The Quiet Whisperings of Truth That Inspire Our Life

Image by Silvia from Pixabay

A couple of friends and I were discussing our health this week, and I was reflecting how much better I had felt these last few years since deliberately undertaking a healing journey to address the migraines, kidney stones, crazy menstrual symptoms and a few more chronic issue issues that seemed to plague me.

One of my friends said “I credit Anne (my osteopath) for that; she was the one who quietly challenged you to put yourself and your health first”. As I reflected on it, she was right, Anne had been the gentle messenger that seemed to speak directly to a part of me that knew she was right and could broker no disagreement.

The key here are the words quiet and gentle.

Anne is neither confrontational and nor does she go around-the-houses; she just quietly and gently says things like “I think your body would really appreciate if it got some regular movement” and “I think your body might appreciate a break from sugar and wheat”. 

These weren’t random or generic health recommendations, they were things that I had been periodically considering and waylaying for some time, probably at those moments when I would hear what my body was trying to communicate and my mind would quickly file in the “to do later” basket due to the constant feeling of overwhelm.

However, hearing them reflected from the outside and given a voice had a big impact, and led to me taking up swimming again and also switching out my diet to foods I know work better for me several years ago now.

I’m not saying these things were the root cause of all my ailments, it’s simply what my body needed in order to stay steady on the course and not spring any more leaks, so to speak. She was also the person to whom I turned when I was looking for a homeopath, and that led me to Heilkunst and trauma therapy, which is what has really got into the meat of addressing a lot of these ailments that I no longer experience.

While the same recommendations had come from other sources at other times, what cut through was Anne’s ability to connect with and recognise the quiet whisperings of my body’s needs and desires without engaging my mind.

My mind noticed, it even attempted – rather lamely – to list some excuses, but within minutes of leaving the appointments I would already know it had lost the battle and now was the time to take inspired action.

I find there are many different voices within me, often fighting to be heard. Some of the most poignant words that demonstrate this were spoken in Our Warring Self Versus Our Infinite Self by Sarah Blondin. Sarah is another person who is able, in her own quiet and gentle way, to speak directly to the soul’s yearning. I guess that is because what she shares through her podcasts and meditations is just that, her own deep conversations with her inner being.

She describes “our warring self” as “The part of you that hides under the surface, that surprises you when she shows her teeth. The part you deny, push away, pretend does not live there. She is your darkness, the one who dwells in the shallow waters of your being. She is in every one of us. She rides up on the back of your righteous ego, she feeds on ideas that you deserve more, better, different. She lurks in the thoughts and emotions that keep you small. Such intensity and emotion is powerful, palpable; weak in root but alluring in force.”

Conversely, “our infinite self” she describes as “The soft one, tender, always tender. She comes when you ask for help. She comes when you fill your lungs with a conscious breath. She is able to withstand the storms. She catches the furious pain of others, the difficult experiences you face, the things that make you want to fight, and she cradles them, swaddles them in unconditional love over and over. She is the bottomless source of light and love, she is your essence. Pure and wise she lives in your greatest depths”.

And then Sarah goes on to say “She is shelved beside the one who wars. They stand within you, both hands open, a choice. One serves where the other severs, one heals where the other wounds. It takes great strength and determination to choose the soft one when you are in the fire. Yet nothing will suffer more than you if you continue to choose war. They are two polar energies, forces living within you, a choice for you to make at every triggering moment in your life.”

I have given you a snapshot here of her words in this piece, but most poignantly she wraps up in saying “You are capable of being both but please choose wisely for the quality of your life and love depends on it”.

Like Sarah, I can hear the whisperings of my own body and soul when I allow my mind to be still enough to hear them.

In the year my mum slipped away from us with a sudden and aggressive cancer, I found solace in nature. Listening to the rustle of leaves, the twittering of birds, the rhythm of waves lapping on the shore, the solid assurity of tides coming in and tides going out, the sun setting, the sun rising, and the seasons coming and going. As much as the landscape of my world was changing with my mum slipping from the scene, so much went on.

This can seem cruel when losing a loved one, but it also provided somewhat of a solidity to keep going on myself. It was in those quiet moments in nature that everything from the sea to the clouds seemed to whisper quiet truths from my heart to my head, into conscious awareness, about everything from the nature of life and its meaning, to little actions that could make a difference for mum in her final days.

The same was true when the government here in New Zealand, who has only this week finally let go of COVID19 vaccine mandates, overstepped its reach last year and created a segregated society that displaced many of its critical workers, divided families and impinged on day to day lives in ways that I simply could not have imagined a year or so beforehand.

While not everyone could go to the local library to get out a book, swim at the local outdoor pool, go to university, learn to drive or meet friends at a cafe, everyone could still experience nature. And sure enough, while we lived in a world where the punitive actions did not match the evidence, the sun continued to come up and set each day, the tides kept coming in and out, the birds kept twittering and that solid backdrop of Mother Nature continued whispering messages when I connected in with it.

Whether it’s the kind and gentle words of a friend, or the words that seem to come on the wind rustling through leaves as you walk in the woods, the quiet whisperings of truth that inspire are well worth noticing, for they are the truths that inspire our best life.

If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Give Yourself Permission to Live Life in Alignment With Your True Nature, Rejoicing in Who You Are, Is Your Experience With Religion Stopping You Exploring Your Inner World?, Rediscovering the Language of Nature, Meditation – the Cornerstone to Your Success, Saying Goodbye, The Miracle of Water, and Taking Your Own Space. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.