Listening To Your Body Requires Trusting Your Body
How many times have you had a bodily feeling of something but you chose not to listen?
Maybe you said yes to something and immediately regretted it.
How does this regret show up in the body; what kind of feeling or sensation rises when you go against your innate instinct? Where do you feel it in your body?
I used to be very good at always making sense out of things and looking for the answers. And partly I still am as it is a big part of my personality to dive deep into subjects in order to learn and deeply understand things. But even this when not used in moderation can turn against us.
And for me knowing the why and having the answers used to be a way to find the feeling of control. And by feeling in control I created this false safely net for myself instead of trusting and finding safety in my body.
Instead of trusting my body I tried to override its cues with my rationalising. I did not give my body a chance to show me. I did not trust the sensations and feelings because I could not yet understand them.
So if the whole concept of body connection feels foreign to you, I can assure you you’re not alone and it’s definitely something you can learn.
I am sure you too have had that experience more than once when you feel something is not right and you still choose to go with it - only to find out later on that you indeed were right about it and it wasn’t the right option for you.
Learning to LISTEN to your body can’t be separated from learning to TRUST your body. Because you can listen all you want but if you can’t trust the messages coming through, you will never act on them.
Periods of dismissing our body’s needs create distrust towards the body. If you have repeatedly consciously or unconsciously dismissed the sensations or feelings, there is this invisible guard between you and your body. And that guard constantly limits the communication, creating uncertainty and questioning.
When we are not sure of something, it’s easier to start explaining and making sense out of the situation than trusting the sensation. And what could handle the questioning and uncertainty better than our rational mind.
The inner knowing, the bodily sensations can’t often be explained by rational reasoning. They are meant to be felt and expressed.
However always turning towards the mind can cost you the important connection with your body. Always asking why and looking for rational explanations only makes the uncertainty in the body grow.
The bigger the uncertainty, the more you may want to know why it’s happening so you could feel you’re in control. Feeling in control can substitute for the feeling of safety. And when there is no connection with the body, there is no internal feeling of safety.
And this is where the trust becomes the most important part of the equation. Because the inner knowing, the bodily sensations can’t often be explained by rational reasoning. They are meant to be felt and expressed.
And without trusting your body and its ability to know better, you are not giving it a change to show its power. The first step is to become aware of this lack of trust and just allow it to exist. Allowing it to feel unfamiliar and be the beginner in the process.
To trust means to be willing to take a leap of faith at times. It means to be willing to let your body show you that it is worth your trust. And this is how you build trust, sensation by sensation letting your body lead the way.
