Body YES and Body NO

In school I learned to analyze problems and use my BRAIN to decide what to do. I've been blessed with a good brain, yet I discovered that logic alone... unbalanced by heart and body wisdom... lead me to stress, worry, and an incurable (so they thought!) dis-ease.

My road back to health started many years ago with a simple directive from my coach: Go within. Listen. Follow.

I had NO CLUE what that meant when she first told me. I did not understand—much less respect—that my body could be a superior source of practical guidance. It took me years to develop the deep intuitive sense that I now trust for all decisions big and small, yet even the first baby steps I took changed the course of my life in a satisfying way.

On September 7, 2008 my co-host Cathy Vartuli and I had a 97-minute teleclass on Body YES - Body NO: Learning to Listen to the Body's Intuitive, Intelligent Guidance. It was the first topic in our Body Vitality Workshop that we're holding as part of the Thriving Now Team. (All team calls are recorded so you can listen and tap along later if you cannot attend.)

Here is an extensive outline of the subjects Cathy and I covered on this call:

Learning to listen to the body's intuitive, intelligent guidance.
Go Within. Listen. Follow.
Then... Practice. Fine tune.
Curiously explore on your way to mastery and beyond!

1. Welcome
- Learning to listen to our body, receiving inner guidance, developing our intuition... all the same concept.
- Brief personal history

2. Intentions
- Help you understand the concept and benefits of developing this skill.
- Walk you through examples so you can FEEL a Body YES and a Body NO.
- Give you practical exercises to get started that work in your daily life.
- ...And tap on some of the common blocks people have.

3. Why do we want to listen to our whole body?
- If you "get" this, you will always have access to your own Best Teacher.
- It makes you stronger emotionally, more stable, clearer, less fearful, more curious and eager.
- It makes you internally referenced... less open to coercion, manipulation, and fear-based triggers.
- It is the foundation of a conscious connection to Source Energy.
- Allows you to live an INSPIRED Life... In Spirit... moving with the co-creative flow of All That Is.

4. Go within, where?
- Whole of our body is intelligent/wise, not just the head... we are not just a problem-solving brain.
- And not just the heart either... we receive information and guidance in every part of us... head, heart, gut, limbs...
- Energy centers and pathways, too (chakras, meridians, and the different layers of the human energy field).

5. Be responsible for our own well-being
- Some people should not try to take a deep breath, for example, and may need to take a "soft" breath instead.
- If it doesn't feel like an absolute YES for you or it contradicts doctor's orders in any way, please do not do it.

6. Going within the body
- Brief intro
- Withdraw your attention from the outer world
- Usually close eyes (if in a safe place to do so)
- Take a breath and follow it "in"
- Breath goes EVERYWHERE inside of us... follow it down the core of you to the base of the spine and then up and out again

7. Blocks to going within
- I don't know how to do this!
- Never going to get this!
- Why can't I get this?
- I feel anxious / unsafe when I try.
- I'm afraid of what I'll find.
[Tapping]

8. Let the world be the world, and follow yourself into a deeper place
- With each breath go a bit deeper into the core of you
- You can also "look" at 3rd eye and pull attention back a few inches
- Let yourself feel "grounded" with each breath (feel the gravitational pull of earth, feel your depth)

9. Listen.
- At first there is a lot of mind chatter
- Inner critic/stress voice ("This is silly," "What a waste of time," "I could be doing something else…")
- It's easy to get stuck (or quit) when that chatter comes up.
- Write down 1st 3 things the inner critic says and let's tap on them.

10. Get BEYOND the noise so you can SENSE inner guidance
- Literally, you are developing a new perceptional sense (6th sense)
- When we quiet the noise we will see, hear, or feel something... or be in a place of profound peace and quiet
- Kinesthetic, audible, visual. May have one or two or all.
- (We will show you ways that you learn how to interpret your body guidance in a bit)

11. The gap between listening and following (or even understanding the guidance in the first place!)
- Is there a source of inner guidance that can take me from where I am to where I want to be?
- Inner GPS
- Hotter/Colder. Brighter/Dimmer. Yummy/Icky. Open/Closed. Relaxed/Tense.

12. Can I really trust this?
- Have to develop the skill to DISCERN between inner critic and inner guide before we can trust it.
- We're asking to take it to the next level of skill... to make it conscious, actionable, and reliable.

13. Start on something small!
- Big issues have big energies, and the answer is often too complicated to easily discern quickly.
- Example: Give your body a choice between 2 items, either A or B
- (If no big issues around food), go to fridge and ask coke or water? Listen to which feels better in body and follow that.
- Don't guess in advance, let your body feel what it feels.
- How do we not "pre-decide"?
- Tap on fear of listening? Following? Even if the guidance you are getting is not LOGICAL/EXPLAINABLE?

14. Exercise to build up skill at listening to body and interpreting
- Imagine that you are about to get a hug from someone you really love and trust. How does that feel in your body? That is a body yes. (open, love, soft, warm, glow, open door)
- Come back to now.
- Imagine a hug from someone you really don't like. How does that feel in your body? That is a body no. (tight muscles, withdrawing, walls, heavy, door closed)
- Come back to now.
- Imagine a hug from someone you feel a little bit uncomfortable with, maybe a new acquaintance who you don't know well, who it would feel a bit awkward to hug. How does that feel in your body? That is a soft body no... or a body "maybe."

15. Each of us has different indicators.
- As we discussed before, you may get your guidance visually, audibly, kinesthetically.
- May have different indicators in different situations.
- Just practice.
- Get familiar.

16. We may have to retune, because we've been taught to ignore our inner guidance.
- We may have felt a body no to hugging Uncle Bob, but our parents would have required it.
- We may have wanted one thing for dinner, and our parents insisted we eat something else.
- So we learned to tune out inner guidance. Can relearn it!

17. Another exercise: pick a food you love, that you have no conflict over eating.
- Picture that food, there for you in abundance. Notice your body. This is a body yes.
- Come back to now
- Picture the last food you would eat in the universe. Imagine trying to eat it.
- Notice your body. This is a strong body no.
- Come back to now
- Imagine a food you don't like, but would eat a little to be polite. Imagine eating it.
- Notice your body. This is a soft no.

18. Notice if there is a difference between you body reaction between the hug exercise and the food exercise.
- Start to learn how your body talks to you.
- Practice! Practice! Practice!

19. As you get better at this, noticing subtleties, you can try it on more involved decisions.
- I use it like the ophthalmologist.
- If deciding between 5 things, take the first two, and pick the one that feels better.
- Then compare that one to each of the others. Is this better or this?
- Can get very fast at seeing what is best for your body.

20. Sometimes there is a dichotomy.
- I feel conflicting information! What does that mean?
- Might be noise (inner critic)
- Might be that both things are true at different levels
- At heart level, body yes, at social level maybe some angst.

21. How do we tell the difference between resistance/block vs. guidance?
- Take a deep breath, notice how your body feels.
- Is there fear? Anger? Numbness? Self-doubts and self-criticisms coming up? Then do some tapping!
- If primitive brain is active, DON'T DECIDE (and cut off other options you could perceive from a higher vibration)
- Is there a sense of calm? Knowing? It's probably guidance.
- When in doubt... Tap.
- Doing EFT will usually bring clarity. It will help shift the resistance/blocks, and it will make guidance stronger.

22. Sometimes I think I'm following inner guidance and everything "goes to pot." What's going on?
- Sometimes the way out of the swamp is stinky and messy.
- Really connected, spiritually guided people will still experience "contrast" (not ALWAYS what we prefer).

23. When trying to make a big decision, you may not get a clear answer.
- See if you can break it up into smaller decisions.
- Notice where you feel it in your body and what it feels like.
- Do some tapping on strong emotions. If guilt is blocking you, it's hard to move forward.
- Reduce guilt and your path will be clearer.

24. It may not be ripe yet.
- There may be things you need to do first, or know about, or it may just not be time to move forward.
- Our energy aligns to different actions. It may not time yet
- Look at the first small step you could make. See if it seems like relief? Brighter?
- Notice your body and emotions, see what's noisy. Guilts, fears, etc. Tap.
- Remove block, then wait for body yes.

25. Notice that Obligation, commitment, guilt and shame are often used to take people out of guidance, to control them.
- If you feel any of those emotions, it will be hard to discern/follow your guidance.

26. If we can listen to our body's whispers, we can flow through life much easier.
- But guidance doesn't always take us in a straight line.
- Feels like guidance should be perfect- based on the expectations in our head.
- We can tap on missed expectations. Trusting guidance to take us "here or someplace better"

27. Another example: Driving and coming to intersections.
- Heading toward home (or some other place you want to be) in your car. Turn one way- goes home, other way, goes away.
- Imagine turning toward home. Notice body. Body yes.
- Come back to now.
- Imagine turning away from home. Notice the body. Body no.

28. Summary:
- Accept that we are where we are
- Relax into the body
- Quiet noise
- Listen to guidance
- Follow
- Start small and practice
- Tap on blocks that come up
- This is a SKILL; we can master it and continue to enhance our skill in this area for a lifetime.

Team members can access the recording of the call as well as the follow-up team call with lots of EFT tapping here: http://www.thrivingnow.com/for/forums/viewforum/11/

Our intention with the Body Vitality Workshop is to help you...

- develop an amazing relationship with your body...
- help it feel surprisingly safe, calm, and confident...
- listen to and follow its intuitive guidance...
- consciously direct its vibrational trend towards total well-being...
- and delight in the pleasures of food, movement, and touch in healthy and balanced ways.

It doesn't matter if you're over-, under- or at your perfect weight, hate the pains in your back, think you don't have enough muscles, feel clumsy, or your nose is funny....

We'll focus on developing practical body guidance, feeling safe in your body, appreciating and accepting where you are (as hard as that can be sometimes), and removing blocks to moving forward towards a more powerful, healthy, vital body. We'll have specific calls on eating for the body's needs... and for its pleasure! We'll also use EFT to bring relief to pain and suffering... and bring more fluid movement to your body from your head to your toes.

In the members-only forum we'll have ongoing discussions on each of these topics... as well as mutual support and encouragement to guide this process.

If you would like to participate in this workshop and bring increased vitality and power to your body, become a team member. The first three weeks of calls are even free!

21-day complimentary membership
http://www.thrivingnow.com/team 
then only $39.95/month.
Cancel anytime!