Body Communication: Listening to the Inner Conversation

So many of my patients step through the door, sit down on the sofa and begin to unload. They aren’t just releasing tension, they aren’t just expressing their feelings, they are unburdening their communication pathways. You may not even realize how much information your body has that it has been unable to communicate. Your conscious self receives the “report” from your body, which it will give you whenever you create space for your mind to receive it. But in the busyness of our lives, we often ignore or set aside our self-awareness to focus outside of our bodies, to meet our obligations, which leaves numerous self-awareness reports undelivered. This creates a backlog of information which can alter our body perception and force the body to create its own dialogue to cope with our loss of awareness. It is this essential information link that our body uses every minute to create, regulate and control body function. There is not a condition, illness, disease or symptom that is not being controlled and monitored by our body communication system. This means that if you are not connecting to this pathway regularly to receive reports, then symptoms will result and your essential function will be compromised. This will be true no matter what illness you have. I like to think of this as “reporting to the head”, both literally and metaphorically. Under this layer of conscious communication lie micro-pathways of blood, lymph, neural signals, hormones and body chemicals which deliver moment by moment experiential information. This web of information is the essential way in which immunity is turned on and off, blood pressure is raised or lowered, pain is increased or lessened and mood is affected. Without attentiveness to the inner conversation our bodies are forced to settle for auto-pilot to carry out reactions and adjustments. It is this inner conversation that is the essence of our defenses, the stabilizing influence of our mood and function. Ignoring this leads not just to a backlog in undelivered reports, it means that we have a lessened defense against serious illness. Our body communication systems can become so dysregulated that the body tissues and lymphatic matrix begin to lose their integrity which is a key trigger in pain disorders like fibromyalgia and even arthritis.

Let’s look at your immune system as an example. You may be taking vitamin C and probiotics thinking they will protect you from illness through the winter. Having these nutrients available is one thing, but without the free flow of lymph, white blood cells and lymphocytes cannot reach glands and target tissues that will take the information they have and raise an immune response. Even worse, without the conceptual input of our conscious awareness, your body can identify situations as more threatening than they are, leading to debilitating allergies and chronic autoimmune situations. When you realize this, you realize that simply doing “all the right things” isn’t enough for you to avoid illness.

Our habits and the experiences we have are what create our bodies and our lives. The habit of silencing body information with distraction, noise, self-soothing compulsions or medications, may make us feel better in the short term, but it will create even more dysregulation in the long term. We may even habitually ignore essential realizations because we want to avoid making painful, difficult or even selfish decisions. For real healing, we have to put aside mental space for the essential reports our body communication system has ready for us and accept the information. This is why I often ask my patients to tell me why they have symptoms and what do they think their body is trying to tell them. You know the answer, you may simply not be aware of the answer.

Clearing toxins from our blood, decongesting our lymph, unburdening our souls, creating times of silence, are all ways to ensure that we are open to the information. Nurturing the inner conversation, sitting back and accepting the information, being aware of what the picture is ... this is the path to healing.

Dr. Karen Clickner is a nationally registered Naturopathic Physician with more than 30 years. She owns Conscious Body Natural Medicine, Inc. For more information visit www.consciousbodynatmed.com