That’s the thing about the body. It never lies, speaks louder than any words. Often it knows something even before you consciously do.

– Gail Conrad

OPENING:

Hello all you Vanguards & Visionaries, Innovators & Rule-Breakers!

So glad you’re here and big thanks for your comments on Outlaw Episode.

Today we’re going to do something a little different—access another way to get personal information, so stay tuned for what I’ll call an intimate adventure.

And if you haven’t already, subscribe to my podcast. This way I can let you know exactly when the next episode arrives. You can do it at gailconrad.com. That’s gailconrad.com.

And now—here we go!

(OPENING continues, with MUSIC:)

Hello and welcome to the Wildscape Podcast, sharing tales of stepping into the unknown to create more art, beauty, and magic in your life. I’m your host, Gail Conrad, and today you’re listening to:

BODY TALK!

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“I know—I made a promise. We’re going to the beach! And after that, a fish taco dinner. And yeah—we’ll take a walk too. And I agree, I won’t give up that other project—I’ll find a way to make it work. And you want—what? Well, all right—we’ll take an extra day—just lounge and do nothing at all. “

Hello everyone!  In case you’re wondering who I’m talking to—it’s my body.

I got to say—my body doesn’t mess around; it calls it like it is.

And usually, I have this kind of conversation in private, but I’m beginning this way because—this episode is BODY TALK! And I want to invite you to tune into your body in a whole new way.

For the body not only talks but often wants upgraded attention. And what I learned is, you want to start listening, before it starts to scream—like mine did.

I’m sleeping downstairs, next to my kitchen table, on a leaking airbed. The floor is cluttered with industrial garbage bags. The bags are filled with my clothes.

Am I giving them away?

Nope, I’m in quarantine, and I’m not even sure what for.

We’ve ruled out bedbugs, but—

I have a rash from some “thing” all over my body. It looks—not pretty. My doctor thinks it might be contagious; tells me I’m to wash everything I touch every day.

The challenge: I don’t have a washer/dryer where I live. So, I go to a laundry mat in mask and gloves. That’s why years later when COVID hits, I still have dozens of these blue hospital gloves.

Otherwise, I don’t go out.

Ever have those moments when you feel like your body’s going out of control? Doing something very strange, or definitely not acting right?

What kinds of things does it make you think about?

So here I am. Camping out downstairs.

I have a pile of white tee shirts. I wear a new one every day. It’s warm out. Late spring. I don’t use a blanket. That’s just one more thing to wash.

And life becomes very simple, and at the same time, quite complex. Outwardly, I’m doing nothing, but inwardly, a revolution is taking place. And guess what? My body’s on the insurgent side. It’s fighting for its rights!

And what are the body’s rights?

Well, of course, we do our best to give it shelter, feed it and clothe it, and try not to let it get too cold or too hot. We want to keep it where it gets enough oxygen to breathe easy, and try to move it, and keep it energized.

We have only one physical body in this lifetime. We try to keep it alive.

But what I want to focus on today, is that the body is incredibly social—it likes to communicate—likes to talk. So stay with me here, because—what gets the body truly upset, is when it feels like it’s talking to a brick wall.

That’s when it starts to act up.

Each morning, I arrange tee shirts & jeans into three piles. They’re part of a small bundle of things that I don’t bag up. There’s a pile for clean clothes, another for clothes to be washed, and one for towels and sheets. I use gloves, even at home. I don’t want to contaminate my newly washed clothes.

And I’m worried because I’m training to be a teacher of consciousness. My first presentation is in just a few weeks.

I try not to panic, but can’t help asking myself:

How will I be able to do this when my body’s out of control?

Or maybe it’s taking control. All I know is these big red ugly swellings keep popping up.

That’s when I turn to google and fixate on images of anything that might look like me

Bad idea. After that, I don’t sleep.

I keep wondering:

What do I need to know, that I can’t see?

I’ll tell you –

I was brought up in the world of dance. I’m used to thinking that I’m in touch with my body. I know how to relax it, isolate muscles, make it balance, and move extraordinarily quick. I’d say that I eat healthy, but a few sleepless nights later, it comes to me—that’s not what this is about.

My body wants a relationship! Okay—it wants a different relationship. I realize that I’ve been the one talking and directing, but I haven’t been listening.

It’s saying: this relationship has to be a two-way street!

It’s quiet in the dead of night. My body’s talking. I listen.

Have you ever run into a friend and after you ask: “Hey, how are you,” they reply something like, “All’s good—yeah, I’m great.”

But then you stare at them, and even if outwardly they look fine, just by focusing in on their body, you know in a flash, that something is not right.

That’s the thing about the body. It never lies, speaks louder than any words.

We can dress it up, give it a hip haircut, even train it at the gym, but often the quality of interaction it craves is way beyond this AND—the body doesn’t hide behind fancy language. Its communication is direct.

Why?

Because the body radiates enormous energy. It’s this energy that speaks the loudest when it talks!

Next morning, I wake up cold and uncomfortable. The air bed has inevitably, lost air.

But from listening the night before, I realize that I’ve been saying one thing to myself, but my body isn’t having any of it. It’s upset—very upset. And since I haven’t paid attention, it goes to Plan B.

That’s how I end up in this ugly rash-erupting mess.

And the irony? This class that I’m to give on consciousness? It’s about focusing our energy and expanding our multidimensional awareness but—my body and mind are not even on the same page.

It’s a painful lesson, but it’s how I begin to have a serious conversation—with my body.

Next morning, even before coffee, I start in:

Okay, what’s going on?

You’re feeling—WHAT?

Sometimes you receive its answers in actual words; other times, you might just sense or feel what it says, or even get a flash of a picture.

So here’s what happens: My stomach drops. I feel the answer. I know exactly what this is about.

Have I mentioned, that talking with your body is highly personal? Intimate?

Best had in private, when you can be alone and quiet, and truly tune in.

So I’ll share just a bit of our conversation. I’d decided that I had to give up developing a creative project to do this teacher-training.

My body feels like I’m cutting off a limb, and is shouting—telling me that I don’t, that I can do both.

What astounds me, is that before this, I’m not aware of how much this is eating at me, my assuming that I have to give up this one thing to do this other.

So here’s a secret about the body: sometimes it knows things, even before you consciously do.

Just to take this one example:

Think about all the new things that you’ve started in your life, whether this be a relationship, a move, a creative venture—you name it.

How many times have you been told, or told yourself, that in order to one thing, you have to give up another?

Does this turn out to be the truth?

What if next time, you ask your body?

Okay, back to me.

Once I begin having a conversation with my body, guess what?

It’s not a brief catch-up. It has a mouthful to say! So I get in the habit each day of asking:

All right—what else do I need to know?

That’s how I find out a few more things:

It’s not satisfied with any nice, neat solutions like: Here’s an aspirin—that will fix it.

Oh no, by this point, it wants my full attention, and wants personalized responses, not just what anyone might tell me to do, and not just a band-aid.

To its credit, it begins to reward me—just a bit. I begin to heal, but like any significant relationship, it doesn’t want me to get too cocky or self-assured that I’ll leave off listening to it now that its eruption is going away.

It reminds me, that this is an intimate experience, and that it’s talking only to me!

Then I find out what makes it the most upset:

I’ll call it: Overriding the Body.

We override the body when we do listen to it. In fact, we might even have a conversation, agree that it’s telling the truth and then—we do the opposite or do something else. We don’t act on what we know!

To the body, it’s like making a promise and breaking it.

For us humans overall, we’re not honoring our inner wisdom, often not acting in alignment with what we value the most.

I realize, I did exactly this. I deceived myself, for somewhere deep inside me, I already heard my body tell me:

You love this project. Don’t stop it, just because you’re beginning something else.

Instead, I conveniently pretended that I didn’t hear.

I want to say –

I’m not advocating ignoring the resources of doctors and medical science, but in this case, no doctor ever finds a medical reason for this scary eruption. I’m not surprised.

Specialists conclude that I’d never been contagious, but who knows?

All I do know, is that by the time I give my presentation, my body, mind, spirit and yes, rash have calmed down. My inner war moves to peace. I’m also talking with my body day and night.

I find that –

It doesn’t work to impose my will on its answers. To take in its wisdom, I need to be as receptive and neutral as I can.

The key is, to make sure that I truly resonate with what it’s telling me—that it feels right.

Only then can I act.

It’s funny, but the body is always talking. When you feel good, you might barely notice. It speaks softly, just does its every-day light chatter, commenting on this and that.

But like in any relationship, lest you take it for granted, or make an unwise decision, then—its voice gets louder.

Think about this:

What’s one question that you’d like to ask your body?

I invite you to try this when you can be quiet and notice if you truly resonate with its response.

And if you do, here’s my 2^nd question:

How will you act on what it says?

Thank you.

—

I’m Gail Conrad, your host of the Wildscape Podcast, and the opening music is by Chip Barrow.

I want to ask—if you get value from this, do review it on Apple Podcasts. Those reviews make a difference, and it would mean the world to me.

And always, I love to hear from you so if you’d like to contact me directly you can go to gailconrad.com. That’s gailconrad.com

Thanks so much for listening, and bye for now.

Why not talk to your body?