Do you listen to yourself?
My life used to be too packed, too fast, too busy to really be able to hear myself, and unfortunately that meant that my mind, body, soul and spirit had to practically scream at me to be heard. On a couple of occasions that actually resulted in my going into full shut-down mode. Basically, my body was saying to me, as loudly as it could “I’m not coping! You can’t keep going like this!”
I’ve learned since then that that there’s a lot going on inside me that is really worth listening to. I get a little jerk in my gut when particular topics of conversation come up. I feel nausea in certain environments. I feel a leap of joy when I see particular people. I feel a deep sense of peace after certain experiences. I feel my heart jolt, my gut clench, my adrenaline rise, or my mind race – I feel all sorts of things that I used to simply ignore.
Now, though, I stop and listen. Not always – sometimes I just power through or hide in escapism – and I nearly always live to regret that. But often, now, I stop, I listen, and I pay attention. I ask myself “what was that?”
Learning to do so has genuinely changed my life.
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Featured Image by Dave Meier via StockSnap.io
