BODY CHAT!

Ever wonder why there are times you experience body pain and other times you don’t? Ever wonder why there are mornings you wake up feeling tight all over and other mornings you feel free and flexible? Then there are those times when you’re in conversation with someone and suddenly the topic you are speaking about causes instant tightness in the neck, or it might even bring on a headache.

Are you someone who blames pain and tension on some physical exertion, or are you more in tune with your body, very aware that your thoughts create your state of being?
Very simply – Emotions rule! Positive emotions create a sense of wellness, while negative emotions tend to cause a little havoc, and the more deep-seated ones can create pain that comes up time and time again.

Everything you think has an effect on your body and when you look at the thoughts you have day to day, it’s probably no surprise that you carry some form of pain and tension. For some it’s more often than not. Negative thoughts and belief systems create pain of some sort. This can only mean one thing - positive thoughts help to dissipate the pain.

Think about your situation for a minute…what is your state of Being? Where in your body do you hold tension? Perhaps your ailments manifest through the stomach giving you a sense of nausea or cramps. Constant headaches are another way in which the negative emotions and thoughts can show themselves. Anger and frustration are a common undercurrent to the creation of a headache. Whether it be muscular or some other form of pain, know that this is just your body’s way of letting you know that something needs to be corrected. That is to say a belief or thought you’ve been carrying needs to be looked at. Does it serve you in holding on to it? It could be a thought about yourself or another person but whichever it is, your body is telling you to let go. Most pain and unwellness is due to either holding on or fear or both. An example of this is holding on to a situation that no longer has a place in your life. Perhaps it is a job or a relationship that has run its course. You often don’t want to move on for fear that there is nothing better to go to, or that you will hurt another. However when you finally do move on you end up seeing that it was for the best.

Your body is a vehicle to learn from and not a vehicle to use for sickness. As mentioned earlier, discomfort can come up in different ways such as shoulder pain, hip pain or stomach upset. When it does you might like to ask yourself one of the following questions - “Why am I feeling this way”? “What am I fighting or repressing”? “What’s coming up for me that needs to be addressed”? Often, a stomach ailment can be due to literally not stomaching something that is going on your life. It can be that perhaps something you’re doing isn’t in line with your truth. By ‘truth’ I mean doing what is truly right for you. Do you walk around living your life for others instead of for yourself? The only way to answer that is to assess where you’re at – are you truly happy with your life? Are you passionate about what you do? If not then think about making some changes. This can be scary if you’ve never put yourself first before, but just take baby steps and do things for you. Have a massage, take a long walk, or do some yoga. ‘Timeout’ is a great way of coming back to what’s important – YOU. In doing this you accomplish living more in the moment, and you slowly but surely find the courage to make the changes that need to be made. By honouring yourself and doing what’s right for you, automatically it will be for the highest good of all. Easier said than done I know, but try doing it and the doing will get easier! It just comes down to being honest with yourself and knowing that if this change brings you true joy, then in the long run it will be right for everyone else around you.

When you’re not living in accordance with your true path or alternatively not flowing with life, then body stress and pain can develop. Most of the time it shows up as a form of physical over-exertion. For example, carrying heavy boxes can put a back out, or shovelling dirt in the garden can cause tension in the shoulders. In the workplace, sore necks and repetitive strain injury is a common occurrence. When you become more aware that the manifestation of pain is your body’s way of trying to tell you something, then you stop blaming the action that brought it on.

Carrying heavy boxes, pulling a muscle while shovelling dirt, they are merely the activities that bring up the blockages and so discomfort sets in. Blockages are caused by anything negative – negative emotions, negative thoughts, or negative beliefs. This negativity is often held in the body for years before manifesting itself as pain or imbalance. An example of a negative emotion is fear of change. Change is something that the human race isn’t too crazy about and yet it is the only constant in life. Fighting change is a good place to start if you want to experience pain. The fight itself can create the blockage which if built up over time, stays clogged up in your body unless you take steps to clear it. If the fear of change isn’t cleared then you will experience some sort of pain each time you are faced with making a change. Changes often mean that old rules no longer apply. In order to grow and stay healthy, you need to constantly let go of the past and the conditioning that no longer serves you. Letting go means surrendering to changes and accepting that the new will free you.

Next time you experience pain look at it in a different light…listen to your body by getting in touch with your feelings. What’s been stressing or worrying you lately? Remember that honesty with yourself is the key.

The underlying factor of disease is dis-ease, not being at ease with something. Physical pain is often created by not going with the flow and the state of your body acts as a barometer for where you’re at in life. When dis-ease becomes disease, look at it as your body’s way of raising it’s voice to you in an attempt to wake you up. Perhaps it’s saying, “You need to look at yourself, look at your situation”!

Use illness to better understand your emotions and issues at hand, as it provides an opportunity to clear blockages and heal. Emotions are created by beliefs. The difference is whether these beliefs have a negative influence or a positive influence on your life.

A lack of trust in yourself or another can also bring up pain. As with so many other negative emotions, the underlying factor to a lack of trust is fear – fear of loss, fear of what if…
You can bet your bottom dollar that if you don’t fully trust yourself, then somewhere in your life is someone whom you don’t trust. It’s very much like that saying ‘You can’t like or hate something about another person without liking or hating it about yourself’.

Someone once made a profound statement to me, one I wasn’t too crazy about at the time. The words were, “It’s all about you”! Just look at that statement for a minute…if it is all about me, then I can’t blame anyone else. I am completely responsible for my own actions and life situation. Pretty big revelation that one! Today when I get irritated with anything in my life I am reminded of those words. They can either make me laugh or their truth will annoy me a little – ‘truth’ being the operative word! Either way, it forces me to look within and feel the reason for my irritation.

As mentioned earlier, a great tool to help bring clarity to what’s going on is to simply ASK. Ask the higher power in you’re life a simple question such as “What is this pain all about”? Or perhaps the pain you feel isn’t physical but rather it invokes a negative emotion. Anger is emotional pain and so you could ask, “Why does this situation make me feel so angry”? Anytime you feel anger or frustration towards a situation, it is usually not about the situation at all. Rather it is due to something that it reflects in you. By asking then the answers will be shown, keeping in mind that you need to be truly ready to see the truth.

Become familiar with your inner barometer and learn how to really listen to what your body is telling you. Medication can certainly help to relieve the pain or assist in calming the nerves, but it doesn’t get to the core of what created it in the first place. To clear it completely you need to get in touch with your feelings. For most of us that can be challenging. Healing modalities such as Massage, Reiki and Meditation get in at a deeper level, allowing a sense of peace to emerge. Nurturing yourself in this way assists your growth and you begin to see and feel things differently. For example, where once you might have been agitated about a particular event or situation, you now begin to sit in a space of non-reaction. The more peace you access from within the more peaceful your life can become. These ‘Timeouts’ help to balance the energies – emotionally, mentally and physically. They bring you back to the present moment and it’s in the ‘moment’ that you can begin to let go of the past and any pain it brought with it. You finally see things more clearly and a true sense of well-being emerges. This doesn’t mean that challenges disappear, but rather that you begin to deal with them more calmly and in a level-headed fashion. What you also begin to notice is that the calmer you are the calmer everyone else is around you, rippling out in a somewhat dominoes effect. Now that’s got to be a good thing!