Creative Katrina

Photo by teo_ladodicivideo

Healing is about the journey, like anything else in life. It takes more than vitamins, exercise and eight glasses of water a day to get you there.

If you take the drugs, therapies, doctors, alternative health practitioners, healthy eating habits and everything else in between out of the equation, you still have a vast majority of folks who are so out of touch with their own body, they have no idea what it’s trying to tell them. Ever.

Your body is the best instrument you have for relieving stress. I say that because when you’re mentally clear and your body is in tune, you’re automatically guided to make choices that feel right, do things that bring joy and you are able to be present in the moment. No stress. No decision making required by the mind. No brain frenzy — just clear, obvious intuitive thoughts that lead you to a natural decision making point and bring you to the next thing. On the other hand, when your body is doing its job and showing up to tell you something isn’t right, don’t ignore it. That is where the problems start.

How the “Must-Do’s” Do you In

As people grow up and into their “responsibilities,” they are so focused on the goal of accomplishment they forget why they are doing the work in the first place. Often they don’t even feel fulfilled in the long-term once the goal is “accomplished”. They trudge, push and angle, trying to move through the commitments they’ve created, when in reality, they can always choose differently. It’s just not always an easy, obvious choice, especially when you’ve been pushing through the fog without a beacon for so long.

The truth is, being blindly led by responsibilities can blot out the body’s ability to feel, so all the signs and signals the body is sharing are devoid of meaning. In this foggy state, people are just unsure of HOW to choose differently.

Making choices based on what feels natural isn’t always practical of course — we all have obligations that are less than exciting. Like paying taxes, changing diapers or paying for gas. However, if you are really in tune with what you want at a deep core level, you move through those less than exciting pieces in life with greater ease and they don’t seem nearly as arduous. You move through them with confidence, peace and clarity, knowing you are going through them for a reason, and your body will tell you what you really need to know better than anything else.

Pay Attention To Your Biggest Ally

The best thing you can do for yourself and your overall health is to pay attention. Put down the electronic device, stop making plans every five minutes and don’t take an aspirin every time you get a headache. Instead, stop and think about what happened in your day up until that point that might have led to how you are feeling. Or, retrace your patterns of thinking to see if you are stressing yourself out with your own thoughts. Find a way to feel grounded, to get out of your mind and tune into the pain or discomfort to see what it’s trying to tell you, gently leading you to a different choice.

Don’t believe it’s possible? Well, it is — because I’ve done it and continue to do it every day. Growing up in a family of worriers and being a natural, chronic over-thinker, I naturally followed the path of doing all of the things I mentioned. After years of this entrenched behavior, was it easy to change? In some ways yes, in others, no. Come back next week to read how my body finally told me, enough is enough — stop drowning your light and gifts in the guise of responsibility and get on the road to health.