When Did We Become So Oblivious to What Our Bodies Are Really Telling Us?

At work I was well known for my 3 o’clock in the morning emails, simply because that was the time my brain would start to ‘thaw’ after some sleep, exhausted by the previous day’s activity.

​The quest to figure out who I was proved tricky because I couldn’t even tell you what I was feeling in relation to all the things I used to juggle, except an overall sense of not being at one with myself. But it’s taken deliberate time out to figure out what specifically feels good and what feels bad.

​I’ve found myself in the position of family nurse now that we have children. With two small patients who can’t convey very well what is actually wrong with them, I find my observational skills have intensified.

What’s really struck me this last week that they’ve had a cold, is how quickly I had previously dosed them with pain killers. Paracetemol and Ibuprofen are common place in most of our homes, with many liquid forms available for our children from baby stage upwards.

But here is the problem, if we continually dose ourselves or our kids with painkillers or some other synthetic ‘remedy’, in order to suppress our symptoms and just carry on, are we simply storing up trouble further down the line?

Our physical state is the last line of attack when it comes to listening to our inner knowing. If you have things showing up on a physical level, whether it’s an accident or an illness, it means you have ignored what is going on at an emotional level.

Emotions are important, they are quite simply our best indicators of where we are in relation to that good feeling, forward flowing being that we all are in our most natural state. There are many versions of feeling bad, from outright despair to the lesser intensity of simple doubt, but they all feel bad, and are all indicative of a thought pattern that is working against us.

When you feel bad, listen. If you don’t it will show up physically. Many years ago the author Louise Hay outlined the mental patterns that are associated with hundreds of diseases and conditions, including each vertebrae of the spine. Our mental patterns, often subconscious, affect us emotionally, then physically.

We now know that our physical symptoms are not directly related to your genetics, as scientists like Dr Bruce Lipton can now explain for those that want that. My personal experience of panic attacks had already taught me that lesson back in the early nineties though, I know the power of the mind to create my reality, I just hadn’t reckoned on the power of the subconscious thoughts that were embedded early in life and reinforced throughout, as like attracted like.

For years I worked in corporate roles that were so busy I would come home feeling numb. My osteopath used to ask me about the symptoms I was experiencing throughout the day in order to better help alleviate my back pain, I was clueless really. Generally I was too busy and distracted to even pay any attention to the triggers or the times it would shift or flare up and so on.

Now I’ve learned to tune in.
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That is not to say I’m in some Zen-like state for the best part of the day, heck no, I did mention I have two young kids right? It does mean that I unfailing make time for 15 minutes a day to close my eyes and just breathe, to press pause on whatever else is going on around. I also make sure that I take my yoga class once a week, and that I get out in nature as often as possible. I’m also learning to prioritise the stuff that feels good – like writing these articles.

But when it comes to my body, I admit I have had a tendency to plough on, ignoring what it’s telling me, just like many if you. This is despite many lessons in my life to pay heed, like the panic attacks and the many failed pregnancies before finally tuning in and then having our two beautiful daughters.

When it comes to taking care of them, my biggest hope for them is to be who they are. To do that they need to learn to tune in, to listen to their inner knowing. How can I teach that if every time it’s communicating I tell them to calm down, cheer up, wisen up, buck up, take a dose of Pamol, whatever, many versions of ‘please just behave and let me get on with my day’ or worse "listen to me and not your own knowing".

I know when my kids are being horribly grumpy or naughty there’s something more going on. Left unattended, inevitable within a few days there are physical symptoms of some sort. On the other hand, catch what the body is communicating and it can heal very quickly.

For example, a common cold is often a sign there’s so much going on you are disconnected from the needs of your being,  it’s time for you to let go and stop worrying needlessly about every little thing.

No wonder it’s so common these days when we are busier than ever and, by default, are taking our kids on the same ride.

It’s time to get back to basics, listen to what our inner knowing is saying, rather than suppressing it. In listening, you will find a life that flows more easily, more healthily. One that you won’t lie in a hospital bed regretting, as those who do tell us, they should have danced to the beat of their own drum earlier. Tune in, what’s your body telling you?

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