Listening to the Body Through Illness
By listening, we are opening ourselves up to the deeper knowledge and wisdom of who we are under the surface, deep within the body.
Heal Your Body by Listening to It
by Nicola Lucie
Have you ever noticed how much we have become disconnected from the body? How we have forgotten how to listen to it when something is wrong? Yes, we have started to pay attention, making changes to our diets, bringing in supplements, turning to alternative therapies to relax and soothe, engaging in yoga and meditation and so forth, yet when it comes to the deeper signals the body is trying to communicate to us, we have the tendency to bypass them completely.
We all have something ‘wrong’ with us at some point in our lives – illness, disease, or malaise – manifesting as the physical, the mental, the emotional, sexual, or spiritual. Sometimes we will have to take a day off as a result, while others will completely wipe us out, forcing us to change our lifestyles and our way of being.
We look to the external to heal – the medicines, balms, and therapies – to ease the symptoms, to make them go away, to lighten the load so we can function again as normal. Yet, amidst the crisis, whether long term or short term, in our need to fix and control, to fight, take flight or completely ignore, we miss the vital messages which are signaling an imbalance much deeper than the actual physiological, mental or emotional symptoms.
As a Shamanic Practitioner who specializes in shadow integration work, every woman I have had the honor of working with has something out of balance, and the first question I ask them is – “Have you asked your body why it has manifested this?” Imagine, asking someone who has MS, or Lymes Disease, or even Cancer, why they have manifested it, yet this is the very question that nobody has ever asked them and although they look at me shocked and surprised, and it triggers something in them, the answer is always, no!
Yet it’s the simplest of questions and one that prompts them to suddenly see themselves and their relationship to their body in a completely different light. It’s as if a lightbulb suddenly flashes in their head, and they wonder why they had never thought of this before.
We have invisible conversations in our head every single day, revisiting events, relationships, and interactions that may have caused us distress or discomfort and what we would or wouldn’t say if the opportunity arose again. We converse day in, day out, with other people, personally and professionally, and in fact, there is not a single day that goes by where we do not talk to someone, even if it’s the cat or the dog, or to ourselves.
So why would we not have a conversation with our bodies when it is ill? When it is screaming for our attention to stop and listen? To pay attention, go in and explore what exactly is going on and what is out of balance? The answer is simple, we’re afraid of what we might find, just like we avoid seeking medical assistance as we’re afraid of what they’ll find.
Yet, when we give ourselves permission to actually sit for a moment and ask our bodies what is happening, and why we are feeling like this, we are stepping into our personal power, and suddenly things change pretty quickly. Instead of running, avoiding, and suppressing, we are opening ourselves up to the deeper knowledge and wisdom of who we are under the surface, deep within the body.
I’m not going to lie to you, at first, it’s not easy because we have been conditioned to fear what is hidden from the light of our consciousness, although this is the most rewarding part of the journey.
We are finding the courage to step into our vulnerability, and in doing so, we get the unique opportunity to explore, heal and integrate all that has been causing the imbalance in the first place. We get to understand ourselves on a much deeper level than ever before because we have made the commitment to take control of our bodies, to get to know what is going on inside and work with the body to bring balance back into our lives on every level – physically, emotionally, mentally, sexually, and spiritually.
We’re quite simply coming home, making the decision to get our inner house in order and bring ourselves back into the right relationship with it, rather than staying disconnected, disengaged and dis-embodied. We connect back to the entire eco-system that is the mind, body, emotions, and soul, and this, in the long run, is priceless.
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About the Author
Nicola Lucie is a Shamanic Practitioner, Shadow Work Coach and the creator of Shadow Walking, a deep meditative process that supports women in making friends with their shadow to reveal, heal and integrate all that is hidden there through body consciousness, emotional intelligence and soul healing. She is also a menstrual health advocate who loves to write and travel and has all her life in a suitcase and a rucksack while she looks for a place to call home. nicolalucie.com
