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!

I’ve already written about Seven Essentials of Self-Healing. Today’s post is the first in a series in which I’ll go into detail about each of the essentials, or as I am now calling them “secrets”. Of course, I’m calling them secrets here to get your attention, but also because they fit an intriguing definition of secret “known or shared only by the initiated”. The initiation required is a kind of self-initiation. These aren’t secrets that are kept hidden by a master who will impart them to you when you meet the proper requirements. Rather, they are insights available when you pay attention to yourself, to your own inner master. And that master is your own intuition.

As you become aware of these “secrets”, they will seem quite obvious and make complete sense. In fact, you may find yourself saying “oh I knew that all along”. You may have heard some of these secrets many times over, but you haven’t really heard the secret, nor do you really know it, until you’ve discovered it as real for yourself. In fact, the first of the seven secrets is self-awareness. Self-awareness comes from paying attention. When we begin to pay attention to what is actually happening in our bodies, minds and emotions, a huge opportunity for self-healing opens up.

I’ll leave you with that thought. One of the most important steps you can take to promote self-healing is to pay attention to yourself — what is going on with your body, your emotions, your thoughts. More on that soon!