Listen
Is your body smart? How would you know?
Do you listen to your body’s messages as if it were a dear friend? Or do you try to block out its painful noise … having decided long ago that it must be out to get you, or just wants to make you miserable?!
Imagine this: You’re walking in a small town in a foreign land. You’re really hungry! As you try and get your bearings, you don’t see any places that look like restaurants or grocery stores. So you ask a passing woman, “Where is a good place to eat?”
She starts… to SING! What the…!?!?! You want to eat and she is singing in a language you do not understand. So, you rub your belly. You pantomime eating. Aha! She gets it! She knows what you want! She takes your hand and… tries to get you to dance !?!?! She sings louder! She adds more passion and movement. She beckons you to join in… but… but… you don’t know the words, you don’t like to dance, and you’re HUNGRY. As if singing and dancing are going to get you fed…
Is this singing, dancing “tour guide” an IDIOT? Would it make any sense to HATE her? If you were planning to live in this town for the rest of your life, would it be wise to turn your back on her in disgust and declare, “I can’t trust you! You don’t make sense! You’re no help whatsoever! You obviously don’t care about what I really want…” ?? What if there is an intelligence in what she is doing that you just don’t perceive yet?
Most of us were never taught how to listen to and understand the language of our body. We never learned how to interpret messages from our gut and guidance from our heart. We were raised by people who didn’t know either. So the language of the body feels foreign, strange, inaccessible. We shut down that guidance. The result is a disconnect between you and You.
We assure you, most of the emotional suffering we experience… the self-hate, the self-rejection, the fears and doubts… arise out of this disconnect between our “thinking” head, and our heart, our gut, our groin… our Whole Being. If you want to shift that, if you want to feel whole and complete, if you want to build a healthy relationship WITH your body rather than being at odds with it, let’s get started with a simple exercise.
Listen to the audio. You can also read the PDF Transcript. It takes less than 6 minutes. Notice what your body is telling you. Notice how when you focus upon something that is good and right for you, your body will naturally feel a bit more open. And when you focus upon something you don’t want, your body will typically contract (or go numb or cold or some other less pleasant reaction). Isn’t that smart!?! We think so.
This really can be one of the most delicious and enjoyable explorations we can have as a human being. But for those who have experienced trauma, rejection, and chronic pain, it can also be scary. We’re here to help and support you in this exploration.