give us grief until we decide to deal with them in the future.
A great book and app that I highly recommend to clients on this topic is Feelings Buried Alive Never Die by Karol Truman. It is a tool you can use to find out if any of your physical symptoms are emotionally based. Once you are able to identify areas in your body/life that need to be processed, you can then focus on following those emotions. Do not negate your emotions and feelings. Follow them down and acknowledge them. Sit with them. Feel them! Do not bury your emotional zombies or they will claw their way out and create more zombies in your tissues, until they eat your brains.
Practice Makes Perfect
One technique I encourage all of my clients to practice is saying ‘hello’ to their organs, tissues, body systems, and selves. Open the door to communication by giving a salutation and then listen. Don’t rush, just listen. Most people just talk AT their body but do not listen to responses from their body. This takes practice. It is like learning a second language for most people because we have been conditioned to ignore. You don’t learn a language in one day; so keep practicing!
Don’t be afraid to ask specific questions to your body and its parts. As an example, when I am deciding what to eat for lunch, I often think of my food options and then ask my body what it thinks of each one. It is amazing how often I can feel my body react quite negatively to certain options or rejoice quite positively to others. The body knows what nutrients it needs to function properly. You see this in the animal kingdom over and over again.
Many animals travel long distances or engage in strange behaviors which can often confound scientists. When studied and researched, more often than not, these creatures are driven by their bodies’ needs to derive a nutrient or mineral from their environment. Parrots will flock to clay cliffs, herbivores will seek out salty soil, and monkeys will search for one specific plant at one particular time of the year. They are listening to their bodies’ needs and following what is being communicated.
Shake It Off
Sometimes we need to dislodge the emotions we are experiencing from our flesh. Dogs, for example, will shake after being scared. This process helps them to get the emotions and fear chemicals out of their bloodstream and bodies. This practice works great for humans too! Have you ever shaken after touching or seeing something gross or disturbing? That is your body’s natural response to getting that emotion immediately out. When we are feeling yucky we need to shake. Shake your arms, shake your legs, shake your head, jump up and down, have a dance party! You’ll be surprised how much better you feel and how those emotions have popped out of your flesh. Try it out!
