Do you live your life in a way that is sustainable for you? Are you always full of energy, sleeping well, thinking clearly and rarely (if ever) ill? Or do you find yourself struggling to get through the day…stressed…tired…like driving with the handbrake on?

You can make things easy – or hard – for your body and brain to enable you to do what you want to do.

Listening to your body

Our bodies – and brains – give us clues as to when we are doing things right… and when we’re not. Do you pay attention to you the messages?

Your body tells you what it needs. And like any communication with those you love, your life will be easier if you pay attention to the body language – in this case your body’s language.

If you don’t…the messages keep getting stronger until you listen. And it might take illness, injury or even death to get the message through. I know, because I’ve been there…when I died and then lost the three things I’d always relied on: my mental abilities, my stamina, and my leg strength.

Bill Cosby once said that God keeps giving us the same lesson until we have learnt it. Then we can move onto the next lesson…I’m slow at learning some things 😉

Fortunately you can do things to shorten the learning curve. You can learn from the wisdom of others!

Using your body’s rhythms – the chi cycle

Leveraging your body’s natural rhythms enables you to do things at the best time for your body to support you. In The Perfect Day Plan, Jost Sauer reveals the best times to do the things we need to do each day – working, exercising, sleeping, relaxing and so on. His guidelines are based on the wisdom of Chinese medicine. I found following them very useful in my quest to regain my energy…and when your energy is low you need all the help you can get!

For me, one of my biggest challenges is getting enough good quality sleep and rest.

If my energy levels and rhythms are going reasonably well, I tend to wake naturally at the ‘right’ time (5:00-7:00am) – to be ready for a brand-new day. And even if I know I haven’t had ‘enough’ sleep, I still feel better if I get up at that time. If I sleep in I feel sluggish…because I’m not getting up at the best time for my body’s chi rhythms.

For various reasons (some of which are 15 and 17 years old ;)), lately I’ve been up late…well after 11:00pm when I should be asleep and restoring myself. But my overall energy levels are currently sufficient that I wake early. The net result is that I lack sufficient sleep, so that I’m very tired in the afternoons – especially if I am unable to rest. So now I’m paying the price for acting contrary to what my body is telling me.

The good news is that we can change at any time – and I’m starting tonight.

What is your body telling you? And do you listen? Let me know!

Till next time…be gentle to yourself and our world!