Mary O’Malley – Your body is an amazing teacher if you just stop to listen. Most of the time you listen to the stories in your mind and, thinking you are your thoughts, you believe whatever your mind tells you. This cuts you off from the phenomenal intelligence of your body.
A friend of mine had surgery on her forehead to remove some skin cancer lesions. She said she wasn’t anxious or worried before the procedure. As the surgeon was making the last few stitches, she noticed her neck was tight, and she felt clammy and lightheaded. She told me it was a very scary moment because her mind told her to resist and get away. As she readied herself in her mind to fly off the table and out of the room, she instead decided to tell the doctor what was happening in her body, and once she acknowledged her discomfort, it began to relax and her mind calmed down.
I shared with my friend that when the fight or flight mechanism in the body gets activated, the mind wants to fight or flee. We human beings live in the ‘fight or fleeing’ mode quite a bit. We do whatever we can to escape from the emotional, physical or mental pain we are experiencing. As a result, we are often so out of touch with our bodies that we don’t feel anything, like my friend just before her surgery.