Is Your Body Talking to You?

Well, if you’re having some problems with your body, chances are that’s what’s happening.  It doesn’t matter if its

1.       sore,

2.       itching,

3.       headaches,

4.       sinus issues,

5.       sleeplessness,

or if it is

1.       cancer,

2.       hypertension,

3.       heart disease or

4.       diabetes, or other disease.

If that sounds odd, or maybe a little insulting, or oversimplified, it may be. But I encourage you to do a couple of things:

1.       Pay real close attention to your body.  For instance, after you eat certain things, or after you do certain things—things you think your body may be possibly rejecting for some reason.

2.       Check in with a Functional Medicine Doctor, or a doctor who investigates and treats the cause of an ailment instead of treating the symptoms alone.

We know our bodies speak to us to let us know when we’re hungry, or thirsty, or tired, or use the bathroom.  It also speaks to us on so many other levels.  The closer attention we pay to the signals, the better we will be able to figure out what it’s trying to tell us, and to help our bodies to get back to normal: physically, emotionally, and mentally.

The list in the first paragraph, of the first 5 random symptoms (which are only a few examples), are usually the beginning of your body trying to get your attention.  You can medicate those symptoms and use all kinds of treatments on them, but if you don’t work on whatever is causing them, over time they could turn into the second list of problems.

So, can we know what our bodies are trying to tell us?

One thing for sure, we can make a lot of progress toward figuring it out if we set our goal to do that.  (The alternative to that, as I mentioned, would be to see a Functional Medicine Doctor, or its equivalent.)

Pretty much all of us know the basics that our bodies need.  And if we overstep those needs because we’re “busy” or “stressed” or for some other reason are “unable” to stop what we see is probably a “bad habit” or to start doing something that we pretty much know would be helpful to our bodies, that’s a good place to start.

Start what?   Beginning to make changes.  A little change here, and a little tweak there, to how we live our lives. Our food can give us information; so can our rest, and our stress levels, and our movement (or not), if we pay attention.

1.       When our bodies have “symptoms”, they’re telling us something’s wrong.  Mild symptoms are the beginning of that conversation.  If you’ve had an injury, you know what the pain and bruising, etc., are telling you.  So you treat the injury—you know the cause, and you treat it accordingly.

2.       When you have a cold, you may not know what exactly caused it, but you can do positive things for your body that strengthen it and support your immune system, so the symptoms will leave quicker, and you’ll feel good again.  This would also make you inclined to leave off sugars and stress, and other things that would work against your immunity.

3.       When you have a “stomach bug” fairly often, there’s actually usually a real cause, that can be corrected, either by strengthening your immune system to keep “the bugs away”, or by changing your diet to leave out the foods  that are making your body unhappy.

4.       When you feel anxious or nervous, your body may be telling you to (1) ease up a little on how much you’re doing; or (2) to slow down your pace a little.  Or (3) it could be that your body isn’t getting enough of the right nutrients to feed your nervous system.  Or (4) it’s possible you’re just not getting enough good sleep at night.  You  might check in with yourself to see if you still feel those anxious feelings when you are doing something fun or things you enjoy, then try making some small changes from there.

(And if you need help with any changes at all, I will be happy to help you)

Sometimes, if we pay attention, we can notice that if we get emotionally upset or angry, or over-stressed, it affects our bodies in negative ways.

When we are stressed, our bodies are designed to overcome it occasionally.  Stress is actually a good thing.  It is a natural response to challenges we occasionally face.  It helps keep our senses sharp; it can increase our focus and motivation.  This is good during tests, interviews or games, etc.  And of course, it helps us respond to danger.

But if we continue allowing ourselves to experience the emotional upsets or continual stresses, it’s possible for these symptoms to set in and become more chronic, which actually over time allow us to become sick.  The word “disease” actually says it like it is: Dis-Ease.  So if we ignore the signals it’s giving us, it will finally let us know it can’t keep that up.

Statistics show that over 80% of doctors’ visits have their origin in relation to stress.  And long-term, it can also lead to depression, mental health problems, and heart disease, among other illnesses.  So in these cases, the stress is actually what needs to be addressed in order to stop the symptoms.

So, what can we do to improve our bodies?

First: Learn your body’s way of communicating with you.  Just pay attention.  Pay attention when you eat things you think might be causing problems in your body.  When you have symptoms, try to think back at what you’ve eaten, how you’ve slept, if you ate a large meal, or if you ate late in the evening, or what kind of exercise you did, or not; and also check in on your relationships—if there’s a long-term problem there, it can also cause problems in your health.

The Bible gave us wise words in saying to be at peace with all people, as much as we were able.  It’s actually helpful to our health.

When you see something that you think could actually be the culprit, change it up, either your food, or whatever it is you think might be causing your symptoms.

Everyone is different.  What affects one person, truly may not affect the next person at all.  And with this being the case, the solution to a similar problem in the next person, may not be the same solution at all—because their symptoms may come from a totally different source.