Listen To Your Body

So how does listening to ourselves, and especially our bodies, relate to our professional development? Surely unless we work in a physically demanding environment, and there are less and less of these in existence, then we pretty much rely on our brains right? This is what modern science and our western society would have us believe (blame Cartesian reductionism if you want to start anywhere), but, this is an erroneous assumption. 
We are all far more than the sum of our individual parts, and we need all of our parts working in harmony if we are to be truly professionally effective. Taught to live in our heads, we can easily dismiss our bodies as merely the vehicle that must be adorned appropriately in order to cart our brains about between meetings. 
In truth, our bodies are wise. Our bodies give us lots and lots of information about ourselves and our world, which we then promptly ignore. We usually medicate it away away and continue on our merry way. We would be well advised to heed these warnings. 
Working with a chiropractor today, he noted that my whole muscular skeletal structure was out of line. And it was misaligned in a new way to that which was caused on a nasty RTA 15 years ago. This time my entire system was contorted as if I had got stuck mid way through turning around. This holds real significance for me because in the past two months I have been ‘spun’ on just about every level: as a business entity, a wife, a daughter, a practitioner, a mother and a woman, every single layer has been in flux. The growth and healing has been great, but, I do feel a little bruised and shaken for it. It seems my physical self was in a state of direct reflection of my emotional shifts. 
Similarly our bodies will reflect other changes or misalignments in our worlds. Too much going on? A Symptomatic cold will serve to slow us down for a bit. Anxious and stressed? There’s nothing like a migraine to release trapped pressure in our heads….. Symptoms will appear in individuals in unique ways, but if you concentrate, you will find that you do know the significance of each one, for yourself. 
Our bodies will alway tell us when something is amiss in our professional or personal lives in one way or another. Listen to and translate those symptoms for yourself and you will know much more quickly if you are working in an environment or a cultural context that does not sit well with you. You will be able to read the nature of your relationship with your immediate authority figures, and you will be able to feel it in you very core when you need to make a sharp exit. Play with this. Ask your body which bit isn’t lining up and be prepared to make the changes that are needed. The more aligned we are with ourselves, our bodies and our work context, the better quality the life we lead….
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