Are you listening? Your body is talking to you! Are you paying attention? Your body is reacting to you! We make countless choices all day long. Some of our choices seem like second nature. Getting up and going to work, for example. We choose to do this, and rarely (if ever) think, "I'll stay in bed. No worries." Many of our choices have results and ramifications for us. I want to talk to you about your body and it's apparent choices.
How do you stand? How is your posture? How do you walk? Notice your stance next time you're in line at the bank. Or when you're out with friends and everyone is standing around talking. Notice, if you are aware, how you stand. Honestly? Most of us are totally unaware of how we stand. Additionally, we kind of think that the way we stand and hold ourself and walk is just "natural" and furthermore "the way we are." But that's not true. You choose to stand/walk the way you do, and at any point you can change your mind.
I will use myself as a small example. (Better not to talk about others!) Lately I have been holding my shoulders up. Tons. I feel fortunate that I can notice when this happens. I find myself several times a day thinking to myself, "Whoah! Shoulders! Relax!" Maybe once a day (usually at the end of the day), when I am feeling my tense shoulders again, I'll think to relax and then FINALLY I'll think, "Why am I doing this? Why have I been holding my shoulders up all day? What is making me so tense?" I won't lie and tell you that I figure it out, at all. But I will tell you that having that small amount of reflection helps me to relax immensely.
What happens is I have a conversation with my body. And we get somewhere. And I do believe my relationship with my body is most important because I can learn so much about letting other people "be" when I can let myself "be." These are still choices.
And now you! Are you experiencing some level of pain anywhere in your body? Tension? Aches? Do you know where/how they started? Can you go back further to know what caused or triggered that to happen in the first place? Or have you been ignoring your body for too long that you are unaware of what your "second nature" stance has become by your choice. What if you thought of your body as saying to you, "Listen to me, please. Pay attention to me, too, please." Sounds like something you might want to tell another person doesn't it? But don't you think it still applies to the relationship you have (or need to have) with your body? What would you choose to do if given the opportunity to listen and react?
Give your body something to be calm about. Take care and I'll write again next week :)
