Talk The Talk To Walk The Walk
Welcome to Day 10, my friendlies! Today, we’re going to have a little chat with your very own corporeal vessel. What a thrill! Your body is constantly talking to you, giving you insight into how well – or unwell – it might be at any given moment. What a little chatterbox, hey? But I have to ask: how well do you know your body’s language? How often do you listen to it?
If you often feel confused about what’s going on with your body, you’re not alone. Many of us are not taught to understand what certain physical feelings mean. For example, what’s up with that after-meal bloat, or why are my joints so achy? What about the headaches you sometimes get, or the anxiety you experience that seems to come out of nowhere? Your body has many ways it likes to “talk” to you, and the most powerful “words” it uses are in the form of symptoms. Fatigue, headaches, aches, anxiety, diarrhea, constipation, weight gain– symptoms like these are there to tell us something important about what the body needs to heal.
In traditional Western culture, symptoms are often seen as big, bad, inconvenient “demons” that need to be silenced. The Western model of healthcare, in fact, is built around ridding you of your symptoms, when these are the very messages we should be listening to when we’re trying to learn the root of the issue at hand. Bloating after a meal doesn’t mean you have a defective digestive system; rather, it could mean that you have too few of the good bacteria your body needs to break down those meals. Or perhaps you aren’t eating the right types of food for your body, and the bloat is trying to tell you to kindly STOP EATING THAT FOOD PLEASE!
One very common set of symptoms that many of the ovary-containing people in my practice have are irregular periods, or intense PMS symptoms around their bleed. In Western culture, we have been taught that periods should be an easy-breezy, same-for-everyone experience, and if they aren’t, we’ll just slap birth control on it. Now hear me loud and clear when I say: birth control is amazing. It has brought so much bodily autonomy back into the hands of women around the world, and that’s fantastic! But in Western medicine, it is also prescribed as freely as Advil or Ibuprofen, and it’s too-often considered a catch-all for any and all female hormone-related issues. What we’re finding is that not only are we putting female reproductive systems to “sleep” when we take these forms of contraception, but we’re also not addressing WHY these symptoms are happening to begin with. There is always a reason. Why not work to find the reason first? The decision to take the birth control pill should always be your choice and your power – let’s just make sure you have the best information at your disposal, and that you’re listening to your body’s needs first and foremost no matter what. Deal?
In order to activate true healing, we have to get good at LISTENING. Get curious about the symptoms you are experiencing, and instead of medicating them away, consider spending some time getting quiet and listening first. Here’s a list of some of the most important questions:
Did I get a good night’s sleep? Perhaps my body needs rest.
Am I stressed about something? Perhaps my body needs extra self-care like breathwork, meditation, a chat with a good friend, a walk in nature, or even a bath.
Have I drunk enough water today? Maybe I’m dehydrated.
When was the last time I had a proper bowel movement? Maybe I’m not getting well-rounded meals with enough fiber, protein and fat lately.
Oftentimes, we don’t think of the obvious questions that might have easy enough answers to help us solve some of our own problems. Other times, you may have to dive deeper into a particular topic, and work with a qualified practitioner (like me) to help you become a better listening detective for your own body.
But believe me when I say that your body is asking you to listen. Symptoms shouldn’t be silenced, they should be investigated.
Today’s Activity:
For the remainder of this challenge, I’d like you to keep a daily “symptoms” journal. This will help bring mindful awareness to the state of your body at various times of the day– I call them “Body, Mind and Emotion Checks.” All you need to do is jot down how your body feels throughout the day: first thing in the morning, after meals, after bowel movements, and right before bed. You’ll very likely start to notice some patterns as you get through a few days of this, and these patterns are clues. Pay attention to the clues, and remember they’re your body’s way of speaking to you.
Please refer to your Master Document for a copy of the “Body, Mind, Emotion Check” Daily Journal pages.
True change will only occur in the presence of mindful awareness. When we start by tracking how you feel, we can make connections and inferences about where we might need to dig further for answers. They’re out there, I assure you, and you are the very best detective for the job.
