Body whispering – our bodies really do tell us what they need. We just need to listen!
I am looking at my face absolutely amazed at how quickly it’s healing. Ten days ago, I looked like I was half dead. My face was covered in legions. There was puss and blood and raised, angry red marks. I could barely look at myself in the mirror. The pain was intense. Like a red-hot poker pushing my skin out from the inside. It felt like my body was attacking itself. I couldn’t sleep. My diet suffered. I followed not one iota of my own advice and I suffered the consequences of it.
The chemo regime stopped and ten days later my skin barely shows the signs of the trauma. It is still rough with new skin growing and if you look closely, you can see the remaining skin cancers. I don’t have a healthy glow and I can not wait to get exfoliant on it, but it is drinking in the moisturiser and breathing freely.
My body is also a big cranky at me. When it most needed good food, rest and nurturing. I ate “comfort” food and consumed crap TV. My exercise routine suffered, I didn’t relieve my stress enough and I let small stuff get to me. Exactly at the time my body needed my best SHINE tools, I gave it the opposite and it’s not happy with me.
My body is craving vegetables. I ate a homemade, full of goodness vegetable soup yesterday and my body purred. I took a morning off the other day and had a bath and read a good book. My body floated.
My stressed out mind was craving release and my young daughter had a rough week. So, I took her to the theatre last night. Her favourite musical has just returned to Melbourne and I surprised her after netball with a theatre trip. Her surprise and screams of delight made my heart sing.
I reinstated my sleep routine. Washed all the chemo off my sheets, spring cleaned our room, bought some more sleep tea and took my herbal sleep supplement. I slept like a baby. My body sang like a fine-tuned engine all day.
I returned to the weights room at the gym and warmed up well, took it slowly and incrementally and my body is rewarding me with that lovely light soreness – a sign you’ve worked well for growth, but not damaged the muscles.
When I eat the wrong things, when I consumer too much trash or negativity on TV or through other mediums, when I sweat the small stuff – my body keeps score. It tells me through bathroom habits, through stomach pains, through excessive night sweats, through agitation and through mood. Our bodies really are miraculous. We’re the dumb dumbs for not listening.
Looking at how quickly and brilliantly my body has healed itself, I realise that listening is the best thing I can do. We know our bodies; we know what works for us – the challenge is not knowing – it’s listening and acting.
