The inspiration for this article can be best described with a (short) story:
A week or two ago, I was having trouble motivating myself. Nothing seemed obviously wrong other than a general desire to watch YouTube videos and play Rimworld instead, so I assumed it would pass.
A few days later during my morning meditation, I became aware of a strong sense of anxiety originating in my belly. Sudden spikes in anxiety are not exactly unusual for me, but I noticed it grew stronger when I thought about the music work I had planned for the day.
The temptation was to blame it on the desire to procrastinate, the result of which would have been me telling my body to quit being so ‘lazy’. Historically that has never ended well though, so I delved deeper.
Following a body sensation back to it’s source can be… Messy.
Presently I became aware of a sense of weariness mixed in the anxiety. Okay, I thought, so I’m stressed AND tired. Now what?
The click happened with a new sensation, a sense of me not trusting myself – or part of myself. I realized the not-trusting part was also the part that felt tired and overworked.
The word slave-driver came to my mind, and it occurred to me that I had been ignoring my body’s requests to slow down. My subconscious had stopped trusting that I would find time for it to rest, so it was pulling me towards procrastinating activities to get whatever relaxation it could.
I checked in with my body sensations to see if this thought made sense, and was rewarded with the rare feeling of lightness and relief that said: Yes, you’ve got it.
Over the next few days, I did little-to-no work, and just focused on letting my body play and recharge as it needed. Then I gradually scaled back up to my usual level of productivity and felt fine.
I wanted to share this, because I suspect we’ve all ignored the needs of our body from time to time – in fact, I wrote an article about it a couple weeks ago.
One thing I didn’t mention at the time however, is our behaviour can start changing in subtle ways to start satisfying those subconscious needs. Sort of like when you have a craving for a specific food, but don’t know why.
The takeaway is to remember that these behaviour changes happen for a REASON, and they won’t subside until that reason is addressed.
Since these reasons are usually subconscious however, it’s a very good idea to practice getting in touch with your body when something’s going on, through meditation for example.
Sometimes, when the flesh is weaker than the spirit, our automatic response is to get angry and harsh with ourselves. If this happens, the anger has to be listened to and resolved before we can get at the juicy bits underneath.
But yeah; trust your body, people. There’s a lot more going on in there than any of us know.
Credits:
‘Mindsets Approaches Knowledge’ by John Hain from Pixabay
‘Pizza on Plate’ by Engin Akyurt from Pexels
‘Woman Sitting on Chair While Leaning on Laptop’ by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels