Listen to Your Body

Our body is constantly signalling to us its state of condition. So it's wise to pay heed.

Mind & spirit: NST Life & Times
22/03/2010

HOW is your relationship with your body?
Bombarded by social conditioning and messages from the media, many of us have a love-hate relationship with our bodies.

The body is more than a physical vehicle which allows us to carry out our everyday duties, reproduce, play and enjoy the different sensations through our five senses.The body is a unique mechanism which has self-healing abilities within its complex and intricate system of muscles, blood vessels, bones, nerves and organs. It continually strives to be in a state of homeostasis or balance.

All we need to do is listen and be aware of the messages the body is trying to get across. It gives us valuable feedback through discomfort or disease when it is out of alignment with the mind and the soul. The body informs us if there are destructive thoughts or suppressed emotions at both the conscious and subconscious levels.

Instead of rushing to fix the symptoms of a disease, it’s essential that we search within to discover the core of the problem causing the disease to manifest in the body.
That way, real healing can take place. True healing occurs when we honour the body by paying attention to its messages and making positive changes in terms of our lifestyle, thought patterns and emotional health.

If the core of the problem is not addressed, the body will eventually cause another disease to lead you back to the source of the problem. Sometimes, taking steps to meet our deepest desires are required for healing to occur.

“Every physical manifestation has a corresponding non-physical state of being,” Swedish scientist and philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg once said.
Medical science is beginning to acknowledge the correlation between our bodies and minds.

In 1985, Dr Candace Pert’s groundbreaking theories in a new field known as psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) approached healing from a different angle when her team discovered the existence of a psychosomatic network which links the brain to all the different systems in the body — nervous, endocrine, immune, respiratory, circulatory, etc. The linking elements are information carriers — peptides, hormones and neurotransmitters — known as “molecules of emotions”. The mind and body are one, so if there are symptoms in your body, they would also be present in the mind.

Cell biologist Dr Bruce Lipton’s research has implied that genes and DNA do not control our biology but instead, DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the messages emanating from our brain via positive and negative thoughts.

Knowing this is tremendously empowering as it means we have a choice in determining the direction of our lives. With great power, as they say, comes great responsibility. We are all responsible for the state of our life whether we are conscious of it or not.

Every part of our body gives us specific information about ourselves because it has received repeated messages that translate into physical conditions. The language of the body is symbolic.

So, let us learn to value our bodies and work with it as an ally leading us towards self-discovery and health.

Below is a list of the ways different parts of our body speak to us according to Louise Hay, the author of You Can Heal Your Life.

Ears - Problems with ears may mean you’re shutting out things you don’t not want to hear. An earache may mean you’re angry what about you hear.

Eyes -Problems with eyes may mean closing your eyes to matters about ourselves or our lives past, present or future.

Throat - Throat problems follow when our creativity and ability to speak up for ourselves is stifled.

Arms - Problems with arms affect our ability and capacity to embrace life. Old emotions suppressed in joints and elbows represent inflexibility in changing directions.

Back - Our backs represents our support system — our relationships with physical and material needs.

Lungs - These organs show our capacity to “take in and give out life”. Lung problems usually mean we are afraid to live life fully.

Heart - The heart symbolises love. Blood represents joy. Our hearts lovingly pump joy throughout our bodies. When we deny ourselves joy and love, the heart shrivels and becomes cold.

Stomach - The stomach digests new ideas and experiences. Stomach problems usually mean we do not know how to assimilate new experiences. We are afraid.

Colon - The ability to let go, to release that which we no longer n eed, is what our colon represents.

Legs - These limbs carry us forward as we walk. So leg problems indicate a fear of moving forward.

Skin - Skin problems usually mean we feel our individuality is being threatened.

• The writer is co-founder of The Violet Flame Holistic Shop and Therapy Centre. She can be reached at info@thevioletflame.com.my or browse www.thevioletflame.com.my for further information.