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Current Issue |
One of a Kind News Table of Contents
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 1. Welcome Notes Welcome to five new subscribers this week. I'm honored that you are here. If you would like to review past issues of One of a Kind News, click on Archives List. As I was writing this issue on loving your body, I had an experience that validated for me everything I was writing. I have been feeling very tired lately and didn't know why. So, I asked my body. Soon I knew. My poor body was feeling terrified, threatened and unsafe. What was all of this about? As you long time readers know, I have been working steadily on re-building my life, strengthening my personal foundation. Though I have fixed a lot of cracks and plugged a lot of holes, there were four areas of my life that were still weak. Within a months' time, every one of those areas cracked. Of course my body was feeling fear. Any ones would. As soon as I "got" what was going on, my body fully relaxed for the first time in weeks. My body felt heard. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 2. Love Your Self, Love Your Body When I was younger, my outer body was most important to me. It was important to me to look good. A bad hair day or pimple could make me feel self conscious and out of whack for the whole day. Thank God I've outgrown that! What's most important to me now is how my body feels, both on the physical and the emotional level. I still care about looking good, AND feeling good has become much more important. It's nearly three years ago since I thought I might die. A lifetime of stressful living had taken its toll. I suffered stress exhaustion (burnout). It was my wake-up call. I was lucky. Some wake-up calls come in the form of disease. Once a person experiences stress burnout, it's easy to slip back into it. I can no longer afford stress. I can no longer ignore the needs of my body. To keep living in this world, I've had to completely change the way I live my life. I've had to learn to love my body from the inside out. Surviving stress burnout has been a gift to me. It has given me the opportunity to look at life in a new way. I've learned to question our culturally programmed ways of living; the unnatural way most of us live our lives. Our emphasis on going faster, having more, multi-tasking, fueling our bodies with adrenaline, and allowing the media and advertising to brainwash us is killing us. We all need to slow down. Burnout made me do that. I am so grateful. Our bodies are awesome creations! Given the right environment, they naturally renew and restore themselves over and over again. All you have to do to appreciate the healing power of your body is to watch a wound heal. We take it for granted, but think about the miracle of that! We all know that to be healthy we need to exercise, eat right and get plenty of rest. These things are important. However, you can do all of these and still be unhealthy if you haven't created an environment conducive to healing. How do we create such an environment? We need to listen to our bodies. Have you ever wished that you had a "wise being" with you all of the time to give you guidance and answer your questions? You do! Your body is a "wise being". Your body communicates to you in each and every moment by feelings of comfort and discomfort. Do you listen? I didn't until I had to. Now I do. Let your body: 1. Make you aware of your thoughts. We are always either thinking thoughts of love or thoughts of fear. There are no neutral thoughts. When you are coming from a place of love, your body will feel comfort and strength; this leads to health. When you are coming from a place of fear, your body will feel discomfort and weakness; this leads away from health. Fear weakens us; love strengthens us. Let your body teach you to use your mind for your highest good. 2. Tell you what's true for you in any circumstance. Before you say something, ask your body if it's true. Your body will tell you. It never lies. If you are about to tell less than the truth, your body will feel weak. If your intention is to tell the truth, your body will feel strong. When we tell a lie or make a negative statement, our muscles go weak. When we tell our truth or make a positive statement, our muscles go strong. This can be proved by a technique called "muscle testing." (If you want more information on muscle testing, see the Resources section) 3. Help you make decisions. If you have a choice to make, imagine each alternative, one at a time, and see how your body feels. If your body feels discomfort, it's saying "no". That alternative may not be a wise choice. If your body feels comfort, you are probably onto something good for you, your body is saying "yes". 4. Teach you to say "no". Most of us don't say "no" enough. Pay attention to those times when you betray yourself, when you say "yes" when you really want to say "no". Notice how your body feels. It will feel weak. When you are true to yourself and say "no" when you want to say "no", your body will feel strong. 5. Guide you in doing only those things that make you feel good about yourself. We are all tempted, at times, to short-circuit our conscience. The gain of doing so is never worth the cost of feeling bad about oneself. If you listen, your body will keep you in integrity. 6. Guide you in managing your money. Most of us buy way too much stuff! We often spend money we can ill afford on things that give us short-lived pleasure. When you are about to buy one more thing, ask your body for its advice. If you feel discomfort in the form of anxiety, your body is telling you not to buy it. 7. Choose your relationships. Pay attention to how your body feels around different people. Some people are good for you and some are not. Your body will tell you. Pay attention to the energy flow. If all of the energy is consistently going one way, to the other person, you are being drained and weakened. Healthy relationships are those in which the energy flows back and forth in a mutual manner. It is possible to love someone and still not want to spend time with them. 8. Help you decide on your physical environment. Notice how you feel in different environments. How does your body feel in a room full of clutter? How does your body feel in a room with order, simplicity and lots of empty space? Experiment with your environment; try different things until you find what gives your body comfort. This applies to both your work and your home environment. 9. Tell you what is good and what is not good for you. Notice what energizes your body and what drains it. When you feel energized, your body is strengthened. When you feel drained, your body is weakened. Let your body tell you what to bring more of into your life and what to eliminate. This could include such things as activities, food and drink, material items and people. 10. And last but not least, let your body rest when it's tired. We often override our body's natural rhythms. We push our bodies when they are tired. Listen to your body and rest when you are tired. There is great wisdom in taking a Sabbath once a week, a day to step away from the cares of the world and re-connect with your Self and your Spirit. Consider taking a sabbatical once or twice a year. Your body will thank you. Practice ALWAYS keeping some of your attention on your inner body. Look within at least as much as you look outside. This practice will keep you centered, grounded and strong. You will be much less vulnerable to anything that weakens your body. And LISTEN to your bodies' messages! Just like people will do everything they can to be heard, your body will too. If your body needs you to hear something, it will keep telling you until you hear. The messages will keep getting louder until you "get it". This may be in the form of symptoms. They may start small, like a stomachache. Listen to that stomachache; don't wait until it becomes something more serious. God gave you many avenues to access wisdom in navigating this physical world. Your body is an important one of those avenues. If you listen to its' messages, your body will show you how to take care of it and your Self. When you love your body in this way, you are creating an environment for greater health, vitality and peace. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"The personal issue is whether the things we are doing day by day are done in a conscious and balanced way or are part of a pain ridden struggle. If yours is the latter method, stop!" --Raymond A. Dart "It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves and it is not possible to find it elsewhere." --Agnes Repplier "Like an ability of a muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened by doing it." --Robbie Gass "Many people can listen to their cat more intelligently than they can listen to their own despised body. Because they attend to their pet in a cherishing way, it returns their love. Their body, however, may have to let out an earth-shattering scream in order to be heart at all." --Marion Woodman = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Your Body Doesn't Lie, by John Diamond, MD Your Body Believes Every Word You Say, by Barbara Hoberman Levine Coming Home To Your Body, 365 Simple Ways to Nourish Yourself Inside and Out, by Carmen Renee Berry = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Count your garden by the flowers, Blessings to you and yours, Sharon = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
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