Are You Listening?

Purely You Healing

Are You Listening?

6:29

 

Have you ever looked at your husband, or maybe your kids and asked, “are you even listening?” Usually, it stems from frustration. An important conversation should be taking place, but the person you are talking to is not actively listening. We’ve all been there. My question for you is this, are you listening to your own self?  

Our bodies send signals to our brains all day long! The ones we recognize early in life are hunger, thirst, and the urge to breathe. As we grow a little, we learn what being nervous feels like. We learn excitement. We learn the difference between happy and sad. We learn our body’s cues for needing to use the bathroom or needing to go to sleep. We learn to be careful around hot pans. Inside our body is telling our brain to release certain chemicals when we’re ready for sleep, and different ones when we are ready to start the day. Our stomach tells our pancreas to release insulin. All-day long multiple signals are being sent and received in various parts of your body. Some, like feeling thirsty is one you are acutely aware of. Others, like your pancreas releasing insulin, you’re more unaware of. But it might not just be those internal workings of your body that you are missing. When you truly begin to listen to your body, you will find that it tells you when you’re making a good decision, when you need to stop spending time in a particular situation, and even what to eat or drink every day. When you don’t listen to the subtle cues your body sends, the signals get more intense. Eventually, leading to pain in a particular part of your body, so you’re forced to listen.  

Think about a tension headache. Let’s say you’re working hard to finish a project at work. The deadline is in three hours and there are about 5 hours of work left to finish, so you’re not even taking a break to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom. Your phone is on airplane mode and you’re focused. Then you accidentally delete the last 30 minutes of work you had gotten done. Of course, it is upsetting and the first thing you want to do is walk away. Throw in the towel. Scream! But you don’t do any of those things, because you are on a deadline. Your body needed that break, no matter how short-lived it may have been, but you ignored it. Now you’re working even more intensely. Then you get thirsty and your water is all gone so you just ignore it and keep on pushing through. Maybe your eyes start to ache from staring at a computer screen, especially since you haven’t turned on any more lights after the sun went down. Eventually, you feel the start of a headache. Just a little discomfort in the back of your neck and/or behind your eyes. You know this feeling; it is only going to get worse. Stopping to find that Tylenol would take too much time, so you just keep at it. Until that headache becomes so intense that you can no longer function. You don’t get your project completed; you might not even make it into work tomorrow if this turns into a full-blown migraine. Shoot, that is not at all what you had planned. Here’s the thing. Your body tried, over and over to get you to release some of that stress and tension. A quick walk around the building to reset a little would have helped to release some of that tension and stress and restart with improved fervor. Stopping to get that water would have not only helped release some stress but also kept you hydrated, keeping that headache away and your brain functioning at peak performance. Better lighting keeps your brain stimulated and your eyes from straining, and again a quick chance to take a step away and breathe. All of these nudges existed to help your body stay in a state of well-being, so you could perform at your best. When you ignored them, you inadvertently performed at a far more disappointing level, that served no one. Ignoring the tension in your body led to pain that was debilitating. Your body MADE you stop the thing that was creating relentless tension. Do you see how that works?  

Begin to notice those nudges. The need to walk around. Your thirst. How you feel after an interaction with someone. What kinds of things exhaust you and which ones give you energy and fill your cup. Be aware of the pain that only occurs after a certain task. For instance, low back pain that only presents when you’re paying bills or figuring a budget. Hip pain or problems when faced with ideas around moving forward. Fatigued, anger, or frustration after being around a certain person in a seemingly harmless conversation. An upset stomach or changes in your digestion when going to a job that is no longer serving you. All of these are signals your body sends to help you navigate your life. When you learn to listen to them early, at that first nudge, you prevent yourself from HAVING to listen later. Listening to the upset stomach before you have a bleeding ulcer, or the need to walk around before a migraine.  

This works for the foods you crave too. Always be mindful that any time you are craving foods, you have drunk enough water. Often, we confuse our thirst for hunger, so drink a glass of water with every craving. Then decide, why am I craving this food? Do I need more iron, magnesium, calcium? Do I need more fiber? Do I need the vitamins in this food? Am I craving sweets because I am stressed, lonely, or sleepy? Am I bored? The goal is to learn about all the signals your body sends you so that you can honor your body and your soul in the best ways possible. Once you learn why you experience certain pains at certain times, you can manage accordingly. For instance, I get right ovary pain when I am over-extended. I know this is my body’s way of telling me to take a step back and say no to a couple of projects. When I listen, the pain resolves, when I don’t though, it’s debilitating.  

Your body will honor you if you honor it. Listen, check-in, and trust the signals you receive.  

May nothing less than love and light enter your space, always.