The Importance of Body Awareness
When it comes to our health, nothing, and I truly do mean nothing, is more important than how aware we are of our bodies.
You see our bodies are great communicators, naturally sending us signals and cues in order to show us how it feels and what it needs. Rather it be through tiredness from not enough sleep, a headache from dehydration, or bloating from eating either too much or a combination of foods that don’t agree with us, we all have a unique physical vessel that we’re responsible of taking care of.
However, by nature, us humans are creatures of habit. And sometimes depending on how hard wired those habits are, we can continue going down a path of doing the same monotonous routines over and over again. Is there anything innately wrong with this?
No.
However, when patterns are no longer serving us, it requires a what can sometimes feel like monumental shift (aka a shock to our systems),in order to wake us up to doing something new.
We usually wait till you know what hits the fan and then BOOM. We don’t have a choice but to make a change.
Or we may even still stubbornly ignore those cues, leading to an even deeper whole for us to have to crawl out of.
It goes without being said but our external world is but a direct reflection of the power of our internal thoughts.
The thoughts we put the most absolute attention to, are a precursor for the actions we decide to take.
If we knowingly had a roadmap to the divine human spacesuit that makes up our physical bodies, then wouldn’t it be a no-brainer to follow the manuscript that is going to take us to where we ultimately desire to be?
See we all have two distinct nervous systems –
Parasympathetic nervous system (PNS)
Sympathetic nervous system (SNS)
The parasympathetic is our “rest and relax” system. This is when our body is at its most calm state. Our cortisol (stress hormones) levels are low and our body is operating at its most conducive state for creativity and progressive action.
While in this state we’re also able to more efficiently digest our foods, quiet our minds, and more easily access and interpret our bodies cues.
You see this is the opposite state of being stressed.
Imagine how you feel when listening to your favorite music, hanging out in nature, or laying down and reading your favorite book. It’s naturally during these times when you feel at most peace (or at least I do).
It is from this place where you’re able to better listen to the insights that we all innately receive on a day-to-day basis.
However it wouldn’t be logically possible to grow without some form of stress (as this is what alerts our bodies and helps us take tangible actions to improve our lives).
This is where the sympathetic nervous system comes into play. The sympathetic, or our bodies “fight or flight” system, is what effectively protects us from danger.
An example from early human existence would be the need to hunt our own food out in the wild of nature.
If we spotted a bear or lion creeping up on us, then our bodies would naturally activate the sympathetic system in order to alert us to make a quick decision. We’d either need to fight the animal (which I think we all know how that would end) or quickly retreat or run into a safer area.
Our breathing becomes shallow, digestion is practically turned off, and we produce high levels of cortisol. This chain of events activates our release of hormone adrenaline (causing our hearts to beat faster too).
Unfortunately, some of us are living in this constant state of bodily stress much more often than what is needed for us to operate at our best.
While in this state, the creative right side of our brain is literally mute, due to the high amounts of energy the body places on its sheer survival.
For many of us, this is the primary reason we’re disconnected from our bodies. As I mentioned earlier, when we’re in the parasympathetic state (rest & relaxation), we are able to listen and hear more of the unique bodily cues and insights that are crucial for us to progress forward and consciously create the reality in which we all deeply aspire to live.
Knowing this, wouldn’t it make sense to spend more time doing things that help to activate the more relaxed state?
Everything we do is communicated to the body at a cellular level.
How we talk to ourselves, the foods we eat, the type of exercises we perform, and the people we surround ourselves with is a direct reflection of how we feel about ourselves.
Actions always speak louder than words, and when we’re able to synchronistically align our inner selves with the outer projection of who wedesire to be, then we’re able to fully tap into who we’re truly meant to be.
There are many ways to do this, but ultimately life is an individual game that we all share in on a collective level.
The more we take care of ourselves, the more we’re able to energetically tap into our highest self.
We’ve all experienced different breakthroughs at various times in our lives. One of the easiest is when we first started walking or riding our bikes.
We fell down many times and lost control. However each time we fell down, we gained more and more muscle memory, which ultimately over time created an experience in which we continually adapted until we reached our desired goal (of finally walking or riding).
Take a moment and think about what this means for your body(and all the years it’s been doing something a certain way).
Are there any patterns that you’re able to identify that are no longer serving you?
For me it’s been a multitude on different layers of rewiring new habits.
From eating highly processed foods, consuming too much caffeine, working in a corporate career I no longer loved, using alcohol and television as emotional suppression tools, and intimately feeling like I was nothing but a human breathing machine (as I felt no inner drive or sense of purpose), I understand how it feels to be in the middle of a phase that feels unbreakable.
These are best times for breakthroughs.
We get absolutely sick and tired of making excuses for ourselves and why we can’t do something.
We trace back the patterns that have led to our current state of affairs, and what we see provides us an inflamed spark to change.
We truly do feel it.
We look at ourselves deeply (no mirror necessary).
We then start to focus our attention on what it is that we truly want.
Not only that, we become very clear with our answer to the question of “why?”
What used to hold us down, now fuels us.
We play uplifting mental games with ourselves.
We laugh at the limiting thoughts of our smaller self.
We see clearly how he tries to innocently protect us.
How he only wants us to be safe and avoid harm.
However what he considers harmful is nothing but an illusion.
It’s our brain and bodies defensive systems firing due to not having strong neural and physiological connections to the newly forming behavior.
This leaves us with a genuine question, which we must authentically ask ourselves, whenever our bodies and minds are overcome by fear.
Is my life truly in danger by performing this task or activity?
Or is my nervous system just firing stress hormones with the intention of protecting me?
If the answer is yes to the first one, then trust your gut and choose the option that keeps your physical existence intact.
However if your yes leans more as the answer to the second question, then just remember to be gentle with yourself, as you take your next best step forward.
For when we begin the creation of turning old non-serving habits into new ones, over time what once felt like a chore to establish, soon becomes another habit which we’ll inevitably need to check-in again and ask ourselves:
Is this habit truly serving my most powerful expression and leading me to my highest purpose?
And at this point you’ll have such clarity around the answer to it that you’ll remember how the previous habit was formed, and hopefully make the decision to consciously lean into that temporary discomfort again, which proves to be a catalyst for our next evolution of growth.
If this message deeply speaks to you and you’d like more personal support in completely transforming your health from the inside out, click here or in the link below,I’d love to have a conversation with you to see if I may be able to assist.
With Love,
Brandon