The Wisdom of The Body…

Dear Body,

Are you there?

Always.

I feel lumpy today.

Maybe the way you’ve been eating this past week?

Past two weeks, actually, and yes.  I really lost touch with you.  Even with the visualizations, I lost touch with you.  I’m sorry.  I guess I let the visualizations take over, thinking they’d have the same effect as me loving on you.  They don’t.

Live and learn, hey?

Yes. Live and learn.  I really don’t feel well.  My tummy hurts.  I feel bloated.  But I got tired of all that ‘good’ food!  I wanted ‘bad’ food!

It’ll take some time to make changes, don’t be hard on yourself. What’s wonderful is that you are able, after only two weeks, to re-connect with me.  That never used to happen…

Yes, I will be happy about that.  But, how do I lose the cravings for the not-so-good stuff?

Be mindful.  Be mindful of what I tell you I want and need.  And then (and this seems a bit funny) ask the food you are about to put in to your mouth.  Ask the potato chips.  Ask the ice cream…..what are you going to do for my body?  And from there, you can make a plain choice.  The most important thing is that what you put into your mouth is  a conscious choice.  Not a mindless act.

But, if I keep messing up, how will I get anywhere?

With time.  And practice.  And patience.  Most of all,  with love.  I did not get  into this state overnight.  It was years of mindlessness.  It will take time.  And persistence.   And deciding to never give up, no matter how big the mess-up seems.

But, I want it now!

Everyone wants it now.  That’s the society we find ourselves in.  But now often means beating up on me to get to where you want. Or starving me.  Or pushing me too hard.  You don’t have to beat up on me to get to the place you wish to be.  I’m not that stubborn.  I do want what you want.  I’ve always wanted it.  You just haven’t been in the same mind, until now.  But, the undoing of all that has gone before will take patience.  Once I really begin to feel safe, you will see changes. I promise.

Do you feel safe?

Not entirely, no.  Safer than I ever have before.  But I guess I need some proof that you are really, finally, in this with me.  That we’re finally working toward the same goal.  The goal of better health.  The fact that you’ve been eating poorly again, and have realized it quite quickly, and are here right now….that speaks volumes.  This is the kind of behavior I need to see…consistently.  Then I will believe.

Hey, body?  I’m really, truly sorry for all these years that have passed that I have not been able to acknowledge you.

I know that.  I’m just really glad you’ve arrived in the place where you can now see that I am alive, and wishing to have a relationship with you.  Thank you so much for the BodyLove that you’ve been doing.  It means a whole lot to me.

Thank you so much for everything.  I’m glad we’re once again on the same page.

Me too.

I love you, body. I appreciate you so much.

Thank you, Chere.  That means a lot.  I love you, as well.  Very, very much.  And it makes me so happy that we’re working together, now.  The slip ups don’t matter….as long as you keep on loving me despite them…as long as you recognize them and come home to me again….

Big hugs, beautiful body.

Hugs right back! 🙂

 

It’s the Funniest Thing….

It seems the moment I committed to producing more, better content on my blog…..my mind went blank. Is that Murphy’s law, or some other kind of law, you think?  I have been totally uninspired to write this whole past week.  Even though things are going swimmingly as far as my self care – as of yesterday, my doctor’s scale tells me I’ve lost 15 pounds!  Yay for me!

So, I guess I could write about my weight loss!  What have I been doing? Dieting? Nope, not at all.  For the past few months, I’ve been doing a 5 – 8 minute weight training regime first thing in the morning, followed by about 20 minutes of Qi Gong.  I found this weight training regime right here .  I’ve added a few things to it, so it’s a bit more than 5 minutes, but I started doing it because I thought to myself, well, I surely can do 5 minutes, right?

But, I think it’s more than just exercise, honestly.  For a very long time, I’ve had the sense that until I began to love my own body…until my body actually felt safe enough,  I would never lose the weight I wanted to lose.  So (and I’ve written about this, as well, on here), I began to physically tell and show my body that I loved it.  I began to do this with touch, and with my own visualizations, several times a week.  I began to constantly remind my body that she was loved, and that she was safe.  As I’ve said before, no one ever told me or showed me how to do this.  I just began to sense within myself that it was the next step in my self care regime, and just decided to start doing it on my own.

Imagine my surprise, then, when recently, during the WISH summit, I listened to an audio interview from Jon Gabriel of The Gabriel Method .  Jon’s premise is that weight loss is a mind-body thing, and that if the body does not feel safe, it will hold on to weight.  He has comprised a whole system, including visualization (which I’ve already been doing!!) to create safety for our body in several different ways.  I was amazed at what he said, and it resonated deeply with me.  I have recently purchased his Total Transformation package, and am in the process of reading his book and using his visualizations.

Jon’s ideas made complete sense to me.  And already doing what he says needs to be done, without even knowing about his ideas till quite recently, well, I’ve lost 15 pounds!

While this sounds like an advertisement, it is certainly not meant to be.   And I get nothing for sharing these links with you. You are welcome to check out his website if it interests you.  I’m talking about this because my own inner sense of knowing understood that I will never, ever lose weight if I’m constantly hating myself.

In the beginning of doing these exercises on myself, I kind of had to ‘fake it till I make it‘.  I was not honestly happy with my body, not at all.  But as I began to do these things several times a week, consistently, not giving up, something began to shift inside me.  I began to realize all that my body has been doing for me, every single second, every single minute of every day….to keep me functioning and healthy.   Even in the midst of all my blatant abuse of my own health, my body has kept on keeping on…

And you know what?  I began to apologize to my own body.  Yes, I did.  Because I realized my body has been fighting against my abuse of her, my whole life.  I began to feel genuinely sorry that I had not treated her well, at all.  And in feeling genuinely sorry, I believe I began to ‘wake up’ to what I was doing.  That ‘waking up’ has caused me to be aware of what I put into my mouth, more often.  It is happening gradually…it has not changed overnight.  But I have actually become more aware of how my body feels when I feed her certain things. I began to feel what she has felt like all these years when I stuff her with all the wrong kinds of food…

And, my desire to feed her more healthy foods has grown out of this.  Also, my desire to move my body has increased.  And while there are still days that I’m not doing my best, I no longer beat up on myself.  Instead, I just get right back to being intentional about my health.

So much has changed, just in these past few months.  And I cannot help but feel it has begun to change with my realization that I can no longer afford to berate myself.  Those days must stay behind me, if I am to move forward with my own self care.  True Love for my own body must now accompany me where ever I go…

Re-reading this, it sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it?  I mean, who in their right mind loves on their body, after all?  Well, I do!  And strange or not strange, I believe that listening to my inner self in this regard has been the most important thing I’ve done toward my self care in a long while….

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Caution: Busy Week Ahead

I just realized this instant that it’s 10 pm – my bedtime.  And here I am just beginning a new post.  I guess I’d better type fast – 5:30 rising tomorrow, to go spend the day with my grandson, Ronan. Yay!

It’s been a busy 2 days, and as I’ve emptied closets and gone through boxes I’ve had to talk myself down from overwhelm several times.  Man alive, I don’t know where all this ‘stuff’ has come from, but if I have my way (and I will!) it’ll be gone in a few days…and I’ll only keep as much as is absolutely necessary.

It’s going to be one of those weeks.  Four days till moving day, and one of my bosses has also decided that a donor letter must be sent out by the end of the week….why, oh why?  We seem to be famous for leaving things till the very last minute at my place of work, and it’s so not fun!  Considering I’m only in the office for 2 days this week……well, those 2 days are gonna be crazy. And then the move…

I am making progress with my self care routine.  This morning, before I even got out of bed, I spent some time loving on my body – that is, thanking her for the amazing job she does for me every moment of every day.  And then I made a plan for the day. Once out of bed, I managed 5 minutes ofweight bearing exercise , then spent about 15-20 minutes doing qigong.   I’ve been reading up on the benefits of dry brushing , and bought myself a natural bristle brush the other week, so I spent some time learning how to properly do that.  Dry brushing has many benefits, the biggest one is helping to keep the lymphatic system open and draining.

Then, I followed that up with a shower and moisturized my body with coconut oil .  I swear I’m really getting into this self-care thing!  The one downside is, it can be time consuming, when up till now I’ve been the-ready-to-go-out-the-door-way-before-anyone-else-kinda-gal.  But when I do these things I feel fabulous!  And the more I do them, the more I want to do them! I like feeling fabulous!

I’ve been reading up on natural DIY beauty products and also found a recipe for DIY deodorant that is chemical free.  I’m becoming more and more aware of the chemicals we drown our bodies in on a day to day basis, and it makes me uncomfortable.  As soon as I am able, I’m going to try these recipes!  You can find these (and much more) over at the  Wellness Mama blog…

I’m also reading up on the benefits of green smoothies.  Do I dare try them? To think I’ve never in my life EVER been concerned with ANY of this stuff before now.  I think my inner hippie is emerging…. 🙂