Your body and emotions (heart) seek to work in harmony with you. Simply listen to the feedback that your heart and body gives, and you will eventually feel loved.
Sadly, many of us have stopped listening. Our fast-paced, industrial growth-focused society doesn’t always support healthy self-care. Listening to your body and heart is commonly seen as a waste of time or even labeled as a sign of weakness. But if your gas tank indicated low fuel and you ignored it; wouldn’t this be problematic? Unfortunately, most of us ignore our body and heart until illness or depression finally gets our attention.
Our approach to the body/heart parallels our approach to the Earth’s environment. Significant environmental data was published as early as 1896, by a brilliant Swedish chemist, Savante Arrhenius. Think of the resources for fuel we would have developed over the past 100 years, if we had only listened to his findings. Weather changes and health concerns are now finally getting our attention. For example, environmental endocrine disruptors are now showing up in wildlife, manifesting as malformed animal penises, and human sperm counts have dropped as low as 50% in some countries. Europe and Japan have banned the use of endocrine disrupting chemicals (commercial farming, plastics, etc.), but the United States has not.
The ability to “hear” the Earth, or even care, starts with listening to yourself. When you don’t listen to your own feedback, you become deaf to the suffering of yourself and others. How can you have compassion for the 17,000 children that are starving every day, or the thousands of species that go extinct every year, if you are not offering that love to yourself? If seen through your own self-love, the negative information can inspire you into greater love for yourself and others. In Western society, we are not given the tools of self-realization and self-acceptance. Instead, we are told to push harder, do more, and be positive. Think of compassion as simply listening to the needs of your body and heart, instead of as an overwhelming esoteric concept. Compassion is a daily self-practice, that when done, organically trickles over to others and your world view.
To integrate this practice into your life, you must first be willing to slow down and listen to your body/heart. Next, don’t react or panic to the information received. If you react to the physical or emotional pain, you will suppress the information. Lastly, give daily space for listening to your body/heart. For example, spend 10 minutes each day on stretching while watching your body, without labeling your body’s feedback. Or, spend 10 minutes each day journaling, witnessing your emotions without analyzing.
On the highway, I can hear the screams of the pigs when I pass a truck headed for the slaughterhouse. I can hear and feel the death when another forest is cleared for a mall. But, I can also hear the immense celebration of the universe, a soul’s guidance, the angels of my clients, and the laughter of a flower as it blooms. This ability to “hear” started with my own self- compassion. You, like everyone else, have the ability to hear these things. You have a direct connection. But first, you must listen to yourself. This daily listening “plugs” you into the “universal network”. Feeling the supportive hand of Creation in your core and living in Grace starts with an inner tangible practice of letting your body/heart flow. When you suppress the flow of information within yourself, you remove yourself from the universal flow or Grace.
When you embrace the pain and joy within yourself, an awareness of Love/God is realized beyond words. The “why” to your physical or emotional issue comes in after you stop fighting with the information. Listening without going into why or shame will lead to great insights. Adding memories, history, or building a story around the information received will result in suffering. Over time, as you practice listening, your body and emotions will stop having to make things so big to finally get your attention. Listen to your body/heart…and discover the universe whispering your name.
In service, Barbara White
