Oriental DancerPeople joke about having too many voices in their head. The critical voice that sounds like an authority figure trying to control us. The devil on our shoulder trying to get us to go enjoy something or try something or express something. The angel on the other shoulder trying to reason with us. Our inner child arguing with our shadow while our logic brain problem solves problems that don’t exist.  It’s loud and busy in there.  What we don’t often notice in the loud room full of overlapping conversations which is our mind is that there are other aspects of ourselves trying to get our attention. Our soul whispers to our logic brain trying to get anything about our path, goals, lessons, or anything we came here to do on the day’s prioritized agenda. Our emotions try to get us to recognize there are important things outside all the chatter. That we’re interconnected with the world and part of it. That we are influenced by and influencing everything around us. What we feel matters, is important, and can even be key to understanding a situation.

And last on the list is the body. It’s voice is the loudest, its role more than critical, but its reluctant to get involved until there is no other option. It will let every other voice have it’s say before chiming in. This is in part because when it does it can be a game changer.  I call body messages the “e-brake” because they so often cause us to stop everything.  I mean, you can work through a cold if you try hard enough, but it pretty much takes everything you’ve got just to do the minimum necessary to get through the day with the body fighting you all the way. Flu is something you pretty much can’t work through. Pneumonia? Well, you can, but it’s dire when you do. I mean, walking pneumonia is no joke. Broken bones? Yup, that will slow you down. Eye problems, that will limit your options. Think of all the body issues from illness to breakage to disease and you’ll see what I mean. When the body wants to get our attention it does. We can work to ignore it, work through it, get past it, but that becomes a huge part of the priority every day. No matter what we do to avoid it, the body makes itself known and keeps it front and center that there is something we need to attend.

So why fight the message? The body is as wise as our soul. They are intimately connected and our soul chose this body as the best and most perfect match for this life we are leading. Which means that what it has to tell us is relevant to us not only on a physical level, but on all levels. Happy and sad for us, we probably already know the message and have been avoiding it for quite some time. If we’d dealt with it prior the body wouldn’t need to be so dramatic about it. Our body tells us when things have gone too far, when we are heading towards the point of no return, when not attending to the message is doing damage to us, and when we are digging into personal/spiritual/emotional credit we may not be able to repay.  The body’s messages are beautiful, gentle, yet direct and no-nonsense. If we’re willing to listen, to truly listen and absorb the message, we can gain access to the deep wisdom of our soul.