Achieving Calm by Trusting Your Body's Wisdom

0:04Hello and welcome to a smaller version of my podcast.

0:09I'm just going to do a few little bite size, I guess, versions

0:14of stillness in the storms just to help us with that little

0:17bit of peace when we need it.

0:19And in this one, I just want to talk about the wisdom of the body

0:23and to remember that the body has your back very often, that we

0:29are trying to control the body all the time.

0:32And when things are all going wrong around us, it's the body that

0:36is screaming at us with the knowledge and the wisdom to be able

0:41to deal with it.

0:43But the head is just so overwhelmed and unwise at the moment

0:48that years ago we had very little to do with our minds.

0:54We could cope with a little bit of information we were getting.

0:58Now we've just been overloaded with everything.

1:01So this is just a little reminder.

1:04What do I do in those occasions?

1:06Well, when I remember, I just deliberately just take a little moment

1:11out.

1:12And this could be a few seconds or it could be two or three

1:15minutes.

1:16And all I do is I become aware of my breath.

1:20And we can do this now, just I'm breathing in and I'm breathing

1:25out.

1:26But what's really important is I don't do anything with my breath.

1:30My body knows how to breathe.

1:32And if you're familiar with my guided meditations, especially my

1:36more recent ones over the last year or so, I don't try to change

1:42the breath.

1:44Your body knows how to breathe in any given circumstances.

1:48But the problem is the minute we get involved, we start changing

1:51it.

1:52We try to force a certain feeling.

1:55The body knows how it should feel in any given moment.

2:00So just become aware of your breath and just allow your breath

2:05to be what it is.

2:10And in a similar way, your muscles know how to relax.

2:15They know how to be in any given moment, just like your breath.

2:21So just become aware of the breath and be aware of your muscles

2:24and just allow them to do what they want to do.

2:28And you'll probably find they just want to relax and then just

2:32allow them to do so.

2:36Very often situations are where we feel we've got to do something

2:43and if we just take that step back and, ah, let's just be here.

2:50Does this moment really need me to do something right now?

2:59Very often it doesn't.

3:01Very often it can wait a few minutes or a few hours or a few days.

3:06And I'm not talking about putting stuff off, I'm talking about

3:10we've been overwhelmed with lots of things to do.

3:14You can only do one thing.

3:17You can only deal with the Next thing that needs to be done.

3:23And when we're just shopping or when we're driving somewhere,

3:28when we're anything we're doing, the mind is trying to do five

3:33other things.

3:35And just by doing this exercise, just, ah, what's my breath

3:40doing?

3:43What's my muscles doing?

3:48What's my body doing?

3:55And there's so much wisdom in our bodies.

3:58There's so much more to know, more to learn from our bodies.

4:03You know, the brain thinks it's got everything.

4:06You read a book and the brain has it.

4:09It's not until you put it in practice does the body actually have

4:12it.

4:13The body's been around a lot longer than the thoughts have been

4:16around.

4:17If you think about that, the brain and the mind's been around

4:20a long time.

4:22And if you read a book that's only been around, I don't know, 5,

4:2610, 20 years, maybe 300 years, if you read Shakespeare, a lot of

4:32the stuff that you read or you learn is brand new information.

4:38But the body knows, the body has, you know, hundreds, thousands

4:44of years of knowledge all inherited.

4:52Your body has your back.

4:53Your body knows what to do.

4:56And if you remember this, it does give us that sense of calmness.

5:02So that's my thoughts of today.

5:04Just bring your attention back to your breath and just allow your

5:09breath to be what it is.

5:12Allow your muscles to be what they want to be.

5:16If they want to feel relaxed, let them.

5:19And you'll find you're a lot more stressed out and overwhelmed

5:22in this moment than you have to be.

5:26I'm Stephen Webb and this is a just a little snippet or I'll think

5:30of a name for them in due course.

5:33In the meantime, thank you for all your support.

5:36I love you guys.

5:37And I'm going to be doing a lot more of these little ones and

5:41then the odd longer one, so you'll hear from me more often.

5:46Take care.

5:47Bye.

5:47And I love.