Body Talk

So many of the most important lessons are what I always called “home schooling,” or “home training.” That is, some of the critical life skills we need to survive and get along in this world are obtained at home. I do not believe we can be more “at home” than when we are present in our body – truly aware of what we feel, how we feel, what we know to be true about having these feelings and sensations. Yet, we so often neglect to listen to the lessons of the body and in so doing cheat ourselves out of a great deal of life’s wisdom. 

Much of February I spent listening to my left knee complain. We know this experience more commonly as pain, and I was having my share of it. An important joint, already afflicted with the arthritis which comes with age, was assaulted by other forces beyond my knowledge and control, including the ravages of a winter gone mad with its unrelenting sub-normal temperatures and serial snow storms so uncommon in our state poised between the Deep South and the Mid-Atlantic . I did take my share of ibuprofen, but not without concerns for the side-effects possible. I am not one given to the popping of a pill for every ailment, or even every ache and pain. Here’s why.

I am a person who believes in Body Conversations. When we are having a pain, it is our body’s way of trying to tell us something. Something is not right, or something needs attention, or it is just giving us an update: Remember, you are not as young as you used to be! I have always been concerned with everyone taking an aspirin or other analgesic for every little ache and pain they have. It is almost like saying to the body, “I do not want to listen to you. I do not value what you have to tell me, especially because you are telling me something I do not want to hear.” It is so easy to accept when the body is feeling a good sensation, but to close our ears to the critical voice which pain conveys to our perception. Yet, those messages are just as important, perhaps more important at times, and really need to have our attention. 

The path to Body Wisdom begins with body knowledge. As with all things in life, we can never have true knowledge unless we are willing to listen to our bodies, to ourselves, or to others. I am pleased to say my knee is much better, and I like to think I am a little bit wiser for having paid attention to it.

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