Belated Happy New Year! I'm so glad I can write you today. I had no idea I would catch a cold/flu the first week of the year. In order to get well, I had to cancel my appointments, ask someone for support, drink chicken soup, take it easy and rest.
By the grace of God, I recovered in a week and was able to resume my work, including giving two presentations. I am so grateful for my health!
The body holds much of the information we need to function at our best, but too often we ignore its messages and plow ahead with what our minds tell us. Perhaps because we’re not taught from early on to pay attention to internal messages as well as external demands, we frequently ignore our body’s communications.
By the grace of God, I recovered in a week and was able to resume my work, including giving two presentations. I am so grateful for my health!
The body holds much of the information we need to function at our best, but too often we ignore its messages and plow ahead with what our minds tell us. Perhaps because we’re not taught from early on to pay attention to internal messages as well as external demands, we frequently ignore our body’s communications.
So we take another
extra-strength aspirin rather than investigating what’s causing our head to
ache. We use more caffeine or sugar to give us a lift when we feel tired,
rather than hearing our body’s message about needing rest or recognizing our
fatigue as an early symptom of burnout we’d do well to heed. A look at little children may be all the message we need about the value of naps.
We fail to take into
account the thousand little messages communicated to us by how we’re holding
ourselves: the mouth that’s pinched and tight rather than relaxed. The fact
that our shoulders are up around our ears, the knot of tension in our stomach
as we promise to do something when closer consideration might tell us we are
already over-extended.
These days we’re
notorious for putting deadlines ahead of the protests of aching bones or
inadequately nourished bellies. (Is there hidden wisdom in calling a due date a
deadline in the first place?) Instead
of asking our body what it wants, we go for the quick fill-up or the comfort
food that may be the last thing we really need.
So what to do to give
your body an equal say in how you use it?
Start with the breath. Breathing consciously is
a major part of body awareness. Turn off thoughts and just let yourself
experience the inflow and outflow of breath. Label them, “In. Out. In. Out.”
Note how and where you are breathing or failing to, a clear sign something
important is going on. Thank God for every breath.
Allow yourself quiet
time. Sit for ten minutes just
observing yourself, even (especially!) in the middle of a busy day. Meditate on Scripture and pray.
Take a walk or a nap. Allow time to do nothing. Soak in a hot tub rather than
taking a quick shower.
Get a massage. It’s not
self-indulgence to be massaged; it wakes up the whole nervous system and helps
you tune in. I am very blessed that my husband readily massages my neck and shoulder when I feel tensed.
Use your journal to
dialogue with your body. Ask your body how it’s feeling, what it wants, what’s going on.
Give that sore wrist or stiff lower back a voice and let it tell you what its
message is.
Eat when hungry, sleep
when tired. Take a week and really
pay attention to your body’s most basic needs. Do your real rhythms for eating
and sleeping conform to the habits you’ve established? If they don’t, change
them!
Do a body inventory to
relax. Start with your toes and
work upwards. Scan your body from the inside. Or try tensing each part
slightly, then relaxing it to release residual tension.
Practice mindfulness. Get used to tuning in
to your physical self, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing.
Reflect on spiritual truth. Nobody likes to be sick, not even a common cold. Being sick interrupts our plans. But isn't there more to life than just our physical wellness and existence?
Life is short. Half of January 2017 is over. Do you know what is special about January 28th this year?
It's Chinese New Year, and also my 28th birthday of new life in Christ. I'm so grateful to be alive and living in a community of love and unity!
"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ ... But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it" (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)
If we need to take care of our physical body, isn't it more important for us to take good care of the Body of Christ? Have you been listening?
Reflect on spiritual truth. Nobody likes to be sick, not even a common cold. Being sick interrupts our plans. But isn't there more to life than just our physical wellness and existence?
Life is short. Half of January 2017 is over. Do you know what is special about January 28th this year?
It's Chinese New Year, and also my 28th birthday of new life in Christ. I'm so grateful to be alive and living in a community of love and unity!
"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ ... But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it" (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)
If we need to take care of our physical body, isn't it more important for us to take good care of the Body of Christ? Have you been listening?
Author's content used under license, © Claire Communications
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