Know Your Own Body
Being aware of your own environment - inside and out - can help you to notice when there are early warning signs that things need to change. We are often so busy living our lives that we don’t make time to really notice how we feel inside and what’s going on around us on the outside. We might be super grumpy with the kids and put it down to them being extremely irritating, rather than noticing that we have a short fuse and are more prone to irritation. We might start feeling more tired more often, simply from the drain of living life outside our comfort zone - that’s definitely a theme in 2020.
Our bodies and minds do give us clues if we choose to listen to them. They tend to start small but they will build if we don’t pay attention to them until we eventually get forced to change. I’ve worked with people who every year get the same physical health issue - really clearly their body is telling them something is out of balance; forcing them to stop and rest after burning themselves out for a year. I’ve also worked with a client who had a suspected heart attack in their late 30s - it was a really big sign from the body that something had to change. And of course it didn’t actually come out of nowhere, although it seemed to. That person had been experiencing physical feelings of stress and other twinges but had ignored them until they were lying on a hospital trolley, fearing for their life.
For me, I know that one of my early warning signs that I need to pay attention to is that I get a sore throat. I used to see it as my ‘weak spot’ - the first place I’d start to suffer if I was fighting off a bug, in the same way that some people get migraines or gastro issues, it’s always my throat that gets affected. Now though I’ve started to pay more attention to what it’s telling me - is there somewhere I’m not speaking my truth? Is there too much pressure on me and I need to rest? Is there something in my life that’s out of balance? I try now to notice what’s going on in my body and, when something feels not right, to reflect on what might be happening and what my body might be telling me - of course sometimes I just get frustrated and forget to get curious, but I am still human and that’s only natural!
