Life is so much easier and we progress so much faster with our health (and other) goals when we are tuned in to our bodies rather than at odds with them. So this month we are exercising our self-friendship skills.

The first week, we practiced listening… really settling in and focusing on sensation. Our bodies communicate with the rest of us via sensation both physical sensations and less tangible sensations of stability, ease… There was  a time in my life when it was a point of pride to me, to be able to ignore and completely tune out physical pain so I could do what I wanted to do… What an unhealthy and non-helpful attitude! The damaging effects of that misplaced pride were far reaching on my body and my life. I may have been able to “do what I wanted” in the moment but in the long term my body became less and less able to function resulting in a constrained and unhappy me. I was constantly in pain. Separating myself from the sensation based communications of my body did nothing to improve, heal, condition or help.
Happily now I feel good most days… and great quite often. Take time to listen to the information your body is telling you before it becomes a scream and it will be so much easier for you to tend the ouch and celebrate the physical joys. So what to do with this new information you are “hearing” from your body?

• Rest when you are tired.
• Explore and then adapt how you move and the way you do things for your greatest ease and comfort (there is no virtue in making things more difficult for yourself than they are. We all experience plenty of difficulties without adding more.)
• Ice, heat, massage, gentle movement, gentle stretches… give your body what it needs.With mindful attention your body will reveal to you what it needs and you will begin to improve the way you function and move. Finding more joyful and feeling good days than before. You spend your entire life with your body… be friendly not demanding and judgmental and your body will reward you.
  

  June says Roses to me so I chose a picture of a great rose garden today.

  Next  we will be  a tiny self-care challenge for you… Caring for our bodies as we would a friend rather than a piece of machinery…