When In Doubt, Give Your Body A Forrest Gump Moment

humanearl (67)in #life • 8 years ago (edited)

When was the last time you listened to your body?

Do more! Work Harder!! Outwork everyone around you!!! If you're not first you're last!!!!

Now correct me if I'm wrong but I'm 1000% sure you've heard either one or all of these phrases at some point in your life. Look, I'm telling you this because I have been the guinea pig for this "success" experiment since I graduated from college about 3 years ago. For as long as I can remember though, I too have been bombarded with these terms from numerous sources, be it wealth gurus, life coaches, peers, teachers, you name it. In the midst of all of these proverbial phrases I mentioned earlier, there lies the human body. At this point you may have started seeing the direction that this post is beginning to go in. Hopefully you have.

There Lies the Human Body?

Yes, these things we call bodies that we put through the grinder for the sake of profit or shall I say for the sake of being practical. Our bodies are very delicate. They are highly fine tuned thanks to Yahweh our Creator. These bodies also have alarm systems built within them that alert us when something is not right. My point, you ask? Well, we tend to override these systems through our ignorance. There are common symptoms that we get from not listening to our bodies such as headaches, stress, anxiety, tinnitus, high blood pressure, depression, and the list goes on. We are accustomed, as well as encouraged, to bypassing these alarms which God created to protect us from harm. This is a big issue and it's why we have so many work related chronic health issues not just in America but all over the world. Culturally, America is big on endorsing those proverbial phrases I mentioned at the beginning of this post. I'm not saying working hard is not a good thing or that we shouldn't hone our crafts or that we shouldn't want to get better at what we do. But what I am saying is that we need to be better in tune with what's going on with our bodies and in the moment that our health is at risk we have to stop the bus to understand why we are doing the work that we do in the first place. Too often we become infatuated by what money can do for us rather than being concerned with how much value we can give to the world. Even more so that infatuation becomes the green light to destroy not only our bodies, but our minds and spirits.

Forrest Gump Moment

So back to the issue at hand we go. Don't get me wrong. I believe in working hard but when working hard becomes a risk to our health then that's when we have to pay attention to the signals our body is giving us. At what point do we listen and say "I'm pretty tired. Think I'll go home now" a la Forrest Gump? When you're having the constant headaches for example or even the chronic nausea don't be afraid to give your body rest. You will not miss out on anything. FOMO is one of the many reasons I believe people choose to hammer away at their bodies everyday. We have a fear of not getting a promotion. We fear losing our jobs. We fear not having enough money. We fear not having status. We fear that the world will end so we have to buy and hoard as much stuff as possible. Fear, Fear, Fear and tons of it. Yes, we do all this at the expense of our health. Does this sound sustainable to you?

My inspiration for writing this post comes from the very fact that months ago I became burned out trying to "Do more, work harder, and outwork everyone around me." I had bypassed my body's ways of telling me to get off the gas. Still to this day my body is still recovering from what I put it through. It is very simple for me now. Work extremely hard at what I do, in surges that is, all while striving to live a healthy spiritual, physical, and mental life that honors God. Boooyyy let me tell you. It is no doubt a constant battle but it is very much worth fighting for. I hope you choose to do the same so that you will honor God and so that your body will thank you. Peace. Shalom. Frieden.