Nutrition is something your body understands. It doesn’t need a college degree, or even a high school diploma to figure out what it requires to be healthy. And it tells you in not-so-subtle terms how well you are meeting those nutritional needs. Your body talks.
When you understand the nutritional feedback language of your body, you can take actions that can save you grief – even save your life.
See that spare tire spreading around your middle? Your body is talking. No energy when you wake up in the morning? That’s clear communication.
See that uneven, splotchy surface to your skin? More talking going on.
Of course you know your body talks. We all do.
What is going on when your excess weight is talking but you ignore it and choose to eat something you know you shouldn’t? Remember that heavy meal last night, and how tired you were getting out of bed this morning? Your body says they are connected… why aren’t you listening?
Have you told your body to shut up, and bribed it with laxatives, antiacids, or maybe Prevacid or Tagament?
How do you get to the point that you quit listening to your body? Or try to talk it out of its strong opinions with drug store remedies? Or Weight Watchers?
Your body deserves a lot more respect than that. It deserves to be listened to. Doesn’t it?
But unlike a chatty spouse, you can’t just chalk up your body-talk to a difference of opinion. Your body is going to keep doing – saying – what it needs to, to express its strong opinions. Like a loving partner, your body is hoping that one day you will listen, and change what you have been ignoring.
Why don’t you listen to your body?
Why don’t you comply with your body’s requests to change what you eat, how you exercise, and your need for proper sleep and less stress?
Only a few real answers to that question. Either you don’t believe what your body is telling you, or you don’t care. Or perhaps you don’t believe you can make changes that will make a difference. Which is it for you?
It really just gets down to your sense of self, your feelings of self worth. And, in this case, that is rooted in your sense of connectedness to your body. Many people tell me they see themselves as one thing, and their body as another. They feel disconnected from their body.
Others tell me they are tired of arguing with their body – it never seems to do what they want it to do. So, on most days they just give up, and ignore it.
A beautiful relationship develops by listening
What about the healthy people that I know? Each loves their body, and wouldn’t think of not listening to it. Each respects the beautiful simplicity of what their body is telling them all day long. And in listening, they have come to a peace, a beautiful relationship with their body. They are so close to their body, they think of themselves as one with it – true soul-mates experiencing all that life has to offer. A life they share as one.
If your body is telling you, with its excess weight, incessant tiredness, its skin problems, and general sluggishness, that you need to change something, and it has been telling you that for a very long time, then stop. Ask yourself if you count.
Are you worth being a good listener?
Are you worth being a vibrant person in this world? Because, if you are not worth it, then maybe you have been doing the right thing in ignoring your body’s needs. Keep going your separate ways. Of course that will lead to a divorce one day, a sad and unhappy separation is in your future. It will be costly, and come sooner rather than later.
But if you are worth it, if you truly feel you want to live a vibrant, happy life, then take some time and begin listening to your body. It has a lot to tell you, and believe me, if you listen, and respond, your body will begin leading you back to the joyous health you have been missing.
Remember, you don’t need a college degree, high school diploma, or even a marriage counsellor to learn to listen to and understand your body’s language.
The first step to begin that amazing listening journey is your next bite. Consider that what your mouth is hungry for – is it really what your body is craving? If you will listen to that key difference, you are on the path to a harmonious life together – you and your body can become one.
