August 17th, 2009

Excuse Me Your Body Is Speaking

Why we don’t listen to our bodies and how we can

Summer is a time of lazy days and easy living but for many of us, we’re not lazy we’re just plain exhausted. If you’re feeling particularly drained of energy this summer and even cranky … you may be ignoring what your body is telling you.

You’re letting your life and health slide hoping to get back on track in the fall. But will you ever be able to catch up?

Your body is constantly talking to you, but how many times do you pay attention? It talks to you through:

• Indigestion
• Joint pain
• Hot flashes
• Headaches
• Fatigue
• Moodiness
• Muscle pain
• Anxiety
• Tension … and the list goes on

We usually call these symptoms. But they’re really a cry from your body to begin a dialogue with it.

So what’s stopping you from paying attention to what your body is saying and taking action to resolve the issue?

I have used some of the following excuses to keep myself stuck. But it’s more than just excuses. I was ignorant of what was really going on. Let me know if any of them resonate with you.

You’re in information overwhelm

There’s so much information to sift through it’s exhausting to know where to start or what to believe. Deliberate misinformation is being planted in our media by people who have a lot to gain from keeping us in the dark. Getting to the root cause of the problem isn’t good for business. A band aid is much better for the bottom line.

It’s no wonder we’re confused. Health Canada and the FDA are actively involved in knowledge destruction campaigns. Anything natural and complementary to the conventional medical point of view has been discredited or even made illegal.

And then there is the doublespeak. Say one thing and mean something else. There is so much confusion, it’s impossible to know what the facts are.

What’s more, who has time to research and find out what’s going to work for them. Who can we trust to help us in this quest? How can we defend ourselves against the campaigns of disinformation promoted by those in power?

So we end up feeling helpless or if we’re determined to shift through all the information on the internet today we go into analysis paralysis.

You can’t be bothered to pay attention

You’ve studied and trained to gain the knowledge and expertise you need to succeed in your field, but how much time have you taken to become an expert in your own body?

When we see so much sickness and disease around, we stick our heads in the sand and hope nothing will happen to us. If we ignore it, it might just go away.

What’s more we don’t believe there’ll be any serious consequences resulting from our symptoms. Nothing much will happen.

But when something does happen, we often feel betrayed because we’ve never been taught to take responsibility for our health, so how do we know what to do.

We resist, so we procrastinate

Why do we resist change in our lives? It can be due to fear of the future or inner insecurity to face the issue. Often it is because we have a fear that if we stop resisting, something even worse will happen to us. We feel we will either lose what little we are holding on to or some calamity will befall us if we don’t hold back.

Oftentimes we vehemently defend our resistances. For example, we say we certainly would do something but we don’t know what to do, or this problem runs in the family, or it’s in our genes so what can we do.

What we also believe is that holding on to old patterns, beliefs and feelings will be less traumatic then resolving them. It is an irrational feeling and often it’s not a conscious decision to hold on and resist. We usually resist because we don’t see a better outcome should we let go.

We’re afraid our buddies will desert us

Misery really does like company. When I read Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can by Carolyn Myss my eyes popped wide open. I finally realized what had been holding me back.

We may feel dependent on the friends we complain to. We’re dependent on them to commiserate with, and we don’t feel we have the capacity to move forward without them. Our greatest fear is that we will be ALONE.

Not only that if we have no more aches and pains to complain about maybe our friends won’t like us anymore. Our desire for support even if it’s negative is a powerful reason to keep us stuck.

You don’t like what your body is telling you

It’s uncomfortable but the fear of change is worse than putting up with the pain … at least for now. We’re often afraid to learn anything new about ourselves fearing what we might find out.

As a result we may not engage in what can bring us a new beginning. Or we have a sense that we have nothing new to learn. Or we may fear that we are too old to learn or we may feel insecure. In any case, resisting change can cause us to feel stuck in life.

It’s hard to get rid of symptoms

We’ve been trained NOT to think, but to follow the orders and conform. We give young children colouring books so they can learn to colour between the lines. Rote memorizing is rewarded with high marks on tests where the answer is right or wrong. Critical thinking skills are not encouraged or developed. Creativity is not valued.

We hear something and if we don’t seriously think about it, and consciously choose to reject it, chances are it will end up rolling through our thoughts along with all the other things we’ve heard over the years but done nothing about.

Beliefs guide us in all our decisions

They are behind some of our most distressing and horrifying dis-eases today. Once you realize that every negative thought circling in your brain is a LIMITING belief and you the power to change what you believe you will ultimately alter your future in amazing ways.

Listen to yourself during the course of a day and count your negative thoughts. Then start making a practice of declining each and every one of them. Just say “No thank you”. This is what changed my attitude to my health. I counted my negative thoughts and I stopped because it was getting too hard to keep track of them all.

Even scarier are those close to us who help to keep us stuck because they spew out negativity too. Start counting the negative statements you listen to every day. It will surprise you. Once you’re aware you can make a choice of what you will or won’t listen to. Other people’s negative thoughts can have a big impact on your health.

You don’t know what they symptoms mean

You don’t trust yourself to explore further. You feel you’re not smart enough so you go to the doctor, because she’s studied so much. She’s and expert and must know what’s going on.

We’ve been spoon fed the belief from the minute we came out of the womb that the doctor knows best. Even when we are wise enough to choose what we will or will not accept as fact, we usually keep the beliefs that were first put into our heads.

So you go to someone who you believe is an expert that will discover the cause of the symptoms and solve your problem for you. You don’t feel it’s your responsibility to solve the problem, but the doctors.

The poor doctor, he’s seen 20 people today with the flu. Instead of wasting everybody’s time and money why not stay home, go to bed and rest, take natural remedies and you’ll be back on your feet in no time. There is nobody “out there” who is going to “fix you”.

But the problem is the cause is not just physical. When we experience a symptom it’s the end result of what’s been unconsciously building for a long time at a mental, emotional, or even spiritual level along with our core beliefs that hold everything in place.

Doctors are trained to prescribe drugs and do surgery. Even if they want to approach your problem holistically, they are prevented by their governing societies, the government, the drug companies, and the insurance companies.

And there are other times when we really need to discuss our situation in detail and in context with our doctor, but we’re bullied and intimidated when we ask too many questions.

We lose our confidence and dismiss that small voice inside. We give in and take the magic bullet, or we leave more discouraged than before.
But those little pills may not fix the problem, because you haven’t been told all the possible risks or side effects which might even make you feel worse.

After you swallow the pill, your body speaks even louder because you still have the original problem. The pill just substitutes what your body should be doing naturally or it suppresses your symptoms. Now you have another problem to deal with and you have no idea what’s what. Total confusion sets in. All your body wants to do is to be supported so it can get back into balance, but it’s not getting the cooperation it needs.

Your good health is not good for business. Your symptoms and diseases are. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the drug companies, the media companies, agribusiness or the mega food and beverage companies. It’s about their bottom line and not yours. How much of your bottom line in terms of money and poor health are you giving away?

So in the end who do you listen to? Start with yourself. Begin with the intention to listen to yourself.

The intention to listen

A firm intention that can help you move forward is to become knowledgeable. Creating the intention and following it with action will give you more courage to keep going. Keep asking yourself “What’s my next step?”

We need to be aware whether this intention is just a recycled thought or memory replay or it’s really an inspiration to move us into doing. We can affirm, but we need to be inspired to actually tackle our problem.

Question everything … even yourself

We have been programmed into believing so much that is irrational.

There are many layers and you’ve taken so much for granted you believe it to be true.

• Some believe something that is false is real. No one questioned whether putting amalgam fillings in my mouth from the age of six was safe. I suffered most of my life from these filling only to find out that mercury is one of the most toxic metals in our environment.

• The minute you see controversy within the scientific/medical community pay attention. The battle is not what is best for your health, the battle is either who can make the most money from winning the argument or it’s about saving face because NO ONE wants to admit they might be wrong.

• Is there any common sense to poison a person and harm their vital organs while destroying their immunity using chemotherapy? It’s been done so long we just accept it as fact and suffer.

Be aware

Once we notice a change within us, we often react emotionally to that impression. It’s new and we don’t know what it is or what it means. In challenging situations, our response tends to be one of flight or fight or what we call “stress”.

Being more objective helps us to have a balanced reaction to our environment. But since it’s hard to see yourself clearly, have a heart to heart with a friend who won’t judge you.

With greater awareness comes deeper independent thought and action. As we dig deeper we begin to recognize knowledge and throw away falsehood. In other words, we acquire the gift of wisdom.

You have the skills and resources to your create permanent and radiant health if you only listen to your body and act from your own inner knowing.

As I wrap up (I realized how much I wanted to share so the post got quite long), I leave you with one of my favourite quotes.

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931)

What do you think? I’d be delighted if you would share your thoughts and experiences.

Warmly,
Joyce

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