Your body is speaking to you. Are you listening to it?
Out of all the gifts in the world that have been given to us, our body surely must be the most precious of all. It is something that is born with us and the last thing that goes with us when we leave this earth. Being our closest and most constant companion through life, it may be sometimes hard to notice how our body is feeling, almost like how we find it easy to look at others but not at ourselves. That’s why, it may take a little more effort to remind ourselves and to bring awareness to our bodies. We learn to become our own mirrors.
Our body and us
Our connection to our body is a daily intuitive experience. We are connected to it through our heartbeat, our temperature, the sweat on our skin, and the blood pulsing through us. The tightness or looseness of our muscles reveal the tension that we’re carrying with us. Our breath, whether shallow or deep, reflects our sense of ease or anxiety in our day-to-day life. More than that, our bodies are a living, breathing organism that constantly speaks to us through visceral signals, whether we realise or not. How we feel is reflected in the tension of our muscles, the freshness of our skin and the shine of our hair.
Yet despite such seemingly obvious relationships, most people go about their lives with a sense of disconnection to their bodies. One of the most straightforward examples is when we push ourselves to exercise harder than we should even when our bodies may be screaming for rest. Or when we may be about to fall sick but we still go to the office to work. The list of examples can go on. One may argue that life responsibilities come first but the question is, if there is always something that one should attend to in life, then when is the right time to ever first take care of our bodies?
Connecting our body to the world around us
Our bodies are our physical representation in the world. It is our point of contact with our environment and with the people around us. It is a gift from the Universe that enables us to engage with life physically. Without a healthy physical body, how can we express the best of what we can offer the world? How can we be the best mother, father, friend, colleague? How do we do the things we love, how can we create wonders and how can we support our loved ones without a healthy body?
Unfortunately, most of us treat our bodies as if it were a separate organism to be controlled. This lack of kindness and attentiveness towards ourselves doesn’t just begin to show physically on our bodies as pains and illnesses, it also shows up in the way we treat the people around us. Oftentimes if someone is struggling with life, it becomes an automatic response to tell them that they need to solve the problem or work harder. It is a common response to jump into action and reply with every solution except perhaps what is truly needed—some gentleness, kindness and a patient listening ear for someone who is struggling. Such solution-driven responses are perhaps a reflection of the active, go-getting mindset of the modern economic world, in particular, countries that are financially successful. In our effort to achieve success, have we slowly lost our most precious, inner connection to ourselves?
Connecting our hearts to what we’re feeling
Being the seat of passion for our life, purpose and drive, our heart is where we feel our emotions deeply. It pulses with life-giving blood and is perhaps the most fundamental connection to the life force within us; the source of life. When we break up with someone we love, we call it a heartbreak. When we’re happy, we feel lighthearted. It is so deeply-rooted in all aspects of our lives that we can’t go through life without expressing these words. And yet how many of us truly connect to what’s deep within our hearts?
As we go through the trials of life, many of us slowly lose our youthful exuberance and hope. Our physical wounds heal over time but pain in our hearts may sometimes never fade. This pain makes us reactively shy away from new experiences, just like how our fist clenches up if we poke it with a pen. We close our hearts to life reactively. Understandably, it can be very scary to open up in hope, especially if one has gone through a lot of pain. Are you carrying alot of pain with you? This pain, although a familiar presence, takes up prime real estate space in one’s heart that could be given to nurture other feelings like hope, possibilities and laughter.
While every scar, visible or invisible, bears a mark of a trial, not every heart needs to be steeped in pain. Pain is a natural part of life’s journey and it exists in almost all facets of life. Just as transient as life is, pain can also fade away easily, if we let go of it. When pain is so firmly entrenched in one’s heart, it may be the hardest thing to do. But to be able to hug your own pain, unrestrainedly, unashamedly, with all the love you can muster in your heart; that is perhaps the most loving and important thing you can do for yourself.
Your heart is always speaking to you, sometimes crying out for you, just as your body is. Are you listening to it?
You matter so much more more than you know it
Simply taking the time and spending a moment to listen to your body, can make the difference between apathy or connection, tension or ease, sorrow or joy in life. When you take a moment to say hello to a friend, or when you give your loved one undivided attention during dinner, you are saying that they matter to you. They matter enough for you to spend those few precious moments of undivided attention with them.
Just as you shift your habits and relationship with the people around you, you shift your relationship with yourself. Take the time to show yourself that you matter. Spend just one minute of every hour to check in with yourself. Give your body the permission to speak and listen to what it is physically expressing. Listen to what your heart is trying to tell you.
As you begin to tune in to yourself, you may be surprised at all the things you discover. One thing is for sure, our body and senses are always communicating to us. The real question is, are we listening to it?
You are a wonder in progress. Allow yourself to be heard.