Our bodies are amazing in their abilities.  They provide us with mobility, as well as the ability to communicate with each other, to taste different flavors, experience different scents, see different colors and patterns and finally to think.  We breathe automatically most of the time.  Our hearts beat without any impetus on our part.  Our digestive systems operate quite well when given the correct nourishment.  Finally, our bodies are able to heal many of the hurts that we inflict on them. 

In many ways our bodies are experts.  As each body is different, every one is an expert on itself knowing intuitively what is best for its wellbeing and longevity, communicating its needs if we listen.  I don’t know about you dear friends, but I haven’t been a good listener through the years.  Far too many times I have let my mind drown out my body’s requests for rest, different food and different activities thinking it weak and not knowledgeable enough.  I have ignored the requests until it rebels and is quite literally screaming at me either in pain or some other way it finds to demand my attention.  In my defense, it is not always clear in how it communicates but reflecting back on some of those occasions, had I listened closer in the beginning, perhaps the journey back to health wouldn’t have taken so long.  

My first crash course in this process was when I was ultimately diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome.  A nebulous diagnosis at best, I had visited many doctors in search of answers and relief from pain only be told ‘it was in my head’ ,  ‘you can’t have this condition, it is too rare’  or  ‘you’re going to have live this way.’  The search spanned over three years as I refused to give up and simply believe what I was experiencing was normal or how I was meant to live.  Fortunately I was able to find a physical therapist that not only believed in me but also believed there could be a positive outcome.  Ultimately, I did choose surgical intervention to avoid additional nerve damage and circulatory complications.  I remember my employer at the time asking me if I thought the surgery would take care of all the discomfort I was having.  I thought about it for several moments (the surgery was considered a high risk and he was concerned) and I told him no, while I did believe the nerve issues I was having would be resolved with the surgery I wasn’t convinced all the pain I was having would be.  I truly felt the doctors had missed something but I didn’t know what it was.  Those words surprised me even as I uttered them but in retrospect they were a truth my body was trying to communicate with me and I didn’t understand.  

Fortunately the surgery was successful and the majority of the nerve issues resolved.  I do have residual nerve damage and have learned ways to accommodate that in my daily activities but the mind numbing pain and sensations were gone.  There was one symptom that didn’t resolve and it was intense pain along my right shoulder blade that would crop up usually later in the day.  No one was able to explain an underlying cause and the occurrences were less than before surgery so it just became another source of discomfort I learned to live with.  

I blissfully continued my life, knowing this pain would crop up at inconvenient times but figured there was nothing I could do.  I didn’t track the pain or continue trying to ‘cure it’ having bought into the belief my doctor had that it was a residual symptom from the prolonged compression on the brachial plexus.  Instead of listening to my body, I listened to the medical practitioners.  Several years later I had a very acute gall bladder attack.  No denying what it was and subsequently I had surgery, removing an organ that showed it had not been functioning correctly for many years.  In learning about my beloved gall bladder and how it functions, or doesn’t, I found a common symptom of gall bladder attacks  is pain along the right shoulder blade. Hmmm? And the shoulder pain that hadn’t gone away after the original surgery many years before?  It was now gone, and has not made an appearance since. 

Our bodies are geniuses when it comes to their own health and they communicate regularly if we will listen.  As helpful and healing as western medicine is, the practitioners don’t always have the correct answers but our bodies do.  In no way am I suggesting that medical practitioners are obsolete or should be ignored, but, they don’t know what we are feeling and can only treat us based on their interpretation of the information we relay coupled with knowledge that is limited to their training and personal experiences.  

Since this experience, in addition to working with my doctors, I have learned to not only listen to my body, but to sit with it, looking within to better understand what its needs are.  I am not always successful but I have found doing this practice to be beneficial.  I have been able to resolve some minor health issues the doctors were stumped with and have been able to accomplish things I was told I would not be able to do. (Bucket list- overnight backpacking trip!)  Truly, our bodies are miraculous in their healing abilities!

Wishing you much understanding when your body whispers to you on your heartfelt journey! ~♥~