Listening Changes Everything
Pain is the way bodies speak. This is not new information for anyone who has a body. Yet, how often do you listen to your body openly, allowing pain to be a message, a communication? How, in fact, do you listen? Do you listen for something, while at the same time expecting, hoping, wishing or projecting what that something will be? Do you listen by tuning in to your own internal experience or by tuning in to the sounds, sights or sensations provided by your world at the moment? A critical difference I’d say.
When you tune in internally, you probably hear lot of thought commentary, body sensations and some feelings such as “I like this,” “I don’t like this” or “I don’t care about this.” When you tune in externally you might hear, see, smell, taste or intuit something. Both channels matter. It is important to know what is happening inside you and important to glean the messages from the world around you. Then, you can choose which of the many messages that are being provided is most important to heed at a given time.
The problem that most often arises when pain is providing the message is that frequently you wish to kill the messenger rather than heed the message. Something really interesting happens however, when rather than attempting to kill the messenger, you tune in. Tuning in inwardly eases the pain of the message immediately by attuning you to yourself, aligning you with your own knowing, right away reducing tension in your body. When you tune in to the pain in your knee, you will automatically take pressure off of it, automatically change your position. You will experience relief.
In contrast, when you refuse to hear the pain message, you will instead experience even greater tension and you won’t know how to respond effectively. Even more problematically, when you refuse to hear the message, you will likely miss vital parts of the whole message. When you move away from the very pointed message of pain (pun intended!) you become separated from the power of your own knowing that is contained in the very pain you experience. Avoiding pain in your body by refusing to hear the message has impact over time. Your body will continue to try to speak with you, increasing the volume, the frequency and the intensity of the message each time it isn’t heard.
Alternatively, once you tune in, hear the message, there isn’t a need for the volume to increase. And even more exciting, once you tune in internally, hear the message, you will be free to address the other channels, free to hear the world around you, bringing you all kinds of interesting information and opportunity. The mix of information and the timing of your well-placed listening can become a magnificent symphony created by your body playing in harmony with your world. Listening changes everything.
