Your Body’s Talkin’, Do You Know What It’s Sayin’?

Body language.  You know it’s an important aspect of communication.  There’s a lot that’s been written and said about how your body’s message can in fact speak louder than the words coming out of your mouth.  And knowing this, you’ve probably trained yourself to pay attention to the message your body’s conveying to others, and the messages you receive from other people’s body language.  But how closely do you listen to your own body?  This is a whole other take on body language.

You see, your body is a fabulous information source for you.  It can tell you when something’s wrong physically, it conveys needs such as hunger and thirst, and if you pay any attention at all, your body can even let you know when something dangerous is afoot.  I know for me there’s a way that my own personal spidey senses cry out “alert! alert!” even though I’m not completely aware of what the problem is.

One of the things I know for sure is that it can be really easy to ignore, or at least minimize the messages and signals that your body sends your way.  Body says your tired?  You push yourself through to do just one more task.  Body says your hungry?  Too bad, body, you’ve got to wait for another hour or so.  Feeling a little icky?  Well, there’s too much to do — let’s push through.

While it can be an exercise in stretching and growing to push yourself past perceived limitations, there’s also a way that ignoring your body’s messages for any length of time will end up working against you.  If, for example, you continue to push past and ignore fatigue, you will likely get sick.  And then, oftentimes, all that you gained by pushing through gets lost as you lose time anyway.  So is it worth it?  My personal sense is that it’s not.

I think the bottom-line is that it really does behoove you to pay some attention — actually a lot of attention — to what your body is trying to tell YOU.  And more than simply paying attention, you’ve got to listen.  Your body’s a pretty sophisticated and wise conveyor of information.  You could learn a lot.

Turning the Focus Outward

A couple of years ago, one of my mentors told me and a group of fellow leaders, “whenever you’re feeling stuck, turn your attention outward and create from what’s out there.”  This statement has stayed with me, obviously.  Today, it seems to be making itself heard yet again.  I’m not sure why.  I’m not feeling particularly stuck — I’m actually motoring along and accomplishing a whole lot.  I am, however, noticing an uneasiness in my gut.  Not sure what it’s about at all which, of course, is heightening the uneasiness.  And my tendency is to try and figure out the whys and wherefores thereof.

What I’m realizing as the uneasiness continues to build is that I absolutely could keep trying to figure it out.  I’ve got a story that says if I figure out what’s causing the uneasiness, I can address the causal factor and move on more efficiently.  This may in fact be the way to go.  There’s a bigger something, however, that’s telling me to stop focusing on me, and start looking outside of myself.  Not for an answer to what ails me, but rather to address whatever needs exist outside of myself.

You see, leadership requires one to engage in a delicate balance of being aware of internal needs and external needs simultaneously.  What I’m realizing is that sometimes, when keeping the focus on one area isn’t leading to a solution, it might actually be beneficial to turn the focus onto another area and address what needs addressing out there.  This isn’t about going through life with blinders on, or ignoring very real needs.  Instead, this is about providing space where it’s needed, allowing supposed issues to simmer and either evaporate or crystalize before attempting to implement a solution that may not actually fit.  After all, a solution that doesn’t fit just ends up being just another problem, you know?

Bottom-line: sometimes you just need a fresh perspective.  And sometimes, that perspective is most easily accessed when you deliberately turn your focus away from whatever problem is at hand.  It’s very much akin to what Albert Einstein once said:  “problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”  If you want to solve a problem or resolve an issue, you’ve got to move your thinking to a new level.  And sometimes, that means turning your focus outward.