Many of us, and I have to sheepishly admit that I was guilty of this until about ten years ago or so, live completely from the neck up.
We think the mind is all that matters. We suppress, deny and distract ourselves from our emotions and we see our body as a meat suit that helps us move from place to place and houses the important stuff like our brain and mind!
But the body is like our very own GPS. Signs and symptoms are feedback of where we've lost our alignment with ourselves; where we've gone off track chased too hard; hustled too much; lost touch with who we are and what we would love.
Emotions are also part of this body GPS. Emotions are feedback of where we have attachments - likes and dislikes. We only develop those because we filter everything that comes in through our senses through the lens of what we think supports us and what we think challenges us. If something is perceived to be supportive, we call it good and it causes 'positive' emotions and vice versa.
Information comes in through our senses, we generate a thought about that information, which then generates an emotion, the brain releases chemicals that 'transport' that emotion to all the cells in the body. The more emotional we become, the more similar thoughts are generated and that reinforces the emotion. Joe Dispenza calls this the 'thinking-feeling' loop.
Because negative emotions make us uncomfortable, we try to rationalise them away and then think we're being 'mindful' or 'zen' when actually we're mostly just suppressing.
Emotions are like small children that want attention. If you ignore children for too long they usually do something 'bad' to attract the attention they require. If you suppress emotions too often, they can show up in your life as all sorts of sabotaging behaviour: too much time on social media, eating excessively, drinking too much, working too hard, overexercising etc. etc.
So what do you do when you've taken a wrong turn in your car and the GPS points it out? You wait for it to reroute and then you make your way back onto the correct road. You don't judge the GPS or the car. You just accept that you need to course correct and then follow the new route.
When you learn to pay attention to your body and your emotions, see what the feedback is that you're getting from them, you free up your energy. If you don't judge yourself but just course correct, life becomes more effortless.
Your mind and body become clearer, lighter and more resilient.
The problem is that to many of us, even when we realise that the GPS is trying to reroute us, it seems it's speaking a language we don't understand. Luckily there are many skilled professionals that 'speak GPS' so if you can't decipher the signals yourself, get someone to help you.
Your rational mind will give you a thousand sound reasons why you don't need help or cannot stop what you're doing and don't need to change. Just remember this: no one ever punished themselves to health or happiness successfully.
They may have made more money, wore a smaller clothing size, lifted a heavier weight in the gym or finished the marathon but accomplishment isn't always 'success'.
Joy and fulfilment are what I consider measures of success and ironically the more of those you have, the more energy you have and generally the more this joy is reflected as success in the world.
Punishment is an antidote to joy and fulfilment
It's time we learnt a new way of viewing the body, health and even success.
Nourishing instead of punishing. Wouldn't it be great if that became the new normal?
I've made it my life's work to learn the language of the body so that I can help others understand what their internal GPS is saying to them.
I'd love to help you get into a more aligned space with yourself and have you experience the joy and freedom of optimal health and high vitality!
Contact me if you'd like to set up a free discovery call to see if I can help you: loretta@lorettaferrucci.co.za