Integrity as Your Beacon | What Our Bodies Tell Us About the Choices We Make

Listening To What Our Bodies Have To Say About The Choices We Are Making

—

A person of integrity is someone whose life isn’t full of contradictions.

They do as they say, and they say as they do. Who they are on the inside is who they are on the outside, and who they are on the outside is aligned with how they feel on the inside. They have declared what is important to them and who they want to be in this lifetime. The actions they take and choices they make are aligned with that declaration and reflect that they feel worthy and deserving to manifest that which they most desire.

Whether it’s our marriage, our health, our work, or our relationships, there is usually at least one area of our life where we willfully ignore or cover something up that doesn’t feel right. That lack of comfort, that gnawing anxiety, that quiet but persistent voice in our head that’s trying to warn us to change the course — those are all signals that we are living out of integrity. And the problem is, the more we lose touch with our integrity, the more likely we are to continue to make choices that widen the divide, taking us further and further away from it.

Think of it as being adrift at sea. Your integrity is the lighthouse on the horizon — when you swim toward the shore, the beacon grows stronger and brighter until, at last, you are home. But when you get too far from shore, the tide pulls you away. As you drift farther out to sea, the lighthouse grows dim in the distance. Eventually, you can’t see its light at all, and you’ve lost any sense of the way back. Once we let integrity guide us, everything becomes easier — clearer. It’s as if we’ve been living in the dark, and then suddenly someone switches on a light.

That someone is you.

One of the most powerful ways the Universe attempts to wake us up is through our bodies — it is the one messenger that we ultimately cannot ignore.

Our bodies are always giving us feedback on how we are managing our life, as well as what lessons we need to learn. They always let us know how and if we are taking enough care of our life; but we tend to ignore the messages.

I meet so many people who are not taking care of their body. They work too much, take on too much stress, don’t eat or sleep well, or are somehow out of balance. Their body tries to tell them that they are out of whack — they catch a cold, have headaches, fall asleep during a conference call, or trip when rushing to their car. Yet we still don’t listen. We keep living life in the same manner. Our body keeps trying — maybe the cold becomes a flu, the headaches become migraines, or the next stumble results in a broken bone. And we still don’t listen! It’s like the Universe knocks and knocks, and when we continue not to hear the calling, it has no choice but to do something, sometimes drastic, to get our attention. It has no choice but to smash down our door.

This happened to me when I was mentally exhausted from ping ponging back and forth about my marriage — Do I stay, or should I go? Trying to make the relationship work was like pushing a boulder up a hill, but because I have always been the “strong one” I kept pushing. Too arrogant to think that my body would ever betray me, I was shocked when I fainted at a social gathering. That’s when I knew my body wasn’t giving out on me, but instead was sending me the wakeup call I couldn’t ignore!

Remarkably, there is often a direct correlation between our physical issues and the insight we need to realize. For example, the person with a stiff neck needs to stop looking back at the past. The person with constant headaches needs to look at the incessant negative internal dialogue that keeps looping around in their mind. The person with leg issues needs to look at how they are stuck and unable to move forward.

Here’s the bottom line: When it comes to our body, if we don’t listen to it, it won’t listen to us!

Our outer world holds up a mirror, an invitation to look within. It gives us an opportunity to see how we need to change and grow. As we shift our inner world, the outer world will follow. Understanding the magnitude of this reciprocal relationship of the outer and the inner — how the outer is always reflecting what is going on inside us — is a huge advantage when we commit to an integrity-guided life.

We only need to remember to look in that mirror to see where we’re stuck, experiencing chaos, making unhealthy choices, or not creating what we say we want. That is our signal to look inside, to see what is going on. As you tend to your inner world, your outer world will follow. This will enable you to leave bad relationships, break lazy habits, and embrace positive structure and actions. You’ll see opportunity where you never did before. If you don’t look in that mirror, you’ll continue to do what you’ve always done and get what you’ve always gotten.

It’s important to listen to your body. When you experience the gift of feedback from your body, you’ll realize how often you’ve been settling and how costly mediocrity can be.

Not sure what your body is trying to tell you? Here are 10 questions to help provide you with valuable insight:

1. What in your life is painfully obvious?
2. Is there a situation that is causing you frustration or angst?
3. If you see that situation as a mirror, what is it trying to reveal to you?
4. Is there a relationship in your life that triggers you or causes pain?
5. Why is this person in your life?
6. What are they there to show or teach you?
7. What disowned quality do you project onto this person that you need to take back?
8. Is there any ‘dis-ease’ in your body or issue with your health?
9. What is it trying to show you?
10. How does your outer world reflect your inner world?

Ask and you shall receive. All the answers you are looking for can be found when you learn to listen to what your body is trying to tell you. Are you ready to hear?

---

You may also enjoy reading Return of the Gentleman: The Art of Living Authentically by Dain Heer