Listening to heal your body
Listening: the act of hearing attentively - webster’s dictionary.
Let that sink in a minute. The act of hearing attentively.
For years I thought I was a good listener. Working in the service industry I was all the time “listening” to people. I heard about travels, births of children and grandchildren, birthdays, funerals, things that were challenging, and times of celebration!
I have recently been on a journey of growth and self-discovery. The journey began when I started a health coaching program back in June. I thought the program would be a way for me to move back in to the wellness profession from a different field – develop professionally. But it has been so much more than that. I have learned about self-care practices, functional medicine, positive psychology, and motivational interviewing. The art of listening has taken on an entirely new meaning.
Listening for me now means – slowing down, feeling and noticing my breath, watching others nonverbals intently, processing words and reflecting back what I hear. It means bringing awareness to how certain foods make me feel after I have eaten them. It means awareness to when my body is getting sleepy and checking with it to see if it needs movement or a nap. Honestly, for me, it has meant doing hard work on self-awareness, vulnerability, and grace.
Article after article, book after book, talks about the benefits of slowing down, pausing, listening to the voice within and sounds around. I recently heard mindfulness and listening practices for the brain compared to strength training and cardiovascular exercise for the body. We would not expect our bodies to wake up and run a marathon without training for it (well at least most of us!). We alternatively cannot expect our minds to move from “always on” to “active and attentive presence” if that is now how we live our day to day – jumping from one task to the other.
So what are the benefits of listening to our bodies, you ask?
Stress relief – Slowing our minds down helps keep our experiences and emotions in perspective to how they fit in to the bigger landscape of society. It slows the heart rate and decreases the demand on the cardiovascular system. It removes us from the fight or flight response we ancestrally developed to protect our lives from danger. This response served us well back when we had to run from dangerous predators, but in most cases today, that response is active due to stress at work, ruminating about something that happened, or a number of other non-life-threatening scenarios.
Separating our thoughts from ourselves – Creating space and quiet allows us to remember that we are not our thoughts. We have thoughts, but we do not have to subscribe to or believe all of the thoughts that go through our minds. We have the choice to acknowledge our thoughts, then accept them or ask them to step to the side as if they were clouds drifting by. This distance allows us to change, cultivate, and grow healthy thoughts.
Safety – Learning to listen to our bodies can help us make better food choices, engage in more sleep, more play, more activity, more socialization with others. It helps us to avoid over or under use that could leave us prone to injury. It helps us know how one food makes us feel over the other – when we’ve had enough nourishment or when we need more. It helps us to know when we need to attend that gathering of friends or take the solo walk to refuel.
The list goes on! – Check out this article by the renowned Deepak Chapra if you are not yet convinced.
So what do we do next?! Here are a few ideas based on how I have started adding more active listening practices to my life:
Spirituality – I make intentional time throughout the day to pray and bring attention to my breath when I have a quiet minute or if I find myself alone before my next meeting. I used to check email or have idle time, now I use the time intentionally.
Schedule it – I love checking things off my “to do” list. I find when I put “have an intentional conversation,” “prayer and scripture,” or “meditation” on my “must get done” activity list for the day, it helps me stay accountable to the practice.
Experiment – This is going to be an ongoing journey for me. I have been fascinated by how challenging and restorative listening is. I am grateful for the opportunity to keep growing, learning, and experimenting with ways to be more present in listening.
I find when I truly listen it makes me a better friend, colleague, coach, wife, sister, daughter. Cheers to learning – and listening!
I wish you many moments of active self-listening and self-discovery. If you would like any help along your journey, connect with me!