Learning to listen.

It is official, I feel awful from all of the stress of the last week. I am so worn out mentally, emotionally, physically from all the goings on last week that I had to stop and really listen to my body last night though I wanted to ignore it badly! Between the stress of buying our first house, working a ton of extra hours at work, three early mornings in a row (when I'm used to late mornings), and day trip to and from Chicago during all that I plum wore myself out. Stress. Stress. And more stress. There is only so much this bubble girl can take before it shows up in a physical manifestations. So, with much regret I had to cancel on attending my girlfriend's graduate recital last night so that I could listen to what my body was telling me and stop for a while. Luckily, she is an awesome friend and was very understanding and is going to let me watch the video of it later.

After a very long day at work (for a Saturday) yesterday I came home and tried to take a nap in the hopes that I wouldn't feel so exhausted afterwards and could make the drive to see my friends recital. No such luck. With all of early mornings and stress I had decided to drink some coffee that morning and the caffeine was still in my bloodstream apparently. I couldn't sleep at all (though I did drool a little for the whole 3 minutes I did sleep before waking back up). Talk about exhaustion. My eyes were heavy and my body was moving in slow motion, plus my throat felt quite raw and a bit swollen. Clearly, my body was sending me a message. STOP!

If you had talked to me a few years ago, and I felt that way, I would have ignored and kept going. However, I would end up sick for weeks on end afterwards with a cold or just general over exhaustion symptoms. Although I still find it difficult to listen all of the time, I do my best to make my health a priority and listen to the subtle signals my body sends me. Interestingly, the more I listen, the less subtle I realize the signals are! If I had listened to my body better years ago when I first started getting heartburn, who knows if I would have ended up with gallstones! I could have prevented and minimized just by listening harder to how my body reacted to different foods and meal sizes. Sure, I listened a little, but not enough until it was already too late.

Unfortunately, our society is so focused on being superhuman we look down on anyone who can't push themselves to the limit 24-7, even when sick. Too many companies/bosses don't believe their employees when they need to take a sick day, and so many times that sick day isn't asked for until the illness has already progressed so far that it will take twice as long to recover. Not so long ago, I met a man who's company required him to give three days notice if he was going to take a day off when he is sick. What?!?! I don't know about you, but I don't have the ability to predict three days in advance that I will develop the flu or a sinus infection or that I'll break a bone. Anyway, the point is that we operate in a society where you aren't "allowed" to be sick. If you are like me, and have a weaker immune system, you constantly feel like no one believes you when you are in fact sick enough that you have no option but to stay home (even though for the previous 3-5 days you went to work despite not feeling well and subsequently infected all of your coworkers).

So I am working to change that unhealthy mantra, slowly but surely. I am allowing myself to take a day (or two) off to let my body rest and heal. Someday, my nervous system will be operating efficiently and I won't get sick as much, but I have many many more chiropractic adjustments to go until my spine in free of subluxations and healthy! Until then, I'm taking the day off and listening to my body.