Listen To Your Inner Calling.

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today. Well, for a few days now. Sore throat, headache, tummy rumbles. I think I've got a virus. But it is mild and I am taking all of my wonderful herbal tinctures and allowing my body the rest it needs to repair on its own. I don't think it is going to be anything more than uncomfortable for a few days. This happened earlier in the winter too and went away quickly. That's what I like about herbal support. When you have the tinctures on-hand, you just start taking the specific ones for immune support right away and frequently (every couple of hours) and rest...did you hear me? REST! That's one of the biggest things we can do to support our immune system.

I almost succumbed to guilt this morning and went to the gym. I "should" I thought. But something said "yes, but you'll wander around the gym, really not accomplishing much because you don't have any spare energy right now, so just rest". So I got up, took a long shower, had a cup of tea and just sat in the silence.

I'm saying this as much for myself as I am for you: honor and listen to your body and your inner wisdom...always. We end up fully in the throws of illness when we push against this inner voice "I MUST DO...." And when you are knocked completely to your knees with illness...funny how the "MUST DO" becomes "I CAN'T" and the world manages to turn without you. You CAN care for yourself and your body, even in a culture that says we must push to and beyond our limits all the time.

I am SOOOOO fortunate that I am able to stay home right now. I pushed to and beyond my limits for too many years. And I'm sure my limits are much less than most people's. Being an empath, I am easily overwhelmed and overloaded. So having a special needs child that demanded everything I had and then some, and going to college and then grad school, then working, almost tipped the scales. My health suffered. I was sick all of the time...really sick. And I ended up needing three surgeries during that time. So what do we really accomplish when we push so hard? Ill health? A nice note on our gravestone?

Finally, my body and my spirit screamed "NO MORE!". I had a choice to listen, or, I think, literally, die early. Thank God my husband supported this decision. Oh, I have "doer's guilt" to deal with and the messages of family and culture that say I'm lazy for not being a super woman. But the truth is, these messages won't kill me, but acting on them and with them and going against my inner urgings, just might.

So I'm resting today. I'll read, take my tinctures, meditate and putter. And feel very blessed that right now, today, I have this luxury. I know a lot of people don't, and I know there were times I did not have a choice either. Or at least not a GOOD choice. I also know that there are multitudes of people who refuse to see another way, who think and say they don't have a choice when they do. They can live on less, buy less, live smaller, downsize, do whatever it takes to live more simply, more authentically. We don't need most of the "stuff" we have and can get by with surprisingly little. A healer once told me "you can stuff yourself into a job you think you are supposed to be in, working for benefits if you want, and trust me, if you do, you will NEED ALL of those benefits. If you follow your inner calling, you will stay healthy."

What is your inner calling? What is it saying? Will you heed it?