BY MARY-ELIZABETH HARMON
Founding Mother, Chard & Stripes
A book by Thich Nhat Hahn, True Love, I think it was, inspired me to start talking to my body parts.
My memory about it all is hazy now, but I seem to remember the Buddhist monk slash peace activist writing about showing one’s liver loving-kindness.
Before then, I hadn’t thought about loving on my liver, but it seemed smart:
I knew from thinking myself into illness that the mind-body connection was real.
Basically, I’d spent years thinking that I was wasting my life in my various jobs. That stresses a chick out and my body “talked back” with gut issues and more.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a wise and intuitive counselor available 24/7? You’re in luck—you already have one.
Your body!
SUE THOELE
By “more,” I mean feeling so bad that I quit my job and lost my house.
Our bodies don’t lie and sugar coat stuff.
If we bother to ask them, they’ll give us straight answers.
One foreclosure to my name is enough, and to avoid future problems of that size, as well as smaller ones, I consult my body often for guidance.
Case in point: Recently, I asked stubborn fat on my belly what it was telling me.
Conventional wisdom would have said “menopause,” but the fat said, “unwanted accumulation.” Meaning that those were the first words to enter my mind—clear as day—after I asked the question. And that answer made perfect sense, based on my years of collecting spiritual “data.”
The hypothesis I’ve proven—to my satisfaction—is this:
We reap what we sow in word, deed, and energy.
It’s the energy part most folks don’t get, but it’s what has the biggest impact on our outcomes.
Energy in motion = emotion.
Joy begets joy.
Rage begets rage.
And feelings of unwanted accumulation can be begotten on the belly.
If that sounds too crazy to swallow, don’t. But you’d better believe I’m heeding the fat’s response and have started tackling unwanted accumulation around the house.
By paring things down, I expect my belly to go down too.
But not by black magic:
Unwanted accumulation around the house was…is stressing me out.
Stress produces cortisol, a hormone that causes belly fat.
And cortisol don’t care if we eat well and work out—it’s still gonna do its thing, so reducing cortisol by reducing stress will likely give my belly the biggest bang for the buck.
Boom! Who’s crazy now?
To me, it’s crazy to think that we can stuff our lives into separate compartments.
The sooner we understand that everything is energetically intertwined, the sooner—and more efficiently—we can create prosperous health. Especially if we ask our bodies for guidance.
Dr. Mary-Elizabeth Harmon—aka Miss Biz—is a scientist turned storyteller and Founding Mother of Chard & Stripes, a “school” of prosperity making and word-of-mouth marketing platform. Subscribe to Chard Mail, her weekly newsletter, here.