Create A New Season

Confused About Next Steps??? Check in with your body compass!

Okay, true confessions time,  I have given the same advice to different people, as if I were given them directions to the nearest grocery store.   They each told me about a confusing scenario in their life.   I told them to check in with their body compass.   I asked them,  “What does your body compass have to say about that?”

That’s really great advice for someone, who has read and listened to everything Martha Beck has to say.   However,  there are some people that haven’t had a chance to learn about this wonderful internal GPS system that we each come equipped with.

The other night on a coaching call with people, who were familiar with the term “Body Compass”, I was asked to explain how I really knew what my body was telling me.    Responding with an “I just do” was really a pitiful answer.

Based on the work by Martha Beck in Finding Your Own North Star, she introduced me to a wonderful tool that will serve me the rest of my days.   Our mind can easily be messed with through social programing and toxic thinking.   However, there is one place within all of us that knows the truth about our life mission and destiny.   I like to call it “The Seat of the Soul” after the popular book by Gary Zukav.   We can’t program our body responses.  Our body responds in its own way.

I know when I need to pay attention to my body compass when gremlin feelings pop up like fear, anxiety, jealousy, revenge, dread, etc.  All those feelings signal that I’m in some kind of emotional pain.  This usually means I’m engaged in an activity or doing something that might not be guiding me on my God given life path.   I also notice that I start craving sugar and want to rush out to Krispy Creams to find the answer to my angst.   However, the answer will never be found in a donut.   At least, it never worked that way in my life.

The answer can be found when we stop and really pay attention and take inventory of our bodies responses.  The food addiction that I just menitoned is my body’s way of telling me “This Ship is Pointed Due South”.   That’s a huge no.   If I’m considering taking a new job and I begin to crave even my toenails,  that’s usually a sign that the job may be an incredible opportunity, but I will feel caged working in that environment.   Fatigue, forgetting things, losing your social skills, tension in any part of your body are all ways of letting you know that you’re headed in the wrong direction.  Your thoughts in your mind may have reached other conclusions.   However,  listen to your body, it will eventually win and steer you back on course.

The body also has away of saying “YES,YES,YES,  You Go Girl!”  I have to notice when I’m on a physical high.  Again this is not a mental thing, but it’s your body’s way of telling YES.   You can’t control this response.  Your body does it for you.   When I’m in high energy,  relaxed, remember everything I’ve ever learned about a subject,   my body is giving me a signal that I’m getting warm and am headed in the right direction for my life’s purpose.   I also find that when I enjoy spending time with a friend/friends then my body is giving me a “thumps up”.   A real “High Five” occurs when I find that I want to work on a task for hours and lose all track of time.   This is huge “YES”.

My sister has always been a multi-tasker that could make my head spin, think” The Exorcist”. Last summer while I was visiting, I noted that she was going in ten different directions.   She had a list of people, who she felt would benefit from coaching.   When I asked her, “Where is your name on the list?”

I received the answer,  “I don’t have time.  I’m extremely busy.”.   She wasn’t ready to see what I was noting.  Her body was eventually going to shut down her routine.   The body always wins when we’re running fast and furious on low fuel.   Your body will get its way.  Around March she developed a case of “Mono”.   Her immune system was shot.   She’s feeling better, but noted right away when she thought that she’d recovered, her body would shut down again.     I have no idea what her life lesson is.  It’s her business and God’s business.   However,  I have gotten so in tune with my body compass that I constantly ask my coaching clients,  “How is your body doing with that thought?”

The words we want to get to are “shackles off” a taste of freedom, as noted by the light feel of the body.  The shoulders release tension and your body begins to relax.  Another thought might lead to the huge “No” for your body.   If your mind tells you,”You don’t have enough money.  You’re going to lose your home and savings.”,  both of those thoughts would put a “shackles on” feeling among the new breed of “John Wayne’s ” roaming the world now.

Even if you believe the thougthts to be absolute truth, it’s possible to do a turn-around, so you don’t have to suffer emotionally.  Those thoughts aren’t serving you well and the chances of you finding answers to direct you to your North Star are fairly remote with that kind of thinking.   Changing your thought to  “I have enough money” or “I have what a need”   can bring your stress level down a few notches.

So when you’re facing some tough decisions, trust your body compass.   When the gremlin haunting emotions surface, which cause emotional suffering, check in with your body compass.    I have had the “right answers” in my mind to many of my life questions.  However, the truth was that my so called knowledge was based on “social programming”, which may be waaaay so not true.

This week the participants in my parenting classes are checkng in with their own body compasses and seeing how their children check in.   A two and three year old can be taught from an early age to listen to his body.

More on this topic to follow.  Stay tuned.   Let me hear your questions/comments.

My body compass says to publish this blog.  I feel relaxed and love sharing wisdom that I’ve learned from living and listening to the thinking of others.

XOXO,

Mary Ann

Posted under: Life Coaching through My Blog