“If you want to find the answers to the Big Questions about your soul,
you’d best begin with the Little Answers about your body.”
George Sheehan
As a psychotherapist and relationship counsellor I work with both couples and individuals on their relationships as they become parents. When you become parents, there is another layer of priorities to focus on, so much so that you can begin to neglect the most important relationship – the one that you have with yourself. Listening to your body, your intuition or personal guidance system can be difficult when life gets busy and noisy and your needs get drowned out by everyone else’s voices. However time and again, I notice that the nagging feeling in your gut or persistent ache in your heart are accurate signposts for emotional healing both for you and your relationships with others.
Feelings in your body are a direct reflection of how you are experiencing your life circumstances. Your feelings do not lie, they always tell the truth about what is really going on for you. We can often dismiss our feelings and override them with rationalisation and reason. Unlike our mind and our thoughts, our feelings are in “the now”. Our thoughts are generally in the past or the future, but our feelings, our body and our breath are our direct access to the present moment.
When you take the time to stop and notice those persistent feelings in your body, you may find that there is a lot of valuable information to be gained. For example, a recent client I worked with found it hard to breathe and had a sense of feeling trapped when she returned to work after maternity leave. As we examined these feelings, my client became aware that she felt that she hadn’t any choice about coming back to work when she did and was feeling overwhelmed by balancing her family and work lives. We looked at getting extra support for her at home and negotiating a more flexible work arrangement with her employer which physically and emotionally allowed her to “breathe more easily”.
Taking the time to notice your feelings and learn to understand what they are telling you is a valuable life skill. Your feelings are like an inner GPS and can steer you to getting your needs met within your relationship. If you have persistent feelings arise and are not sure what they are telling you or how to communicate them to your partner, then support is available. Contact me now to book an appointment, where I can guide you through that process. Ignoring those nagging feelings can negatively impact your relationship. Let’s talk before it breaks.
