For those of us who had to learn to listen the hard way, we know the painful process of reclaiming our health and wellbeing after years of neglect. Take Tammy, for example, who ran two successful businesses, and appeared to have it all together. She was a trailblazer in her industry, charging ahead in unchartered territory, achieving financial and material wealth. Yet her heart wasn’t in it. She started to get sick, depressed, and eventually hit the proverbial rock bottom. Her salvation was a seemingly odd decision to begin studying with different monks and teachers in the United States and Tibet. She finally visited a monastery in Tibet to slow down, rethink, and ultimately re-design her life. Friends and family thought she had lost her mind, but something deep within her whispered, “keep going in this direction”. Today, she is a healer using Tibetan Signing Bowls to help others align their bodies, minds, and souls with their personal vibration and is on a continuous path to heal her body and heart from years of neglect.
The price we pay for not listening can cost us our lives. So why are we so willing to pay the price? Why don’t we stop and listen? Why don’t we slow down? While the answers are always personal and individual, I believe that a common theme is that we busy ourselves. We’ve invented lives, jobs, and situations that keep us on the hamster wheel of activity so we don’t have to think, feel, or consider what we REALLY want. We get stuck in the doing vs. being and keep pushing forward to attain our version of “success.”
What happens when we do listen?
Everything changes.
We pivot and create lives in perfect alignment, and while we aren’t immune to encountering challenging situations or decease, we observe, accept and embrace life as it comes. We move into action swiftly and are unwaveringly committed to taking care of and listening to the messages our bodies are sending. We prioritize our health and wellbeing and are willing to remove situations, people, foods, substances, that hurt us. We surround ourselves with like-minded people who encourage, challenge, and support us to stay on our paths of health and personal self-care. We inspire others by living in our personal truths without preaching about the “right way to live.” Simply, we live and operate in complete alignment.
Exercise
Take a moment to listen to your body. What is it telling you right now? What doesn’t it need? What “chronic” messages are you getting (like frequent headaches, stomach aches, muscle pains, etc.)? Do you see any direct links to behavior change? For example, stomach pains often come with an emotional message and headaches may indicate over-using thoughts or not addressing important thought patterns. What physical, mental, emotional misalignments may be contributing to your dis-ease? What small daily action steps can you take to re-align yourself?
When we commit to listening and following our body’s messages, we are able to live life more fully. Ultimately, the body is far smarter than we give it credit for. Isn’t it time we start to really listen?