Your calendar is open. Your unread email count is rising. Message alerts are pinging. You have three documents open on your desktop with deadlines to meet. Alerts are popping up and you stop to send a quick text. But wait, wait there’s more – like being a dad, friend, mentor, wife, grandma. Sounds familiar? Chronic stress … it seems to be our modern-day birthright handed down to us by the high tech, fast paced, success driven society we live in. We are more connected with the world around us than ever in our history, constantly bombarded with distractions from all directions at lightning speeds. There’s no slowing it down and this has adverse effects on our bodies.
But how connected are we with our bodies? What kind of relationship are you having with your body? When was the last time you disconnected from your busy to reconnect with your body? Now I’m gonna say this one more time so I want you to listen closely. I need you to hear this. When was the last time you disconnected from your busy to reconnect with your body? It sounds simple but we humans complicate things, always keeping one finger on a pressure button and one finger on a panic button.
We are multitasking with the help of multimedia while becoming multi distracted with what’s going on in our own bodies, and the results can be devastating, robbing you of what’s also your own birthright – your best health, mental harmony and the harmony and quality of life. But let’s face it, it’s a noisy world out there and although the body speaks all the time we may not always hear what it is saying. Listening to your body takes practice but believe me, it has a voice.
Now, I’m not talking about the chatter that’s going on between your ears where your conscious is arguing about what you should be doing, like “man I need to go to the gym to lose some of my love handles” or “nah, let’s stay home and binge watch Netflix, munch some chips I’ll go tomorrow instead”. Rather it’s the voice that comes in the form of symptoms that are your signals. And if you’re not listening to those signals, a multi life can easily lead to an unhealthy life. A life where one day you wake up, bang, something’s just not right.
We realize that we’ve been spending our time telling our bodies what we think instead of listening to what our body’s telling us, ignoring warning signs of a casual “Neah, it’s never gonna happen to me. I’m okay really.” Or worse, “I’m OK, I’ll just pop these pills and numb the pain.” Unfortunately it often takes a crisis to cause us to change. I was a co-founder of three pharmacies, constantly hearing patients complain that their lives were forever changed. Some ended up with limited mobility from a heart attack or stroke.
Others complain about the drastic lifestyle changes like their eating habits or going to the gym. And don’t get me started on the complaints of the high cost associated with it. As for myself, I’m no different, I’m guilty. I was so focused on my business that I ignore the signals my body was sending. It was talking but I wasn’t listening. My signals – frequent urination, restless days, low-energy. I ended up being diagnosed a pre-diabetic with a high risk of developing other cardiovascular diseases. I was scared. This was my crisis that caused me to change.
But at that point I had lost any kind of relationship I might have had with my body by constantly ignoring the signals it was sending. I’m not special here. It seems to be something us humans do – we wait for a crisis, a trauma, a loss or a disease before we get down to looking at how we were living and making a commitment to change. Why wait for a health scare? Instead let’s live by listening, listening to the signals our body is sending us? Why not create a wellness bond with your body – a two-way conversation that will bond you together in a life that is well balanced, well organized, well nourished, and well disciplined. A relationship that will help you disconnect from your busy to reconnect with your body.
But this is where it gets tricky because it’s not complicated and being the humans we are we seem that have made wellness into this overwhelming task. Our multi lives have multi complicated wellness into being slim, fit, happy, energetic, attractive, strong, and overly optimistic. Rather than just having sound physical and mental health. So let’s keep it simple. What would you say if I told you that asking your body 4 simple questions a day and taking one minute, sixty seconds, to listen to your body answer each of those questions, could change your life.
When we learn to listen closely, we create a bond with our bodies that could save your life. Bond – B.O.N.D. stands for Balanced, Organized, Nourished and Disciplined and make up the 4 questions you need to ask your body to start that two-way conversation. #1 is Balanced. How well balanced was your sleep-wake cycle last night? Do you feel rested today or are you dragging your feet because you’re binge watched your favorite Netflix show? Or perhaps you stayed up late to finish that report. Sleep is the most underrated health habit in our current culture we need to change.
Now, how does the body signal you’re not getting enough sleep? Your eyes don’t look good, they’re red, puffy, dark circles, bags underneath. You can gain weight. You feel moody, mentally exhausted. Memory and focus feel fuzzy. These are some of the signals your body wants you to listen to so you’ll get more sleep. #2 is Organized. How well-organized are your life priorities?
Were some of your needs on top of your priority list today or have you multitask yourself to the bottom of the list? Living in life by putting other needs above yours can lead to feelings of resentment that cause damage to the body. Resentment can cause wounds that can leave you with lasting feelings of anger, sadness and bitterness. These feelings can lead to anxiety, stress, and hostility, high blood pressure, a weakened immune system, just to name a few. The question to ask yourself is “was I on the priority list today and how did it make me feel.
But if the answer is “yes” and you did put yourself on the priority list today, how did it make you feel? Did you feel guilty? Did you feel selfish? Because that’s not true. This is where the age-old adage comes in about putting on the oxygen mask on yourself first so you’re in fine form to help others. #3 is Nourished. How well nourished is my body and brain? Both require feeding to thrive and grow.
How thoughtful are you about your food choices? When the world is a menu, are you ordering from the “good for my body” section or from the “I know it doesn’t make me feel well, it makes me tired and bloated but I love how it tastes” section? What kind of thoughts did I feed my brain today? Like Psychology Today says “Happy brain, happy life.” Happy brains are quicker, creative and more mentally alert.
Negative thoughts are like predators that see your happy as prey, they stalk your happy and want to devour and replace it with a destructive, slow-moving, mentally-sabotaging feeding frenzy then leaves you feeling depressed, anxious, and sick. Ask yourself – “What kind of food did I feed my body and brain today and how did it make me feel? Did I make my self talk work for me or against me today.”
#4. Discipline. How well-disciplined am I about keeping my commitments to myself? The promises you make to yourself are the most important to keep. It is often how we measure our credibility, integrity and worth. When we break a promise to ourselves we can start to view ourselves as unreliable, untrustworthy, undeserving. No one good a mind and body when surrounded by those feelings. Ask yourself “Did I keep my promise to myself today, and how did it make me feel?” We all have 24 hours in a day and change in this daily routine will change your life.
Starting today add the 4 questions into your routine to start that two-way conversation for a better relationship with their body. Ask yourself “Am I choosing to have a well balanced, well organized, well nourished, and well discipline daily life?” Commit to the B.O.N.D. Commit to being balanced, organized, nourished and disciplined. Commit by disconnecting from your busy and reconnect with your body. 4 minutes a day … it could save your life.
