Woof!Woof! Happy to be on the trails again!!!
Any part of your body has a lot to tell you. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: Invisible Action – November, 2011)
When we use our will and choose to listen, our cells provide valuable information that supports us to make choices that result in our being vibrant, healthy, and strong; not just physically, but mentally and spiritually as well. The body is wise and, as I’ve recently experienced, listening deeply can be humbling.
Experiencing a bout of discomfort and low energy along with an intuitive sense that something internal wasn’t working optimally, I sought to identify the source. As quickly as I described these symptoms to a local DCM (Doctor of Chinese Medicine), she suggested ‘gallbladder’. Ugh! Before I could rein them in my thoughts were racing to thoughts of gallstones, surgery, bland food … Whoa!!
I paused. I listened. First to the doc and her recommendations for dietary changes (no, it doesn’t have to be bland, but do curb the hot sauce and greasy fries for now), a formula of Chinese herbs, and, eventually a GB cleanse. Whew! No need to call 911 and race to the hospital. Her suggestions felt right on target.
As I made the adjustments and began to feel a bit more energy, my curiosity kicked in. What in my thinking – conscious and not – could be underneath these physical systems? Louise Hay’s Classic You Can Heal Your Body quickly confirmed my hunch that pointed to bitterness, disdain, irritation, rancor, audacity …
What is and/or was so galling to me that my gallbladder sounded the call to attention? Gulp. Dare I look at my sometimes harsh judgements and the language that follows when I observe the news, read Facebook posts, or even in conversation with someone whose views differ from my own? Dang, I thought I ‘that’ under perfect control. What audacity to think so!
I scratched a little deeper and found that part of me that loathes how the world conspires to pull me into its darkness, the part of me that fears I might respond, and the part of me that sometimes, when my will is weak and my awareness not strong, does pull me in. Self-honesty is a (rhymes with) stitch, a humbling one, but her rewards are vast, going beyond to gaining self-knowledge that refines to wisdom someday. And gallbladder care, indeed care for the whole body, doesn’t stop with addressing physical symptoms.
We live in a world that aims to distract us from deeply listening to the knowledge and wisdom of our bodies and nature and one another. For example, ads for all manner of drugs break up segments of mind numbing programming, each suggesting that they know best what our ‘problem’ is and what we need to fix it.
The world and its systems would have us believe that they and it know us better than we know ourselves. Perhaps, but for me, I’m aiming to listen to my body first. I’ll call on the world when that seems like my best course of action.
High Above Town in the National Forest