Creating a healthy relationship with your body is hard when you don’t feel well.  I know, because this has been a rough week with allergies and then a sore sore throat.  

I started to say I have been focused on creating a healthy relationship with my body for the last few months.  Yet, if I am being truthful, it is more like the last few decades.  Ebbing and flowing with success.  Ups and downs.  

The part of me that demands perfection with the efforts I undertake, often feels like a failure when it comes to taking care of my body.  Because, similar to almost everyone I know, I have collected ideas, knowledge, and expectations about what it means to be healthy, fit, in shape, etc….  I’ve searched out and also been bombarded with articles, stories, promotions and advertisements about nutrition, weight loss, and self-care. We all have.., even when it is not our focus.

Still with all the noise and expectations around being healthy, it has been many years since I’ve really “felt” healthy. 

The older I get, the closer I get to understanding that being healthy doesn’t mean looking like the images in a magazine or whatever is going viral online.  In fact, it isn’t about “appearing” or “appearance” at all.  For the years in my life where I would have been described as physically fit.., I’m not sure I was actually healthy at all; even if I might have appeared otherwise.

These days my focus is about being in harmony or balance with my body.  Being able to hear messages from my body in realtime and respond or reacting accordingly.  Giving as much value to my bodies needs as I do my emotional, mental, and spiritual needs.  

And as much as I might be making progress with this.., it is a lot more challenging when you don’t feel good!  And BTW.., I am simply talking about temporary discomforts.  Imagine if the physical challenges were chronic, hereditary, debilitating, or long-term!  It is hard to imagine how much emphasis and focus that might require.

It has taken me awhile to remember that even these small hurdles I am dealing with are part of the way our body communicates with us.  The discomfort or temporary ailments are one of the ways my body is trying to send messages and give feedback.  It is simply communicating and responding; to not only me, but my environment as well.  

Instead of trying to bypass the discomfort or mask it.., it’s time to inquire “What is my body telling me?” and/or ‘How do I use this experience to understand my body more?”.  How do I use this experience to shift or change the quieter messages that the body sends without requiring it to turn up the volume?  In other words, hearing the whispers before they become shouts. 

I keep asking for my body to send clear messages.  I guess if I am going to ask for wisdom from my body… I need to learn to listen more closely too!