Our body holds much of the information we need to function at our best, but too often we ignore its messages and plow ahead with what our minds tell us. Perhaps because we’re not taught from early on to pay attention to internal messages as well as external demands, we frequently ignore our body’s communications.
So we take another extra-strength aspirin rather than investigating what’s causing our head to ache. We use more caffeine or sugar to give us a lift when we feel tired, rather than hearing our body’s message about needing rest or recognizing our fatigue as an early symptom of burnout we’d do well to heed. One look at our pets may be all we need to see the value of naps. We fail to take into account the thousand little messages communicated to us by how we’re holding ourselves: the mouth that’s pinched and tight rather than relaxed. The fact that our shoulders are up around our ears, the knot of tension in our stomach as we promise to do something when closer consideration might tell us we are already over-extended. These days we’re notorious for putting deadlines ahead of the protests of aching bones or inadequately nourished bellies. (Is there hidden wisdom in calling a due date a deadline in the first place?) Instead of asking our body what it wants, we go for the quick fill-up or the comfort food that may be the last thing we really need. Here are some ideas to give your body equal say in how you use it:
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![]() Imagine its December 31, 2020. When you look back over the year, what do you want to remember? Will we continue to live in the past wanting what was, used to be or in the future still creating from the past, what we know? Will you recall all the challenges and struggles in which there are (and will be) plenty and re-live the pain like you’ve always done? OR is it possible like this video you will remember those challenges, and instead discover you knowingly or unknowingly created a new norm for yourself and your family (friends are families we choose)? Did you discover how to play again, inexpensively or free? Did you take time to lay back and look at the clouds or stars and remember simpler times? Did you discover an artistic side to yourself that you had forgotten? Might you have learned how to cook...again...or for the first time? Did you take time to learn something new either about the world with a TED talk or documentaries? Did you take an online class with others? Did you figure out your gifts and come up with a way to give back that served your soul? Did you learn how to laugh again at something simple? Did you learn to cry with your children or loved ones? Did you go within and learn how to quiet your thoughts or sooth yourself like we had to learn to do when we were children? Did you reconnect with your children who may be young adults now? Did you learn tolerance for yourself and others? Did you discover how to love yourself so you can love others? This global experience is being felt around the world and in many different ways. So, I ask you… What are you doing with the rest of 2020? I understand one-day-at-a-time is more important now than maybe any other time in your life. Yet, if you do something different, learn something new, experiment with a new idea, and no matter how small what will you say about yourself and how you thrived through this time? Hindsight is 2020! I won’t kid you this question is a challenge for me. With the onset of COVID-19 and such uncertainty now, it makes me wonder what the 2.0 version of our world will look like. What will this 2.0 version feel like? Sure world peace, world hunger, climate change, power shifts would all be wonderful. Yet, the idea that we are waving a flag and life just begins where it left off feels like a disservice to all the suffering we’re all enduring. - Whether it’s now working from home. - Or no work at all. - Figuring out groceries and how to get food. Where to get food. - Did our collective world shut down just to start up where we left off? Gosh, I hope not. So, it leaves us with a blank canvas. Wondering. Exploring. Possibilities. Dreaming. Wanting. Some days, it’s just too much news, so I turn it off, but not all family members want to turn it off, so I turn on a podcast or music instead. I get to choose (and protect) how I want to feel and NOT be influenced by everything that is happening around me or in the world. COVID-19 Tip #1: Find three things you can appreciate about your day. Write them down. Keep it going. With this blank canvas now upon us...let’s get together via Zoom and create a new world; a new you. A new 2.0 highest version of you, after COVID. Let’s imagine that as our world evolves, we do too. This new 2.0 version has us jump-starting our lives in ways we never thought possible. I have an invitation for you/us to go deeper by joining my workshop series around the challenges you are facing in your daily life working (or not) from home. If you feel stuck, you’re most likely trying to figure out “how” to do something. Join me for 4 Thursdays,
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AuthorTerri O'Donnell is a certified Life Coach. She is an honest, straight shooter who is dedicated to using her training and experience to help people live the life they desire. Archives
June 2020
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