Listen to your body for balance and health
January 27, 2009
Listening to your body’s messages is essential to maintaining balance and good health. Our fast pace of life, coupled with the constant stimulation of being wired to everything through TV, radios, cell phones and so on, creates an overload on the nervous system. In all the busyness and noise, we lose connection with the most fundamental “signals” of life — the valuable information that comes to us through bodily sensations and emotions. We need to learn to pay attention to what is happening in our bodies.
I remember once giving a stress management seminar to a busy staff and spending at least half an hour talking about the need to visit the bathroom when nature calls. Almost everyone admitted to feeling too busy to stop what they were doing to go to the bathroom, take a drink of water, stretch their bodies. Sometimes people were so absorbed in what they were doing that they didn’t even notice the signals of hunger and thirst. When they were aware of them, they couldn’t tear themselves away from what they were doing to take the necessary break. Some even felt guilty about taking the time away from their desk.
How often do you ignore basic needs? Do you rest when you are tired? Do you get as much sleep as you need? Do you eat when you are hungry, and stop eating when you’ve had enough? Do you drink when you are thirsty? Do you even notice? Our bodies tell us what they need to be balanced. Our job is to listen.
We can go a lot further than paying attention to these most basic needs. The need for sleep can be a “loud” signal from the body, but we can start to notice “softer” cues that our bodies give us as well. As we increase the awareness of our body’s signals, we get a lot of valuable information about how to keep it in balance.
The more we can perceive about what is going on in our bodies and emotions, the better. If you start to notice more subtle messages from your body, you can become aware of an imbalance before it manifests in a disease. You can notice when you begin to get tired and take a meditation break or a catnap. You can feel discomfort in your body before it screams in pain from a repetitive motion injury. You can notice things early and nip problems in the bud.
Of course, awareness is only the first step. Once you are aware of what your body is telling you, you need to follow through the action to bring it in balance. It can be difficult to form this habit. You may feel you don’t have the time, but in the long run a little time and attention here and there to care for your body can help avoid spending a lot of time having to heal something, not to mention avoiding unnecessary pain.
We created the Body Awareness Meditation specifically to help develop awareness of the body’s signals. It helps you to slow down tune in to your body, so that you can be sensitive to your body’s needs. Even beyond that, it is relaxing and grounding. Listening to the body isn’t just a way to avoid future pain. Much of life’s pleasure comes through the body. The sense of connection with the body is satisfying and worth cultivating for its own sake. Start paying attention to your body. It will thank you for it!
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6 Responses to “Listen to your body for balance and health”
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With energy work, I’ve heard that one hand, or one side of the body takes in energy and the other releases energy. I’d like to know which hand/ side of the body releases the energy?
I was taught that the left takes the energy in and the right releases it, but I’m not convinced that’s necessarily true. I would imagine that with this, as with many things in energy healing, there are differing points of view!
Dear Mary,
It’s interesting to note that we often say “listen to our bodies” instead of “observe”, “see” or “feel” our bodies. It seems that listening is very important in maintaining both physical and emotional health.
I majored in Music when I was a university student. Often people describe me as very sensitive to sounds due to my musical training, and they are surprised that I can hear my colleague sitting at the other corner of the staff room accidentally pour water onto the desk. My sensitivity to sounds make it very uncomfortable for me to stay in noisy environments. I hate travelling on the MTR because of the deafening noises when the train runs at full speed. While waiting at the bus stop, I find the engine noises annoying.
One day, when I returned to my quiet bedroom from the “world of noises” outside my home, I heard something like a sound wave running through my brain at a very fast speed, hence producing a high-pitched, piercing sound. I felt very uncomfortable with this “sound wave” as it made me feel tense and impatient. As I gradually calmed down, I noticed how this sound wave changed: first it seemed to break into shorter waves; then it was broken into two round sounds, one in my left ear and the other in my right ear. The feeling of a sound wave running across my brain was gone. I felt relaxed. I also noticed that the sound wave seemed to soften when I became aware of the surrounding environment.
The same thing happen when I have lessons at the seminary. After sitting in the classroom and being bombarded with information, my mind becomes so tense that I hear that piercing sound wave again. The 10-minute break is just not enough for me to refresh my mind for the next lesson.
I have never told other people about this sound wave. This is my first time sharing the above experience.
Is this clairaudience? It seems that this sound wave reflects quite accurately my physical and emotional states. Is there anything you would suggest me to do in handling / “making use of” this ability to hear “inner sound waves”?
Thank you very much for your sharing of experience and suggestions,
Eleanor
Eleanor, I don’t know how to explain the sound wave. I doubt that it’s a form of clairaudience. It could actually be something neurological or some form of tinnitis. You might want to get it checked out, but it may also be an aspect of your heightened sensitivity in general.
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[...] body’s messages is essential to maintaining balance and good health,” writes Mary Maddux at HeartofHealing.net. “In all the busyness and noise [of daily life], we lose connection with the most fundamental [...]