“The body knows things about which the mind is ignorant.” - Jacques Lecoq
If you follow me or my work at all then you probably know that I’m a huge proponent of cultivating intuition, particularly as a tool for healing health challenges.
I want to share a little story about how my own intuitive practice helped me last week.
I’ve been trying, with mixed results, to heal a bacterial imbalance in the gut and a deteriorated stomach lining (thanks antibiotics!), since February of this year. Sometimes my gut doesn’t bother me, sometimes it hurts, sometimes it’s super bloated. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it’s not the easiest either.
A couple weeks ago I was both in pain and really depressed. Like, struggling to make myself do anything depressed. I had just spent four days trying to do the SCD intro diet, which looked like two days of sticking to it and two days of eating the diet AND binge eating potato chips.
I was exhausted and feeling lost about what to do next. It felt like my Naturopath was taking forever to get back to me. I was also questioning his expertise since his last recommendation had made things worse.
Then I remembered that I could just ask my body.
I lied down on the couch, took a minute to arrange pillows so I was super comfortable, placed my hands on my belly (skin to skin), and closed my eyes. I took deep breaths for several minutes, bringing my attention down into my belly. Then I asked it, “what do you need?”
The answer I got, with great clarity, was “a break.”
I kept inquiring.
“A break from what?”
“Solid food.”
“What would you like instead?”
“Juice. Soup. Celery juice. Chicken broth. Squash soup might be okay too”
“How long?”
“Three days.”
Feeling like the instructions were pretty clear, I started this modified cleanse the next day. I had only the things my belly asked for, ginger tea, and buckets of water.
I was surprised by how much easier it was to stick to this prescribed diet since it had come from within me, and not from some outside force. And in the first day and a half, when I experienced a near constant headache, I didn’t worry about it. I didn’t try to fix it. I just understood it was part of the process.
Interestingly, in the first two days of the cleanse, a hawk flew across my path each day as I was out walking. Hawks are understood by many cultures to be symbols of broadening awareness, observation skills, and even physic awareness (!!).
On day three, I woke up feeling pretty out of it so I consulted my belly again, “would it be okay to eat solid food again?” I got a strong “yes” and confirmation on which foods to start with.
After I ate, and even had a little coffee, I felt like a million bucks, like a whole new person, and so excited to be alive.
After days of wanting to talk to no one, I went to a brunch event thrown for my partner's theatre colleagues and shmoozed like a champ for a couple hours, enjoying every minute of it.
One of the most common struggles I hear from folks with health challenges, and particularly folks in my Lyme family, is never knowing what to do next. When health goes south or another promising medicine doesn’t help, there’s this painful looming question mark that keeps coming back. Naturally, we try to problem solve and because, most of the time, our mind doesn’t have the answer, we exhaust ourselves trying to decide between different options that may or may not provide any relief or healing.
The truth is that the body knows what the mind can’t. It also knows things before the mind. This is why we can jump out of the way of an oncoming car before our cognitive mind can tell us to move.
The more we can give the mind a rest and tap into the wisdom of our bodies, the easier healing becomes. Consulting the body facilitates alignment, since we’re doing exactly what the body wants and needs, and saves energy because we’re not riding the emotional see-saw of “Should I do this? Should I do that?” It can be hard to remember in the moment when things feel scary (I forget all the time) but we actually have the answers and our bodies can guide the way.
If you want to learn more about how to cultivate your own intuition so you can tap into your body’s vast wisdom and bring ease to your healing, send me a note and we can have a chat about it. ✨