You have a brilliant body that is always communicating with you.
Or at least, it is always trying to communicate with you. Most of us are not very good at listening to our bodies.
In our modern culture body brilliance is devalued and unappreciated.
Our externally-oriented, disconnected-from-nature, high stress, achievement-focussed, rush-rush, busy-busy, buy-this-now-to-feel-happy lifestyle distracts us from listening to our bodies’ wise messages.
Most of us grew up with lots of instruction and modeling on ignoring and overriding body brilliance rather than on honoring and cultivating this vital aspect of our intelligence.
You can choose today to change this.
When you are aligned with your body’s brilliance you will feel confident, energized, flowing with ease, joy and pleasure and you will be guided from within toward health, happiness and soul-satisfying success.
Below are 22 very common ways people feel when they are blocking the natural brilliance of the body.
As you read through these, notice which feel true, or sometimes true, for you.
KINDNESS ALERT!
Read through the list below with Compassionate Awareness. Harsh judgment keeps you stuck in negative patterns. Noticing with kindness, compassion and love, rather than an attitude of harshness and criticism, will allow you to begin to make positive changes with ease.
If you frequently block your body’s brilliance you may sometimes:
• Feel a bit numb or frozen.
• Have trouble knowing what you really want or need.
• Feel a lack of self-confidence in speaking up for yourself or expressingyour desires.
• Depend on external authorities- such as doctors, health experts, books, forums and websites- to tell you how to be healthy.
• Feel confused or overwhelmed by conflicting advice about diets, exercise plans and health regimes.
• Experience cycles of over-doing, crashing and depletion.
• Think you are being selfish if you take time for yourself.
• Feel a lack of vitality, energy and joy.
• Hear “inner tapes” or mean self talk criticizing your looks or your way of being.
• Base your feelings of self worth and value on what others may think.
• Harshly compare your body, your style or your achievements with
others.
• Feel mistrustful of your “gut instincts”.
• Find yourself repeating self-destructive habits or patterns.
• Feel scattered or distanced from your body.
• Move in a way that feels stiff, limited or inhibited.
• Feel distrustful of your emotions.
• Experience tension or anxiety that you cannot easily release.
• Feel stuck in challenging or uncomfortable emotions and moods.
• View some part or parts of your body as “unworthy” or “ugly”.
• Have difficulty knowing the difference between intuition and anxiety.
• Believe that you might be able to love your body if you could just__________( fill in the blank).
• Feel a disconnect or conflict between your physical body and your spiritual self.
Do any of these ring true for you?
If so, you are not alone.
I have experienced all of these and so have most of my clients and friends - and, I would guess- so have almost all the people you see walking down the street.
You may even wonder, “Are these really signs of blocking my body’s brilliance?”
From my perspective: Yes, they are.
Based on my former struggles with health and body image and based on twenty-five years of my work in yoga classes, workshops, transformational retreats, hospital group patient visits, 1:1 mind-body therapy and life coaching sessions with clients and students ranging from high level executives to artists to students to retirees, I say: Yes!
All of these are the result of the very common pattern of blocking the body’s natural brilliance.
The good news is, there is one powerful shift that you can make that will dramatically improve everything on the list above, and more.
Decide today to Befriend Your Beautiful, Brilliant Body.
Just as you are right now.
No weight to lose.
No clothing to buy.
No perfection to achieve.
Learn to treat your body as a dear, beloved friend and you will reap enormous benefits.
One crucial step to befriending your body is to learn to listen.
When you learn to tune into the messages your body is sending you and to respond intelligently, everything in your life will get better.
Learn to listen to your body and your health, work, creativity, love life, spiritual life, happiness and confidence all dramatically improve. You will be working with your natural needs and desires instead of battling with them.
You may think, “Sounds great, but how do I listen to my body? What does that really even mean?”
Great question. One that I hear a lot from my clients.
And really it doesn’t have to be so hard…
From my decades-long study of yoga, chi-kung, psychology, modern brain science, energy healing and body-centered and expressive therapies I’ve gathered simple, enjoyable and life-changing resources and processes to help you listen to your body.
And I am eager to share them with you.