1. Your body IS speaking to you. It is letting you know some things.
2. The things that your body is telling you are incredibly important when it comes to healing/growing. They are more important than you realize.
I used to think phrases like this was mumbo-jumbo wacky "back-to-the-earth" people. But it is NOT. This is what I have been missing my whole life.
My body was experiencing lots of physical sensations, and I never understood that my body was trying to say to me.
If you see a snake and you are afraid of snakes -- you know this is FEAR. You understand that FEAR. Fear is a particular combination of bodily sensations. But every emotion is first a particular combination of body sensations. SADNESS hits you that way too. This can be tightening in the jaw, a lump in your throat, upset stomach etc. How people experience this varies from person to person as well.
I actually think my migraines may have been my body trying to talk to me as well. I am not sure yet, but I am paying attention.
Your body is a TRUTH-TELLER! This is a gift. Your body does not lie. And the book The Body Keeps the Score is a great one to read! (Feelings can lie, of course. But your physical sensations are telling you something about what you've experienced, even if that thing you experienced is negative or incorrect.)
Do you pay attention to the memos your body is sending you? Ummmm, I never did. Ever. I never knew this. No one ever told me this.
And, it is important to understand that your body will not always have it right. It might have a panic attack when it sees birds for example. But, it is telling you a story about your past story and your TRAUMA. There is something in your past that is causing you to have tension surrounding birds.
Pay attention to what your body is telling you.
Honestly, some of what this Christian counselor on this podcast is saying will feel "silly." And maybe the way he is breaking down feels silly. But what is he is saying is correct. If you are feeling tension, your body is trying to speak to you. And if you aren't paying attention, it will continue to try and tell you until you listen.
I didn't listen. I refused. So my body said, "I am going to shut down completely. Because if I don't, you will eventually die from lack of paying attention to me."
NOTICE THAT.
Say that to yourself when you feel something.
NOTICE
THAT.
He uses these two words in the therapeutic process more than anything else. These two words are an invitation to listen to the story your body is trying to tell you. Your physical body. Not your brain. Not your counselor's brain. Your physical body is the one telling you the most honest story.
If that constricted feeling in your throat could talk, what might it say ....
1. What are you feeling in your body right now?
2. Notice that. Feel into it.
3. If that sensation in your _____ could talk, what would it say?
Your body knows things that your in-your-skull brain does not.
What if you begin to listen more frequently to your knower? This would include the brain cells in your heart and gut.
What is making you reluctant to listen to your knower?
Your body from the neck down knows things about your story that the brain in your head does not know.
Many modern western churches, have a DEEP suspicion to the human body. The body is the secondary to the soul. If you grew up in the church, you have likely received the message that your gut, heart, body is untrustworthy. It's the idea that you should not let your feelings guide you. If you want your life to go well, you need to put your faith in God and the facts of scripture rather than letting your feelings guide you. Don't let your feelings be the engine of your life. We were taught that your feelings are only valuable if they line up with the Bible. So we are taught that our feelings are dangerous. It is dangerous to rely on the wisdom of one's body. This is NOT to say that our feelings trump the Bible AT ALL. This is just to say that we need to pay attention to our body. If we have a headache, our body may be saying "You need rest." It isn't always that we need healing. (Although healing can come through rest.)
Various verses are used to teach you not to trust your intuition/gut
1. Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your understanding." This came to mean that a real Christian doesn't trust themselves and should ignore what their intuition is if it conflicts with what the good experts say it conflicts with the Bible. (Pay attention to the fact that I am not talking bout what the Bible says but what other people SAY it says.) This teaching has profoundly shaped evangelicalism. You may understandably may have a deep suspicion of this entire podcast episode in your "knower." You may believe that external authority is more valuable than internal. But we were created in the image of God. We are able to discern what is true and not true. External authority refers to trusting the wisdom of others.
2. Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure." This ingrained in people that anything they wanted was actually bad and it taught them not to trust themselves. This can cause people to distrust their own thoughts/guts/feelings. But the primary point of the book of Jeremiah is to share that your heart is actually trustworthy. This is not saying that your feelings are truthful. They can be wrong. But in the New Testament, Jesus will live within you. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
3. It builds to Jeremiah 31 which says "'The time is coming,'" says the Lord 'Where I will make a new covenant with the house of Judah. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts." That same heart that is supposed to be deceitful above all things! As a Christian, your heart is not deceitfully wicked -- albeit it may be wicked at times. However, it can also be a good place where Jesus dwells.
4. Jeremiah 12 is him talking to God, "'Why does the way of the wicked prosper. You are always on their lips but you are far from their hearts. But you know me O Lord. You see me and test my thoughts about you." Jeremiah's entire argument is that his heart is deceitful above all things. His heart is good. The hearts of the WICKED are deceitful.
5. Psalm 7 "Grant me justice Lord as befits my righteousness and as be fits my innocence."
6. Psalm 18 "The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he has rewarded me."
7. Psalm 26 "Vindicate me O Lord, for I have lead a blameless of life. I have trusted in the Lord without wavering."
8. Job The starting point of the book of Job and the foundation upon the entire narrative of Job is that God thinks Job's heart is righteous and good. "Have you paid heed to my servant Job? There is no one like him on Earth -- a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil." God doesn't think Job's heart is deceitful above all things.
These verses are not confessions of sin-less-ness or perfection. The heart can be good and trustworthy even though we are all sinners. None of the Biblical writers believed their heart was beyond cure. When a Bible verse is used to convince you not to trust yourself, you are in the realm of spiritual abuse. (Obviously there are levels to this and it cannot be said quite this clearly, but pay attention to this.)
Paul tells us that our body has become the dwelling place of God!
9. I Cor 6 "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, who you have received from God." In ancient Israel, the temple was the ONE place where heaven and Earth intersected. Our bodies have become the dwelling place of God! Paul claims that the human body has become a temple. The glory of God which previously only took up residence in the Jerusalem temple, now resides in the human body because of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
