The Body as a Means of Communication
Our bodies are trying to continually communicate with us. But can we receive the messages? The more we are in a fight, flight, or freeze mode—the more likely we are to miss valuable communications from our bodies. These stressful conditions override everything as your body prepares for war. A release of hormones stops you from having to go to the bathroom, you stop feeling physical pain as acutely, your heart rate increases, your blood vessels dilate, your pupils dilate to enable you to see even better, your hearing and other senses are heightened, and even your blood will clot easier—expecting that a dangerous situation is coming.
This is your sympathetic nervous system at work. It’s quite amazing, and useful if you’re in a fight—but not so useful if you’re just trying to meet a work or school deadline that’s really stressing you out. When mental stress is activating our sympathetic nervous system, we have a problem that can eventually lead to worse mental and physical problems. Our bodies are trying to tell us something. The body is trying to tell us to put on the brakes, take a time out, relax, and restore our energy reserves. To do that we need our parasympathetic nervous system. We can develop this system by using the recovery tools that we often mention: quality sleep, breathwork, proper nutrition, cold water immersion, moderate exercise, meditation, and yoga.
When the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are in balance, we’ve got a great communication system going between mind and body. We can pick up subtle signals from the body that we are getting run down, and do the things we need to do to take care of ourselves. Then we can avoid getting really sick. The same is true when it comes to making sure little aches and pains don’t become full-on injuries. We have both been immersed in really stressful training regimens and missed the signals that our bodies were trying to communicate to us, resulting in injuries. Taking a week off of using your shoulder at all when you feel a nagging pain is much better than using every trick to make it work, training through the pain, and ending up with an injury that lasts six months or more.
The same communication system exists between the body and the spirit. We are such complicated beings, we can feel bad even when nothing is really wrong. We like to be reading some type of spiritual book at all times. We think of it as positive brainwashing for a world that can really muck up your positivity and ability to live a life of love and service. Having a spiritual book you’re working through just gives you a little nudge in the right direction every day, reorienting yourself in a positive way to whatever the day may bring. Negative thoughts suck out a lot of energy from us, and having any kind of positive system to turn to really helps free the mind to consider more constructive and creative things.
Putting all these ideas together gives us a shot at living a life, not of balance, but of harmony. Not going from one extreme to the other, trying to balance things out—but finding a harmony of different elements that work for you. That is the art of life. The body will show you the way, if you listen.
Until next time,
Scott and Lennart