I hope you all enjoyed the blog post last week by my friend Mikkee. She is beautiful, selfless, talented woman who loves people in whatever season they are in. If you didn’t have the opportunity to read it, you can find it here.
If you grew up in the 90’s then you may remember Susan Powter. If not, she was a fitness guru with platinum buzz cut hair who would yell “Stop the insanity”. I think her message was about stop treating your body bad (who knows, I was too young to know/care about what she was yelling about). As an adult, I think she has a point that it’s insane that we continue to do harm to oneself. I do believe this message goes beyond the food we ingest and I’ll explain how.
As some of you know one of my goals this year is to listen to my body more. This includes knowing what foods and products work for me. I will say, it is not easy to listen to your body after years of ignoring it, and it’s a work in progress. I do believe there is one thing more difficult than listening to ones body about food; it is listening to what our soul and spirit need for nourishment. There are specific relationships, media, places, and situations that are toxic to our being, but insanely enough, we continue to allow it in.
A personal example would have to be the music I listen to while I drive. Now, I will begin with saying that living and commuting in the DC area will make anyone angry. Drivers here just have the special ability (especially on the 495 Beltway) to get on my laaaast nerve. As in the nerve that is holding the rest of me together, and these drivers are coming after it with a sharp pair of scissors, poking and cutting at it. THIS MY FRIENDS is what it is like driving in the DC region (even thinking about driving is irritating me). Anywho, back to my point! I used to listen to anything that was playing on the radio when I drove. I love music, and have to listen to it when I’m in the car. I began to notice that certain types of music were affecting my attitude and emotions while I drove (as a word of caution, listening to Ludacris’ Move song while driving is never a good idea). At first I ignored it because part of me has a love for super ratchet music (I don’t care who you are, there is a ratchet song that you love), but eventually I made the switch to listening to either WGTS 91.9 or the Christian music on my iPod (cause you can’t curse someone out while singing about Jesus… like, you can’t). I will not lie, this has changed my attitude towards DC and Maryland drivers (people from Virginia can’t drive, it’s a fact).
This only represents one example of how I’m trying to listen to my body and what it needs and doesn’t need. One positive lesson I’ve learned is when you take one thing out, you get to fill that space with something new and nourishing (goodbye cheddar, hello goat cheese).
Let me know if you’re on this journey too, and how you are listening to your body’s needs.
With love,
Tifa
Tea With Tifa 