I used to treat my body as a machine and expected it to work efficiently and to meet my standards of perfection all the time. I got angry with my body and didn’t like myself when my body did not meet my expectations or I couldn’t perform or achieve as I believed I needed to. Many days I hated my body.
Can you resonate?
Almost every single person I have worked with who has battled with chronic fatigue, adrenal depletion or burnout has been disconnected from their bodies, or not had much of a relationship with their bodies, and have rather seen the body as something to be worked, or hated when it doesn’t work as it should. Or when it doesn’t look as it should.
Yet, the body doesn’t function the same all the time. The body’s needs change regularly.
Most of my clients are women or identify as women. Our bodies don’t function the same on a 24/7 basis like men’s do as we are wired differently. The female hormones change over the course of the whole menstrual cycle with some phases where we have energy and some when we don’t. Some phases where we need to go inwards and some when we feel vibrant and want to share our energy.
Also, the moon impacts us all (no matter what body we are in) in different ways through each lunar phase within a lunar cycle.
Sometimes we are fighting a low-grade virus and we don’t realise it so we push through the fatigue. Sometimes we are eating something that is too dry or cold for the body and so we don’t feel our best self but keep eating it because we were told it’s the next best health fad. Sometimes someone or something is toxic and the body doesn’t feel good because it is communicating that it is best you move away from that energy.
When we are disconnected and ignore the needs of the body as communicated by physical sensations or emotions (both of which are energy in the body) the body starts yelling louder. Our symptoms get worse and if we keep on ignoring them then we crash.
In my own life I first tried to FIX my body by imposing on it what I thought (or doctors thought) it needed so it could function properly again and I could drag it along as I drove myself in my life the way I had been doing. This didn’t work and my body soon started communicating again with new symptoms. I ignored it for a while despite all my training in BodyTalk and consciousness etc.
I was scared. It was scary to stop DOING life and pushing my body because that was all I knew. It was how I had survived for so long. (Learn more about this next week)
We drag our bodies along for the ride allowing our heads to dictate life. This is survival. Instead, we should be allowing our soul’s purpose/our truth to be expressed and lived but this requires being embodied and listening to what wants to come through in THIS moment. And then in THIS moment.
This is really living. This is where joy and pleasure are found.
When I finally connected back to my body I acknowledged it, asked for forgiveness and asked my body to trust me so that I would start to listen to what was needed. We began a relationship. Sometimes I still abandoned my body and disconnected from my needs. Sometimes I still do. But my body and I are in a much better place than we were before and the rewards have been phenomenal.
I now can stop myself from pushing myself over the edge before I do. I can embrace my body to bring myself back into balance and peace. I can harness my breath to master my anxiety. I can harness life force and energy to experience joy, flow and ease. I can live my truth and feel my passion and joy.
So go ahead and take a moment right now to just tune into your body and ask it… “How are you doing?” and “What do you need?”. Wait for a answer as a deep knowing, an inner voice, an image or some other sensory experience. You may be very surprised what you receive. I’d love to know if you want to share in the comments below.
