IS YOUR BODY TRYING TO TALK TO YOU?

I honestly never gave this subject much thought. My body and I didn't really communicate-I guess you could say that we pretty much weren't on speaking terms. It didn't tell me when it was full, didn't tell me that it needed to exercise, didn't tell me much of anything. Or maybe it did but I wasn't listening to it. About the only thing it regularly told me was that it was hungry or tired or cold or hurting. Not a very big selection, and all pain-related in some way. But that has recently changed.

It started after I got home from Ashram. I knew that the miracle that I believed God was giving me was going to come through my work as well as his intervention (no, I don't believe all miracles happen this way, but I felt that this one would. I needed to step into a better lifestyle as well as being healed). In order to do that, I decided to do water aerobics three times a week and water yoga on Saturdays.

I felt that was a great start, but I wanted to do something on the other days--something that would help me with the achiness that was a normal part of a new exercise routine. So I started yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sunday was my day off :).

I didn't realize what I was in for. The first thing that you're told to do is to sit quietly and listen to your body. If you haven't done yoga or meditation you might not believe this, but my body was quite happy to start talking! Not about aches and pains--about sadness and grief. Certain parts of my body were not healed, although I had been spiritually long ago. I suffer from kidney disease and other related issues (to go into them would be TMI!), and that part of my body seemed to be crying. I can't explain it any better than that. I know now that my woundedness was not only mental; it was also physical. Just sitting and paying attention to that was important.

If you are like me-a survivor of some sort of abuse, whether it be mental, emotional, sexual, or whatever, it might do you good to really meditate on your body. Listen to what it's telling you. See if you can understand what kind of intervention may be needed. Some people might need to come into a new relationship with wounded body parts. For example, if you were raped, you might have turned off your ability to feel and respond to your feminine parts (again, not going in depth because of TMI, but if this applies to you you know what I mean). If you are a man who was constantly abused and bullied because of a body part, you might have turned away from that part because of the shame you felt with that bullying.

What can you do about disfunction within your own body? It depends. For some, I think it means that you begin an intentional relationship with that part in particular. If your shoulders and neck constantly hurt, you can consciously say, "My stress doesn't belong here. I give it to God. He has bigger shoulders than I do." That is intentional in that you are concentrating on your shoulders and possibly stretching them or circling them as you do.

For others, that may not be what's needed. It's possible that the damage done was deeper than you can handle yourself. You might want to go to someone who you can talk to and pray with to heal your body, specifically that part. This is especially true if your pain occurred in numerous different ways and through numerous people.

For still others, your body is trying to alert you to a danger that you can't see. If you are feeling a physical pain instead of or in addition to the spiritual or emotional pain, I would really advise seeing your doctor.

For many of us, it's a combination of all three. For example, my pain was both spiritual and physical. I'm planning to pray comfort to that area, but I think that it's also wise to see a gynecologist. If my prayers don't avail, I will seek out a prayer warrior to pray with me.

So however your body speaks to you, please do listen to it. If you find that you have divorced yourself due to pain or hurt, it's time to bring that relationship to life again. You won't regret it.