Listen To Your Body

I read a book recently about a woman who fights cancer and beats the odds. For months prior, she feels discomfort in her body but keeps dismissing it as nothing. When she finally receives her diagnosis, she’s too shell-shocked to react. She eventually pulls herself together, assuring herself that she will beat the illness. She has a great support system, after all – her family and her fiancé.

But barely a few weeks into her treatment, her fiancé leaves her, confessing that he cannot handle a life with a cancer patient. And just like that, she’s fighting a heartbreak bigger than her disease.

Imagine feeling the devastation of losing the love of your life and the fear of losing your life, at the same time. The author goes on to speak about how she begins to heal her heart, slowly and almost unbearably painfully.

 

Here is an excerpt:

But let me tell you. The biggest regret I have today is not that my fiancé left. I have made my peace. He was not the one if he could not handle me at my worst. That’s Wedding Vow 101: in sickness and in health, and he failed quite miserably. But I respect the decision he made for himself.

Anyway, I digress. The biggest regret I have today is not that he left. It’s that I didn’t listen to my body sooner. I should have. I’d had a backache for nearly two months and my appetite had come down considerably. I kept chalking it up to stress even when my gut was telling me it was something more.

My father had tried speaking to me about it too. He’d watched in concern, once, as I kept stretching out my back trying in vain to ease the discomfort. “Maybe you should see a doctor, Lynn.”

We didn’t share the greatest of relationships back then and I’d scoffed. “Doctor? You know, dad, just because you are struggling with your health doesn’t mean that I am too. I exercise regularly. You’ve had your fatty liver issue for over two years now. And can I just say, I’ve still not seen the miracle the doctor promised when you asked him about fatty liver reversal. Can fatty liver be reversed, indeed. Pfft!” I snorted in disgust and turned away.

Yes, I was that mean.

 “It’s slow going, Lynn,” my dad had said defensively. “But it’s happening. You want me to tell you how to reverse fatty liver? Maybe you have it too.”

I threw up my hands in frustration and walked away.

But I should have listened. It would have saved us all a lot of heartache. I should have listened to him, I should have listened to my body.

So, that’s my biggest takeaway for you, from this whole affair – LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. It’s always telling you how it feels.

You just need to be smart enough to pay attention and understand its language.

It was this excerpt that planted the seed of transformation in my life. Until then, I’d taken my health and active body for granted. But reading her book, I understood that illness can strike anyone at any time. Sometimes, Nature is just that random. The best thing I can do is give my body the care it deserves and let the Universe take care of the rest.

And that’s how it’s been since.

Perhaps this article could be your seed of transformation too. I’m paying it forward 😊