 |
Listening
to Your Body
by Jennifer Baltz |
The Body-Spirit Relationship
The part of you that is Spirit can create faster than
it takes to blink. In the spiritual realm, a single
thought can manifest a whole new world instantly.
Needless to say, changes here on earth usually happen at
a much slower level. We have chosen to incarnate into
physical bodies because they allow us to grow and
experience things on a much slower, deeper and more
sustained level than we can as ethereal beings. Because
manifesting a thought here on Earth has real physical
consequences, we are able to learn and grow from our
experiences.
Your relationship with your body is really the key to
that growth and experience. It is the foundation for all
of your creations and your relationships with other
people. Without your body’s full cooperation and
trust, you cannot create what you want in life. When you
do not treat your body well, when you don’t listen to
what it needs, when you abuse or neglect it, you cannot
create a full and balanced life because your primary
relationship isn’t working. The only way to gain that
cooperation is to take good care of your body and learn
to listen to what it needs. When you have that
cooperation and communication between body and spirit,
you will create a more balanced, happy and loving life.
And yet, most of us don’t really stop to take the
time to listen to our bodies. We don’t get enough
sleep, don’t eat healthy, don’t exercise, and most
of all, we don’t listen when our bodies start to
complain. This creates a tremendous amount of stress and
it makes life much more difficult because it means we
are not "in sync" with our bodies. Our lives,
loves, and creations tend to suffer tremendously because
spirit and body are not creating together. Here’s what
happens:
Energy Follows Attention
When you put your attention on something, you will
literally "go there" as a spirit. So if you
are at home and thinking about work, a part of your
spiritual essence actually goes into whatever project or
place you are thinking about. If you are worried about
your child at school, a piece of you goes with her that
day. If you had an incomplete conversation or argument
with someone, part of you will also go there to try and
make things right. You may have your attention and
energy out in the future on something you have not yet
created. Or, it may be stuck in the past, reliving a
conversation or a situation. The key to remember is that
your energy can get scattered among all of the things,
projects, and people in your life.
But your body exists only in the present moment. It
is not out in the future, or in the past—it is right
where you left it, in the here and now. It needs your
attention and energy to function properly. And how well
you function in the here and now—how you create your
life moment by moment—depends largely on how well you
can keep your attention focused in the present moment,
with your body.
It is natural to have your attention and energy in
several places at once. But it can be dangerous if you
don’t have at least some of it in the here and now. I
was out shopping the other day and was nearly hit by a
woman in a big hurry. She drove through a stop sign in
the parking lot at high speed. Her attention and a big
piece of her life energy were already at her destination—in
other words, she was running way ahead of herself. Body
and spirit were not creating on the same page. She didn’t
see my car until she sailed through the intersection. It
was lucky for both of us that I saw her coming and
realized she "wasn’t home." Eyes wide with
shock, she mouthed "I’m sorry" . . . and
kept going, still at speed, without taking the time to
pause and reconnect with herself.
Checking In
Most of us tend to speed through life every day, and
like the lady in a hurry, we often don’t stop to pay
attention. It is totally natural to have your attention
and your energy out doing multiple things at once. . .
and fairly near impossible to stay fully in one place at
a time as a spirit. But stopping to check in every so
often helps you become aware of where your attention is
focused, and what is going on around and within you. You
become more conscious of your body and what it needs,
and able to re-focus and get things done in an easier,
safer, and less stressful way. Had that hasty driver
paused for a moment before she pulled out of her
parking space, to take a deep breath and bring her
attention back where it belonged, she probably would not
have run through that stop sign.
When you stop and take a moment to get your bearings,
you bring body and spirit together in sync with each
other. As a spirit, you come in for a landing and bring
your attention to focus right where you are in the
moment. Try it now.
As you read this, stop and take a moment to check in
with your body. Notice how you are sitting in your
chair. Notice whether any part of your body hurts or is
uncomfortable. How are you breathing right now? What are
your emotions telling you right now? How do you feel?
Just take a few moments to stop and notice these things.
Now that you are paying attention, notice if there is
something small that you can do to make your body more
comfortable. Maybe your body is thirsty and needs a
glass of water. Maybe you have been sitting in front of
your computer too long and need to get up and walk
around, or to stretch. Or maybe it is time to get
something to eat, or to get some sleep. Just notice what
comes up for you. Stop to do it now. This article will
wait until you are ready to continue.
This process of checking in many times during the day
is essential if you want to create your dream life in a
balanced way. It helps you to know yourself better, to
make your actions more conscious and coordinated between
body and spirit. In effect, it re-sets your energy and
your attention, so that you can create in a much more
focused, conscious way. I find that it also helps me
decide what to do next and to plan my actions so they
are more efficient, feel better, and waste less time
spinning my wheels. I just ask "What do I need to
do next?" and let my intuition guide me.
Intuition is really a communication process. You
might say that it comes about through that inner
dialogue between body and spirit. Body intuition is
emotional. It is based on feeling. Spiritual intuition
is based more on seeing, or just knowing that something
is true. Both kinds of intuition happen when body and
spirit are working together in good communication.
Often, we ignore our body intuitions, our feelings,
because we don’t want to change. When you hate going
to work, day after day, it means that something about it
does not work for you. It may be the actual work itself,
the hours, or the environment, or the people, or it may
be that you are not taking enough of your free time just
for you. Something is out of balance. We often ignore
those feelings or try to push past them rather than to
acknowledge that something needs to change. Good
self-care means that you need to pay attention to those
feelings and do something about them. There is always a
way to adjust your life to bring it more into balance.
It may require a big change, or just a series of small
ones. Ignoring it now means that you will create
progressively more and more pain for yourself until the
problem is too large to ignore. Then a larger change is
usually required. Paying attention to problems before
they get big creates much less trauma in your life than
shoving your feelings under the rug.
Try checking in with your body as often as you can
during the day. The more often and consistently you do
it, the better the communication between body and soul,
and the easier it becomes to create a balanced life.
Copyright © 2001 Jennifer Baltz. All Rights
Reserved.
Jennifer Baltz is a business and life coach and creative mentor with over 18 years experience helping people consciously create their dreams. She offers individual coaching, classes, seminars, and mastermind groups to help you create change in your life, from
personal and creative growth to small business development. Visit Jennifer's website for more information, www.creativespirit.com,
or follow Jennifer on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jenbaltz
Visit
Jennifer at:
BACK
TO "FEATURES" PAGE
|
