Male Announcer: You’re listening to From Pain to Possibility with Susi Hately. You will hear Susi’s best ideas on how to reduce or even eradicate your pain and learn how to listen to your body when it whispers so you don’t have to hear it scream. And now here’s your host, Susi Hately.

With this episode I would like to dig into the concept of listening to the whispers. I find so often, especially with my logical focused clients that the brain wants to solve for everything. And try as it might, it simply can't because it doesn't have all the answers and it never will.

Your brain thinks it should know. It will ask you to gather all the evidence and do all the things to solve the problem. And while following this way of the brain will often give you a solution, it often isn't the solution that gives sustainable results. And you will cycle about in and out of pain over and over and over.

But that doesn't mean that all is lost. Not at all. Because the solution doesn't sit in your brain. Because one of the craziest cosmic jokes going, and when your brain really understands this the power that is available is mind boggling.

Our brain thinks it is so smart. It might even be annoyed listening to me right now saying, “Would you already get there? Tell me what this is about already.” What I'm about to say next is entirely 100% for your brain.

Okay, brain, are you ready? Brain, I need you to listen to your body. I know, you have not been trained to do much of that. But if you do, you will have all the evidence and information you need to make the most accurate, most significant, and most meaningful decisions ever.

You will step into your rockstar and it's like nobody's business. But you need to listen and befriend your body. It is here to support you to be the very best brain, and to give your human the very best life.

Now, the question your brain might be asking is okay, great. Well, then how do we do this? Let's begin with my describing a very powerful triad. You have your brain, it makes decisions, gathers data, and comes up with solutions. You have your intuition. So when you know something to be true, you just know it and you trust it. You don't need that outside evidence. And you also have body intelligence, which is that proprioceptive and body kinesthetic sense, which for many has been hammered away for all sorts of reasons. And as a result, it cannot be tuned into so well.

So we need to up-level our connection with the body intelligence. You already have a well-functioning brain. You already have an intuitive sense. So it really is about the body. And at the core of that it's about listening to the whispers. The whispers are your body’s sensations.

Now, I realize that we in a culture like ours don't give a whole lot of credence to sensations. So often we hear mind over matter. This cold won't stop me, just keep pushing. What I'm suggesting though, is that the matter actually matters. And in the matter are the sensations telling us in part, where we're at with our bandwidth.

Think of a child and when they are tired. Think of yourself when you are tired. And compare that to when you are not. What is your behavior like? The quality of your decisions? You see where I'm going here?

When you are able to tune in to your specific bandwidth, when you understand your body as a battery, as a fuel source, and you are better able to monitor it, you are more able to tune into when you can push and when you need to rest. And when you need to fill in the blank. You gain a certain understanding, an agility, and dare I say, as you get really good at this and ninja-ness.

You can make faster shifts and turns; you can respond more easily to the unpredictable. And of course there will be those some days for any number of reasons where your bandwidth is just lower. And when you know that and be okay with it, then you can know how to work within that.

I realize that that statement I just said, that might be weird to hear. Work within my actual bandwidth. Listen to my body, notice the energy level. Wait, do you mean I don't have to muster up the energy to overpower my body when I'm not feeling so well? Well, you could, but you'll likely do better quality work and have better quality relationship with your body if you actually listen. Which means you're going to have a better quality everything in your life.

Remember what I said at the beginning? Your brain wants to know and solve for everything. It can't. It needs your intuition and it needs your body intelligence. That is when you will get the most impact. It’s the difference between working in real energy versus fake energy or adrenalized energy. And it's so much more sustainable.

Think of it like your bank account and how it's sustainable when you actually have money in the account versus working in overdraft. That's akin to the real energy and fake energy analogy. You will create such better and more meaningful and significant results.

This is why feeling your own body and growing that agency for yourself is so incredibly vital. By combining that feeling knowledge that is semantic and embodied, and combining it with your mental state, with your intuitive state, you have a powerful triad of agency and advocacy, and of really your own inner authority.

And there's more. As you gain the skill of listening you will hear more than you ever could have thought. You will realize that those sensations or your symptoms, the ones that sort of bother you and bug you or concern you, really aren't problems to solve all the time. But they're also messengers to notice, acknowledge, and consider. They’re guides.

When viewed this way symptoms are like a call, or perhaps a beacon. Maybe even a beckoning for something bigger, starting out as courteous whispers, quiet nudges. And then as they are ignored those nudges, they start to become shoves and pushes. Those whispers start to become louder, maybe even screams. So from quiet whispers to loud talking, to really whatever it needs to do to get your attention.

For a moment, let's just consider the word symptom. And here are a list of synonyms I pulled from Google. What’s curious is that the word symptom means assign, the existence of something. Other similar words are expression, indication, mark, testimony, evidence, proof, clue, hint.

What I love about these synonyms is that they're all neutral. They're not good or bad, not positive or negative. I see them more like lighthouses and you are the boat in the harbor. And they are shining the light at you guiding you in to help you avoid the rocks along the way. Avoiding the grounding and helping you come to port very safely and swiftly.

So to explore these, let's take a moment now. I'm going to briefly walk you through a way of connecting with your symptoms. I go more into detail in the episode number 37 called dialogue with the symptoms. So you might want to go there as well after you do this and if it resonates with you.

So taking this time now, and just breathe. Of course, if you are driving your car then don't close your eyes, but simply notice where you are in space. Where does your body end, where does the chair, or the floor, or the desk beside you, whatever it is that you're doing, the things that are around you, where do they begin? Notice where you are in space.

Maybe scan through your body, where your feet are. Your legs. Your knees. What you're standing or sitting or laying on. Your belly. Your rib cage. Your shoulders. Your neck and your head. Your breath. Notice if you feel yourself kind of coming down, like your pace or your tempo is starting to drop.

And notice what other sensations are present. Maybe an itch or a scratch or a fidgetiness. Maybe a hunger or attention. Maybe a dryness in your eyes or a tiredness. Just notice what's there. Remember, signs, sensations, symptoms, they're neutral. They're simply a subjective experience of what's going on inside your body.

Now, whatever it is that you feel, allow your attention to move over to one of them. And simply ask, “What is it that you need?” Now we're not screaming at the sensation. We’re not haranguing the sensation. We’re simply paying attention and acknowledging what it has to indicate to us.

Now an answer might not come up right away and that's okay. The key is that the seed has been planted and your job is to notice. Just allow for what comes up. And it may come up in the form of a thought, or an image, in whatever form.

And as it comes up, you pay attention. And that may lead you into making another decision. That may lead you back into a conversation with your body. That may lead you in a direction, and I can't discern what that is at this point in time. I simply need to let you know that there will be a direction that will show itself for you. Which then you can take a step if you so choose.

The great thing about this experience of paying attention to our symptoms and sensations as messengers is that you don't actually need to heed the call if you don't want to. Sometimes we just notice what is there and acknowledge it and say, “You know what? I'm not ready to take action with what it is you're asking of me. Can you please come back later?”

There are other times where it's just not appropriate. And you say, “Thank you very much.” And you carry on. The key is, is not to ignore it. You may find when you say no to a particular guide, that there's some other thing that then arises. Because in the act of acknowledging, something starts to show up. And then you follow that.

It's a really interesting process. A really interesting experience that's totally up to you whether or not you decide to follow it or not. So with that then, you might be tuning into your body right now and saying, “Yes, this is great.” So I'm going to let you sit with that experience.

And if you find that you want more and you want to dig into this process more, I've got two options for you. The first one is my three month private series, where you and I work over a period of time, both in live Zoom sessions as well as between sessions via the messenger app Slack. Where I support you in really listening, connecting, tuning in, so that you can realize what those sensations are meaning for you and help you reduce and eradicate the pain that you're experiencing. Manage some of the other symptoms related to flares or migraines.

There's also my upcoming program Healing and Revealing Human Potential which is a group program where I walk you through a process that I work with innately with my private clients. Plus you get these great guest speakers including Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor and Deb Dana, who will help bring in the science of how this works.

You can learn more by emailing us at [email protected]. Early bird registration for Healing and Revealing Human Potential ends on June 30. I look so forward to working with you. You have a great time exploring.