As highly adaptable beings, we’ve learned how to get by in all sorts of different circumstances.
For example, in an effort to feel safe and diminish the perceived threat of isolation, we’ve learned to be sensitive and take heed to the social norms that help us look good, feel accepted, and fit in.
This can feel alright for a while.
But over time, when we are constructing and living our lives in ways that are not aligned with our innermost truths, a good deal of discomfort can arise in ways we might fail to recognize.
In my professional work blending the physical and psychological, here’s what I see come to the surface:
Weakened immunity. We may get colds or other viruses more easily, or it may seem we are developing food sensitivities.
Over-taxed adrenals. We wake up tired. We crave sugar. We push through things.
Digestive symptoms like chronic bloating, or IBS-like symptoms
Painful eating habits or cycles of self-sabotage like binge eating, nutritional perfectionism, or chronic dieting and revolting. Weight gain.
Getting locked into narratives around who we think we are in ways that are Self-limiting
Overwhelming feelings of depression, anxiety, apathy, or anger
Hormonal and menstrual symptoms intensifying
Chronic comparison and low-self-worth
We get wrung out, tired, moody, sick, or pained and we can’t seem to figure out what’s going on.
Carl Jung believed that there is a natural gradient towards wholeness in the psyche – the psyche wants us to develop, to integrate toward wholeness.
When we grip and fight the natural flow of this invitation, what’s wanting to happen can come out sideways, showing up as a health challenge, mood challenge, painful eating habit, or other problem pattern.
These things may come along to wake us up. And depending on how tight the grip is, it may take feeling pretty lousy to get our attention.
Maybe something in us may not feel ready to take on the work of awakening quite yet.
But maybe something is.
This is where I get so curious (and excited) about this work.
It’s time we deepen the practice of self-care not only to include care for the body we’ve been given, but also care for the messages and invitations of our soul, the invitations within our challenges. What’s under there? What’s true? What’s wanting to happen?
When we embrace health in this way, we widen our container. We don’t react exclusively from a place of anxiety, urgency, or helplessness. We can hold more and become WILLING to see something else and do something else.
More coming soon…
With love,
Laura
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