Published in Just Breathe Magazine.
Due to unexpected demands and stresses in our everyday life, we often subject our body to ridiculous work hours and insufficient sleep. Many of us continue to push until we can take no more. It’s hardly surprising that, at some stage, our body starts to rebel.
Many people under pressure ignore the signs and still keep pushing. But if we ignore what our body is trying to tell us, the only way it can be heard is to shout louder and increase its pain. When things become really bad and we feel truly unwell, we rush to the doctor looking for a quick fix, so we can continue to push ourselves harder. But what we really need to do is to stop quietly, and listen to our body.
We each have a body with instinctive wisdom. When we are anxious or in pain, our body and our mind are trying to tell us that we need to do things differently. The path that we have been on has led us to the discomfort we feel at that time, and it is through this discomfort that our body is trying to direct us to take a different path. It is when pain or illness first strike that it’s important that we take the time, even if only for a few minutes, to have a conversation with our body so we better understand its needs. Most importantly, we need to do things differently to make ourselves feel better.
Our body houses the most essential part of us: our spirit. When we beat up our body, we are ignoring and damaging our spirit. It is hardly surprising that as we feel unwell, we also feel depressed. Our illness and discomfort is linked to our emotions, for we are one and the same. But if we listen to our body and be prepared to accept how we feel and connect to our emotions, our body’s intelligence and that of our spirit will guide us, and amazing transformations to our health and our sanity can occur. We can effectively heal ourselves.
As Inna Segal, author of The Secret Language of Your Body says, “Connect to the wisdom of your body, learn to use your intuition and open your heart. Release negative beliefs, let go of destructive patterns and emotions… and create amazing transformations.” Inna, an expert in healing the emotional, mental and energetic causes of disease, recommends practicing healing exercises that work with your thoughts, feelings and beliefs, all which create change in your body. Often the smallest change can have great effect. By slowly introducing changes to our attitudes and beliefs and by letting go of negative patterns of behaviour, we can gain huge health benefits.
Inna recommends that in order to improve our wellness, we follow ten principles for healing.
- You need to commit to making your health a priority.
- Feel your emotions rather than keep them buried.
- Breathe slowly, deeply and consciously.
- Eat healthily and consciously.
- Plan an enjoyable exercise program that moves your body.
- Listen to your body. It has a lot to say.
- Be creative; you’ll be more inspired and expressive.
- Add colour to your life; it adds light, vibrancy and joy.
- Make gratitude your attitude.
- Make laughter a priority
By introducing these changes, continuous improvement to our wellbeing can occur. These changes affect not only us, but also all those close to us, so a ripple of positivity is felt in our world. Through a simple, short, daily conversation with our body, we have the power to transform our lives and bring a new vitality to all those we touch. It’s amazing what can happen when we stop and listen to our body.