369 thoughts on “Listening To My Body And Honouring My Feelings”

1. Not listening to my feelings is exhausting. Listening to my feelings is energising. But when we start to live and be more vital those who haven’t chosen to do the same get upset. I feel this reaction is something I am still learning to accept and thankfully the body tells me that toning down my expression is not listening to how I feel to be.

2. Yes honouring my body and my feelings is the key. Being willing to feel what gets in the way of this and still commit to it despite where anyone else is at is actually crucial not just for us but for them. Feeling the truth of this on a deeper level this morning and the ways I have so often sabotaged myself by going into sympathy with another and how this does not serve anyone.

3. Allowing ourselves to feel our pain makes space for us to feel love and joy, we should never forget that.

4. “Paying attention to these little feelings and honouring them is the key to staying with myself and feeling vital throughout my day.” Little things add up to make bigger things – so by being consistent in one area of our life we are enabling this consistency to flow into other aspects of life too.

5. Clearly the results of committing to going to bed consistently early whilst applying honesty to how you live throughout the day… and honouring what you feel, is incredibly powerful and worth the effort…. so I’m inspired to give this experiment a go for myself.

6. I agree Doug, whenever we have placed another before ourselves we have separated and disconnected and then there is no love whatsoever no matter what or how much is done. Placing another before ourselves avoids responsibility. It is an utter illusion, a complete lie and what feels like a very old behaviour of mine which with increasing awareness I am beginning to let go of.

7. We don’t realise the extent of energy we can give away by not following and listening to ourselves. I used to think that I was tired and exhausted because I wasn’t getting enough sleep or I wasn’t eating properly and while I’m not saying that these two factors do not have an impact because in some cases they do I have come to realise that when I got exhausted it was usually because I had not listened to myself and pushed myself during the day or I had listened to another and not followed what I felt supported me. It could be very surprising how exhausted I got listening and following another with no respect for myself.

8. Exhaustion is a deceptive thing. You feel tired all the time and constantly behind where you think you should be so you stay up that little bit too late teach each night trying to catch up…. and going to bed later than your body needs you to only feeds the exhaustion monster all the more.

9. The more I understand about my body and exhaustion, the more apparent it becomes that the number of hours of sleep I get is not the only factor contributing to tiredness – far from it. There’s so much more to tiredness and exhaustion than we’ve been led to believe. Preparing for the quality of our sleep begins during the day. If we’re spending our entire day feeling tension and anxiety, holding onto things, not expressing or getting involved in complication, then it makes sense that this disturbance is going to be felt in our body at night: it doesn’t just disappear just because we’re lying down and telling ourselves to go to bed. There is no ‘off moment’ where we turn the lights off and shut down – how we are in our day is something we carry with us into our sleep.

10. Developing a rhythm of going to bed – not early but when my body reminds me it is time to rest – has given me a vitality that I did not have when I used to stay awake to conform to the ‘normal’ time for bed. My normal is when my body is settling down for repose, which is usually around 9 pm.

11. Living our lives for other people is actually about us living our lives for us: we think we’re doing things because others want us to do them, but often we’re doing them because we want to please them and don’t want to hurt them.. it’s a subtle form of controlling our relationship with others, controlling our environment so that we can feel okay. When we truly honour what we can feel, life starts to change. We’re not dependent on anything outside of ourselves to feel good about ourselves – how empowering is that, to realise and actually feel that everything we’ve ever wanted to feel, is already inside us?

12. “I can now feel how choosing to live in a way that doesn’t honour my body makes me feel exhausted and tired, whereas living in a way that consistently honours my body and my feelings I have more energy to do whatever is needed. I can feel and appreciate how extremely self-empowering and self-caring it is to follow and honour my own feelings.”
    Absolutely everything changes when we consider the responsibility we have when choosing the quality we are bringing to all that we are in our expression.

13. It is so easy to do, to get caught up with what we think we ‘should’ do and engage in emotions, as the world outside of ourselves is constantly asking us to override what we feel. Yet as you have described, I also have experienced that living in this disregarding way is utterly exhausting. Developing a loving and honoring relationship with our bodies is key to living in connection to ourselves, which will guide us to make choices that support us to live with the vitally we deserve to live with, bringing far greater quality of presence to all that we do.

14. More often than not, when I get to bed at a sensible time like 9, I bounce out of bed the following morning… and its such a gorgeous time of day early in the morning. So quiet, so still… and I feel fresh. This is juxtaposed to the extra few hours I used to get by staying up late and pushing through some piece of work or checking out in front of the TV.

15. when we do start to listen to our bodies is like tuning into a vast repository of wisdom, that has always been there for us.

16. That distraction at the end of the day is a killer. Whether its wrapped up as some ‘me time’ a reward for having worked so hard, or just busying ourselves till the last possible minute. It exposes to me that I ‘reward’ myself by checking out, or even giving up at the end of the day… having seen it, its not what I choose any more!

17. 9 days of going to be by 9pm, that’s a great idea, I may just give it a try myself….

18. ‘I also had to look at the way I was living during my day; it was not just about the fact that I did not sleep enough.’ The quality of how we have been during the day is greatly reflected by the quality of our sleep, if we want to sleep better in order to be more vital, not only do we need to go to bed by 9-9.30, we need to improve our quality of living all-round.

19. Thank you Leike for sharing your experience, I too love the early to bed early to rise and i am finding that I have much more energy throughout my day. So simple but what a difference it makes in our day.

20. Ever time someone stops being run by the outside and reconnects to the inside and starts to follow the inner connection, the balance of light and dark in the world moves more to the light, and this is how the world will change , one heart at a time.

21. I was all ready for bed last night at 730pm and needed to complete some work from the day. So I sat up until 9pm completing what I needed to do. Before I started my work and jumped on the internet for 20mins for a browse, no purpose in it. Immediately after this I began to feel quite tired and then made myself stay up until I completed my work. We can easily get caught up in overriding our bodies messages, but all this does is affect how we are on the following day, in all things.

22. It is so true, the way we choose to live has been so often impulsed from the outside while, in truth, it is hurting us. I feel when choosing differently it is truly empowering

23. This is so familiar:
    “I realise that I have been letting the outside world run my life for a long time. I would override my feelings and go with what everyone around me told me to do.”
    It’s amazing what happens if you actually spend your day doing what feels right for you, there is a flow and things magically slot into place. When you’re trying to please everyone else you feel like you’re chasing your tail.

24. I recognise more and more the value and role of sleep in my life and concur with you that it’s crucial to develop a routine during the day that supports you to be ready for bed when the body is tired and not be dropping off the end of the day’s production line of tasks, activities and conversations straight into bed. We need a wind down period and this is part of the preparation for optimising our opportunity for a great night’s sleep.

25. Good one Suzanne- I have used this for years and it is so telling about how I have been choosing to live. It is like a moment of honesty when we wake up whether we like it or not – we can pay attention to it and consider how to adjust the day or push it down as fast as possible and keep on living the same old way.

26. What a great example Amanda of how social niceties such as politeness and being hospitable are what we expect from each other yet so far from what supports us all to be true to ourselves and look after our own physical health. As you show here, this is never at the expense of another.

27. I know ‘the fear of retribution’ too Abby – it can feel like when we let this rule our choices that we are being controlled by external forces or circumstances but I have found it is actually me trying to control things. I am the one trying to control so I can the outcome that I want and need. I might need someone’s approval or want to get a promotion at work etc.

28. Oh, that ‘second wind’ – lethal is a great word for it Suzanne A. Everyone has experienced it, and I even used to be a bit baffled by it until Serge Benhayon explained how we can trigger our nervous system to over ride tiredness and exhaustion. After this, I really got to see it in action. If I pushed on when I was tired and did not honour my tiredness by moving with more care or going to bed early, not only would I not feel tired, I would feel wide awake and find myself going to bed even later when I really needed to be in bed earlier.

29. We are so used to overriding the messages of our body and it takes a real adjustment to come back to attending to the clear and true statements that are coming from this amazing vehicle that we inhabit… Always is sending us clear information as to what we need to do next.

30. Pingback: The Beauty of Being Honest « The Truth about Serge Benhayon

31. Thank you Leike for such a gorgeous blog, my whole life changed when I began honouring my body and getting to sleep my 9pm. I spent years overriding my bodies natural signals with food, sleep, exercise and work etc and the greatest gift for me was being introduced to the self-care principles as taught by Universal Medicine that are simple and truly work.

32. Thank you Leike for a gorgeous blog, my whole life changed when I began honouring my body and getting to sleep my 9pm. I spent years overriding my bodies natural signals with food, sleep, exercise and work etc and the greatest gift for me was being introduced to the self-care principles as taught by Universal Medicine that are simple and truly work.

33. Universal medicine fundamentally presents for us all how to care for our selves and our body in a hitherto for totally unexplored way… And through this new paradigm to experience a connection that is so deep and nurturing that our lives totally reconfigure

34. Pingback: Choosing Preventative Medicine « The Truth about Serge Benhayon

35. We are so deeply ill-conditioned to think our head (or someone else’s for that matter) knows better than our own body. This is a huge compromise we are making as a race of beings.

    1. Powerfully expressed Fumiyo. We let the head and ideas trump the body, in doing so we numb the body until the body has to speak very loudly through illness and disease.

36. I find it interesting how self-care has sort of gotten a ‘bad rap’ in society and can sometimes be known as being selfish. To put your own feelings before or of more importance than the satisfaction or happiness of another. This has definitely been twisted, like many sacred things in the world, some people don’t get why on earth you would put your own wellbeing over what is best for another. I used to think like that, but now it’s quite the opposite, I would not put anyone’s wants or needs before honouring of listening to the wellbeing of my body in the name of pleasing another. This isn’t to say I wouldn’t serve another or be open to whatever another needs, it just isn’t more important than the connection I feel with me first.

    1. Yes it is an upside down world Rachael, but common sense tells us that if we have looked after our self in a loving way we are more able to care for another. On the other hand if we can’t take care of ourselves and are depleted and uncared for what do we even have to give another?

37. Yes Brendan, consistency is key for allowing a supportive rhythm to develop in the body. Washing my hands with appreciation has been some homework of late, which was going well, until the rhythm asked me to take this same presence to other more distracting areas. I found this difficult to hold the appreciation when washing my hands when the other parts of the day didn’t carry this same quality. Thus understanding that it can’t be about parts, but the whole of how we are with ourselves in rhythm, consistently so.

38. Very true and inspiring. All those things we do to please others are just letting ourselves down, not truly choosing to really be who we are and honour what we feel to do.

39. This blog so echoes my own experience…! And this line also sums it up for me “I can now feel how choosing to live in a way that doesn’t honour my body makes me feel exhausted and tired, whereas living in a way that consistently honours my body and my feelings I have more energy to do whatever is needed.” This has become a great marker for me on a daily basis, observing my stress and energy levels and being able to bring my awareness back to how I have been caring for myself and my body throughout my day.

40. Thank you Leike, I really enjoyed reading your article, I can relate to giving away my time to please others, but I have noticed, more and more, as I am feeling what my body is telling me, it is become more natural for me to make self loving choices.

41. In any moment I choose to make a commitment to myself, my vitality and energy increase hugely – and with that there’s a natural commitment to life, what needs to be done and everybody.

    1. I agree gylrae, the commitment to ourselves has a much bigger impact, it expands to all because we are a part of the whole, as we are one.

       1. Yes Annelies, how we live is what we reflect, only takes one person to reflect a different way to live, then everyone gets that choice….. Serge Benhayon being a great example of this, as we all are when we live truth.

42. I loved reading this Leike. I’ve recently been going for a pee when my body tells me to, something I noted I held onto till it suited rather than honouring what my body was saying! This has taken me to some interesting places where I’ve made some amazing connections, all because I’m listening to me. There is so much more on from this, like when we eat, what to eat, when to rest, call someone or not. I take so much from reading your experiment and experiences here. Thank you.

    1. I agree Candida – listening to our body opens up so much more than we may otherwise be aware of. Life’s wonders and blessings expand. Thanks Leike for sharing

    2. Ahaha Candida I had to laugh as I read your honest sharing because this not going for a pee when my body tells me to do is one of my reminder for me that I am out and not connected with me! It is so funny what I can choose to do only because I have this will and therefore the power to override my lovely body.

    3. Great example about the peeing. It shows in how many areas we don’t and can start to listen more to our body again. I am experimenting with breakfast. Instead of my routine breakfast I am feeling into – every morning – if I am hungry, if yes, what I need and how much of it. Very interesting. Every day is different.

43. When I don’t honour myself or my feelings honestly, I’ve realised that I am actually abusing myself. These feelings are not just there for no reason, it is the call of my inner being, a call of love.

    1. Yes Matthew great point. . . . when we don’t honour ourselves or our feelings we are in fact overriding love.

44. Being in bed by 9pm and being consistent with this is so beneficial for our wellbeing. I always knew I ‘should’ be going to bed earlier when I used to stay up until 10pm. Making the choice to be in bed by 9pm and being consistent with this gives me clarity and therefore I am much more focused and committed to myself and my day.

45. It is worth it johannebrown17 and with that first commitment comes the opportunity to commit to something else that is honouring and caring of us and before we know it the way in which we lived has transformed into one that truly supports us and our bodies, one that is really our natural way of being.

46. Funny how these ways of behaviour become invisible, but in every moment of every day they are draining and exhausting us because it is not a true way to be and underneath, at the deepest level, we know this, but above this are many layers of falseness, of things we have taken on. So we find it easier to settle in to that pattern because we have vested interests in keeping them that way. Being true to oneself and to one’s feelings of what is true, begins to uncover the deeper patterns of behaviour that we run that have kept us down for so long, and allows an ever greater sense of what we know is truly us to be lived.

47. This is the third blog I’ve read today that mentions or talks about the way others react when we express the truth. Interesting as it has come up in my relationships with people recently. I can clearly feel that expressing truth leaves me alone, whereas not expressing leave a lingering sticky feeling that something isn’t complete and the backwash from this feels turbulent and heavy.

48. This is something precious that I am discovering “I can now feel how choosing to live in a way that doesn’t honour my body makes me feel exhausted and tired, whereas living in a way that consistently honours my body and my feelings I have more energy to do whatever is needed.” Once becoming aware how significant being body aware can be on my health and well being, I would not have it any other way, some times I dip, but have the tools to support myself to return to a deeper state of vitality and joy now and I continue to develop this awareness. This is something that so worth exploring.

49. It so easy to come up with reasons as to why you need to do one more thing before going to bed, pushing bed time slowly later and later. And yet when it comes to put children to bed, the process of bed time starts well before they get into bed, with supper and a bath and story time, setting them up for a lovely sleep. I am not suggesting that we all need to be read stories and have bath time every night, however the care and space given to ourselves to prepare for sleep is equally important for adults as it is for children.

    1. I agree Rebecca when we keep our to-do list running up until bed time we can find it gets later and later, even if there is no list we can still be engaged and caught up in doing something that can even distract us from feeling when our body is ready for sleep. As you share, adults too can prepare for sleep. I find when I shift down a gear before bed I move with more care and can still attend to little things around the home (so long as I don’t try to start anything), and even when the home is in order I am surprised by how many small things have been left.

       1. I agree Deanne, running up to the last minute doesn’t help you get the rest you need. In the same way we prepare for a day; getting up, showering, brushing teeth, putting on makeup, exercising and making breakfast are all things we do to be ready for a day, and yet we often don’t put the same time and effort into going to sleep.

50. The bottom line is responsibility. Even as adults we can say we are ‘responsible’ because we have ‘grown up’, but true responsibility is beyond just what one is allowed to do, and it can be the most resisted.

51. I completely agree with what you have written about the benefit of going to bed early and also how our energy levels are affected by our 24/7 way of living. I have been consistently going to bed before 9pm for many years now and also bringing awareness to my whole day and my life has transformed in ways I couldn’t even have imagined ten years ago. I used to be tired all the time and much less functional after lunch. These days I am active and have consistent energy levels all day long. I get up at 3am and am on the go pretty much all day (with a lunch break) until about 7pm when I start a winding down process. I do this 7 days a week and it is very joyful. The point being that there is a whole other way of living that I have learnt through the presentations of Serge Behayon and Universal Medicine and it really works and it is a lot of fun!!!

    1. What you say is so very true Penelope. It is funny how often we long for a moment off. A moment off what? A moment off life, a moment away from love and joy, a moment to check out and numb ourselves? We have just published Unimedpedia Comfort – http://www.unimedliving.com/unimedpedia/word-index/unimedpedia-comfort.html – worth a read – we are wanting to escape from love into the ugliness of comfort which is not what we think it is and very harmful!!

    2. What an awesome article on comfort Nicola. A must read for everyone to understand as you say, the ugliness and harm that comfort truly is. Thanks for sharing it.

52. I like the way you chose what was right for you and did not fall for feeling obliged to do something from a belief. I know from my own experience I used to do this whilst visiting my parents, if I didn’t schedule the time in specifically to be with them and just drop in for ten minutes feeling obliged because I had been too busy, the visit always felt like it was lacking the quality.

53. Yes, it is so harming to do things to please another, it is a beautiful thing to start to honour what feels true and in doing this it supports all, even if at first some people may take some time to get used to this new way of being.

54. Beautiful Amanda, just shows how when we support ourselves and put our needs first before others, how that reflection supports all others to make better choices too.

    1. I agree jacqmcfadden04 how beautiful that one person’s choice to honour their bodies needs became an opportunity for others to learn and to make better choices.

55. We waste a lot of energy doing things for other out of duty, instead of what feels right in the moment. Doing something from a duty means when we are with another it will never be as enjoyable as it could be as it is against the natural flow of our day.

    1. So true Gail, lately I have found that every time I go to do something in that duty mode, it goes horribly wrong, its comical actually, like Basil from faulty towers, everything that could go wrong, does go wrong. In a way it is a gift, as it is showing me that I cannot put on the duty hat without consequence to that action.
       You say it beautifully
       ” Doing something from a duty means when we are with another it will never be as enjoyable as it could be as it is against the natural flow of our day.”

       1. Duty is like walking in a maze… you are confined to the walls around you that were made by someone else. We always have the choice to have a ‘Basil day or a Peter Pan day’ I know what I prefer.

       2. Love your analogy sjmatsonuk, it makes sense to the way duty feels and yes ‘magic days’ feel heaps better than ‘Basil days’. Its funny though how over the years, instead of working on stepping away from ‘duty’ I chose to identify with being a “Bazil type character, made this clumsy, funny, dramatic persona and told myself that that is who was. I did all this so I didn’t have to face the fact that I was living in a maze of someone else’s making.

       3. Beauifully expressed both Gail and Sarah. When we do something from a sense of duty there can never be a flow, for when we are not coming from the truth in our hearts there can be no joy in what we do, this is felt by those involved, creating tension which pulls against the natural flow the universe would have us follow, nothing then flows, and everything that can go wrong does go wrong.

       4. Yes most of the time there is no flow and it is all over the place but what I have found to be even worse than that is when there is a flow but it is leading you down the wrong stream. Some people live there lives in this deep duty filled stream, not knowing anything but the next chore for another. In a weird way it ‘works’ but as we have all have stated above, there is no joy in living like this.

       5. Yes Sarah. There is not only no joy there is no real connection with anyone or anything as in this state we are very much in own heads and not feeling what is going on. Everybody misses out on each other.

       6. Yes Kathleen and this is everyones responsibility, not just the person that is in ‘duty’ mode. We all read things and feel things in people all the time and can tell when someone is out of rhythm or stretching themselves too thin, if we then accept and encourage them to live like this then… should we ask ourselves are we any better?

       7. I see your point Sarah, aiding and abetting in a big thing. In the media through advertising we are encouraged to ‘soldier on’ regardless of how we are feeling. Pop a pill and keep going, We have to get back to making everything about people first.

       8. Yes Kathleen and the way we make it about people first is by making sure the people all around us really count, advertising that goes on ‘out there’ is only a reflection for what goes on in our closer relationships. I am relating this aiding and abetting to how I have treated my nearest and dearest over the years.

       9. Too right Sarah and this always stems back to how we are treating ourselves.

    2. I agree and most of us go into this ingrained pattern of being dutiful without even noticing it. It is a big pattern to break but I am becoming more aware of it in my own life. I am recognising how my body feels against the push from thinking it is the right thing to do which is driven from a long held belief of not feeling worthy enough. Being dutiful comes from self as opposed to the feeling what is true in the moment and acting upon it.

56. The combination of that attention to being ready for bed at 9pm and the opening up to listening to how we feel, what gets in the way and what else this triggers in terms of self-awareness and care, is life changing. No longer pulled and pushed by life I am becoming my own master, in rhythm with life.

57. The ‘fear of retribution’ always wants a foothold, on top of which I have a fear of rocking the status quo and the reactions this may cause. This has less and less traction though as I realise with ever more clarity how dysfunctional and unsupportive the status quo is, for all of us. So now, if I have a motto, it is ‘rock away’!

    1. Umm “… rocking the status quo”… I have certainly been living in a way to keep the peace, finding it very difficult to speak up in fear of another’s reaction but things are changing! I do get a little nervous when I express as I re-imprint but as matildaclarke points out and what I am beginning to realise more than ever is not only the extent of how unsupportive the status quo is but that every time we hold back we feed the status quo supporting it to remain the same. How unloving and abusive is that! So yes I’m with you, it is time for us to ‘rock away’!

    2. Matildaclark those words ‘fear of retribution’ resonate with many I am sure, I am learning just how immensely sensitive I am to anything that is not at the very least gentle and that I have been protecting this sensitivity rather then learning to deal with it. In the end what hurts more is the holding back and not the sting when something is not loving.

    3. It’s a little crazy how much effort we put in to maintain a status-quo that’s not even working.

58. I realised recently that I’ve blamed myself for what happens in the outside world and made it my fault, even when it had nothing to do with me. More specifically, if there was an emotion directed towards me as a child that was someone else’s issue, I would feel responsible, blame myself and therefore not feel good enough. However, tending to me and developing loving self care ways has confirmed that I am more than good enough in so many ways.

59. Me too jacqmcfadden04j, and as you say pleasing others drains us when we are in that motion, but also afterwards. When we get hurt because we had an investment in how people then should interact with us after we have done everything for them. That is a big illusion bubble to wake up from.

60. Its amazing how many people are tired, and yet refuse to consider adjusting their sleep schedule. It can take time – far more than going to be early once or twice, to reset your body clock and regenerate the body, but if you can make the commitment it is so beneficially

61. It is the greatest moment when we start to challenge how we have lived and make it about honouring our feelings instead of abandoning them. I love how we then grow simply by placing importance on how we feel.

    1. So true Felicity, in the past I did everything to abandon my feelings and now that I am honouring my feelings, and expressing them, this has created a huge positive impact on all areas of my life.

62. Great point Rachel, I feel it is commitment is so important as it allows me to focus on the detail of the quality that I bring moment to moment and develop a more intimate relationship with myself and everything that I do as part of my day.

63. “I felt how making a commitment to going to bed on time had a direct effect on how I felt the next day.” this is something simple but the effects on our health and wellbeing are huge and it is our commitment to ourselves that creates the consistency and flow that truly supports us in life.

64. I can imagine that a lot of people can relate to what you have shared in how it is so easy to go into pleasing others at the expense of yourself.
    It is great when we discuss things openly with others, like you did with your dad because in talking to him about it, he does not feel rejected and understands that you want to study and then you both feel great because no one is rejected or compromised.
    Expressing really does change everything.

65. It is so important to honour what feels right for your body.
    I don’t have a strict bed time, but I have a routine that I follow everyday, it is my way of preparing my body for sleep. By 8 o’clock I don’t work on the computer anymore, or watch movies or do things with my daughter. I instead take the dog for a walk and then take care of me. I like to shower and put cream on my body and to be with me so no matter how busy I have been throughout the day, I make time for me each evening to check in and re -connect. I also have been starting to just lie in my bed and take a few moments to appreciate my day and myself. At first this was weird but I now love all the things that I used to let pass without giving them any thought. We have so much to appreciate in life yet often we don’t stop enough to enjoy them.

    1. Rosie this is gorgeous, thank you for sharing your evening rhythm.

    2. Rosie, what you have shared with us here is so inspiring. I love being in bed by 9pm but my rhythm leading up to getting myself in bed needs adjusting. I can feel how supporting it is to make this time to honour ourselves before going to sleep. Thank you.

    3. ‘We have so much to appreciate in life yet often we don’t stop enough to enjoy them.’
       So well said Rosie – often I can be so caught up in ‘working stuff out’ or processing what I think are issues that I don’t allow time to see that everything I need is there, materially and intellectually. I am all that I need and have made a gorgeous life for myself so far. There is indeed much to appreciate about myself, who I am, where I am from and the life I am choosing to live. A call for more stop moments… my answer is a big fat YES.

    4. How truly lovely that you take the time to support yourself so consistently every night. Very inspiring, thank you for sharing Rosie.

66. ‘Early to Bed- Early to Rise – Makes you Healthy, Wealthy and Wise’
    My Grandma’s favourite saying So true it is!

67. That’s awesome Tim. And so often you find that when you just do what is actually right for you – the other person feels the relief of not having to live u to the false expectation of the other any way!

68. So simple isn’t it Mathew. Just honouring the rhythm that is pretty obviously the natural one for us – like going to bed when its dark and waling up early after a good night’s sleep is fairly obviously good for our health!

69. “Even though it was a great start to make a commitment to go to bed on time, I could feel that I also had to look at the way I was living during my day; it was not just about the fact that I did not sleep enough.” I too have been realising that it is not just about ticking boxes – getting to bed early etc – but about the quality of how I have lived each day – and my body is showing me how I have been dishonouring of myself. Time for different choices.

70. Trusting in what you feel allows a flow of the day to occur, and in that the trust builds further and slowly but surely life transforms.

71. Often we look for giant things, like going on a detox, or undertaking a new exercise routine, or changing jobs when we want to make a change in our lives for the better. Yet this simple (but profound) tip of sleep and rise early can change everything.

72. Perhaps your recipe could be passed onto the world Monika, for it is surely one that will truly nourish.

73. “Honouring this feeling made space to do what I really felt was needed that day, which was much more supportive for me, and for everyone.” When we listen to our bodies and choose to trust what we feel the outcome invariably supports everyone involved.

    1. Agree Rosemary this has also been my experience. If I override my body and do something for another to please them it invariably misfires. When I listen to my body and honour what I feel, then everyone is supported in ways that were not even obvious before.

    2. So true Rosemary when we listen to our own bodies we not only are taking care of ourselves we are taking care of all around us. It is beautiful really.

       1. The love that we are held in at all times connects each and everyone of us in all that we do, and when we make choices that support our health and wellbeing we are inspiring others to make those same choices. So beautiful and simple really.

    3. It’s almost ironic that when we dis-honour what we feel to do to please another, ‘going out of our way’, ‘putting another first’ etc. we are actually doing another and ourselves a dis-service. Nobody gets to learn and grow this way, and stagnation festers.

74. This is a great point Christoph, the difference felt between pleasing or loving others, and ourselves, may not seem apparent at first, but once experienced the difference in what is felt is huge.

75. Great comment Rachel, I can totally relate. I have consistently been going to bed before before 9pm and I have also noticed the same thing. At times when I wake up feeling exhausted, I can often pin point what has caused this from looking at my previous day and often it’s over eating, taking on emotional stuff from my relationships, moving and working with tension in my body and not being connected to myself. The quality of how I live the previous day affects the quality of my sleep, the quality of how I am and feel the next day. So, it’s a constant cycle, one thing affects the next and by being aware, I can make different choices to correct what didn’t work for me previously and make choices that do support me in feeling amazing again.

76. Yes Nico surrendering to what we bring and valuing that will deliver us from temptation.

77. Amazing johannebrown17 something so simple “as you have shown us in a very practical way, what it really means, and looks like, to self care”. It was until Serge Benhayon and Natalie Benhayon presented the ‘spleen cycle’ did I change my habits around an early bed time i.e. by 9pm.

78. I love your point too Luke “Honouring our feelings and acting on them is the best thing to resolve resentment”. Your feelings are yours; resentment is trying to control someone’s way-of-being that is not yours. Why the need to control when as you say Luke “staying strong to my feelings allows me to be confident and clear and satisfied with life”.

    1. Agree Rik, and it allows a huge amount of understanding to become a part of our daily lives.

79. “Paying attention to these little feelings and honouring them is the key to staying with myself and feeling vital throughout my day.” This is so important to be reminded of; anxiety creeps in for me around being concerned what people think. Thank you.

    1. The little feelings and tugs of our inner knowing are precious and to be honoured wherever possible, but without perfection.

80. I agree Adam exhaustion arises from always thinking about the next thing ahead of us to do or our mind can even go so far ahead we may be thinking about something that is not going to even take place until six months in the future. Another thing I can spend a lot of energy thinking about while working is other people, whether this be my family or friends or simply a stranger that has walked past me. No wonder this is exhausting we are doing several things at once, which if you think about it this is like living several days in the one, now that’s exhausting.

81. Leike this blog is pure gold, so simple and practical. When you wrote “A few days into my experiment I began to note that I started to be a little less consistent with going to bed on time. It was like the excitement of starting something new had faded and the initial improvements in my wellbeing and vitality were becoming ‘normal’.” I pondered on this phenomenon in general sense, as this is something I quite often find myself doing. So I asked myself why and then continued reading. By the end of your blog I realised the reason I fade off after the initial burst of energy is because I was doing whatever it was to achieve something or have an outcome. I was not truly doing it for me to support me rather I was doing it because it sounded like a good idea that might make things better.

82. Indeed Adam when there is a disconnect between the body and the mind we have lost the connection to an energy source which can never be depleted. However in that disconnect the mind tries to find a solution through the use of drive or nervous energy to close the gap only ever making it wider and causing depletion.

83. My sleep and the way I wake up feeling, is a really helpful reflection on how I lived my previous day. I find those moments after waking are a time to feel what’s happened, often when we have ignored something in the body during the day they show up the next morning as a reminder. We are amazing pieces of design – that deserve the attention to detail.

    1. Well said Jenny, I have become aware that when I don’t take clear notice of the markers, the realisation can get lost and the old momentums keep going, until we consciously take a moment to stop again and re-assess, what is truly going on?

    2. This is a great reminder Rosanna, to take time to reflect how I lived my previous day and how I now feel on waking.

    3. Yes, truly amazing and something that I have taken completely for granted and not actually appreciated what we have, right here, all the time, with us. The most amazing companion and teacher that I’m now appreciating more and more as I get to know myself more intimately.

    4. I know right – what a classic and beautiful line!

84. Once we learn to understand this and work with ourselves in this way during our day, life and it’s messages unfold beneath and around us. We are supported in every moment and we have an opportunity to deepen this level of support through our choices in all that we do.

85. It is a really beautifull realisation you had to look at how you lived in your day too; and then carry this out by honouring what you were feeling, bringing a lovely confirmation in how you felt the next day. This is a gentle reminder of something I very much need to look at, be with and change in how I am currently living in my day.

    1. Yes Vicky and I feel this confirmation that is felt the following day if appreciated and noted offers the inspiration to take things a step further and evolve the situation to be even more in the coming day.

86. What a great experiment to choose. I know that when I go to bed when my body is tired, instead of staying up and watching TV, reading or working that I am feel so much more energy the next day as well as a much more solid and rejuvenating sleep.

    1. I used to stay up and watch movies regularly but since choosing to listen to my body and going to bed early I don’t have time to or feel the need to watch anything. I feel it over stimulates me and makes me feel heavy afterwards. Occasionally I watch a movie but I have to be very aware of how it makes me feel. This feeling of heaviness is not appealing to me, and by being aware of how things make me feel, I can make supportive and loving choices that leads me to feeling light, energised, clarity, joyful and just simply amazing.

87. I love how you experimented with this; ‘Recently I began a self-care experiment by going to bed at 9pm for 9 days’. What feels really lovely about being a student of the Way of The Livingness is that there is an openness by people to experiment and not just accept things as they are, there is an openness to changing old patterns and behaviours, whether it be food choices, sleep times, exercise or how we communicate with others, it feels great to learn from each other and be inspired by each other in this way.

    1. Yes the openness is key isn’t it?
       I do love how we as students consider new ideas but take on board what we can see and feel works for our bodies. This is real empowerment, using our inner sense of what does and doesn’t feel supportive as a guide for life. Very empowering!

88. Looking at how we are during the day and how it affects our sleep is important, and we can become more aware of just how draining it is to do everything for approval and recognition, and how we put other’s needs before our own. Paying attention to and honouring what our body feels is energising.

    1. So True Carmel. It’s kind of absurd to think that what we live during the day would NOT effect our sleep?
       Really it just makes complete sense!

89. The point you make about staying true to what you feel for your day rather than pleasing everyone by falling into their rhythm is a very good one. I find it is a balance between committing to what I need but also remaining open to all those around me and what may arise if I adjust my plans to let them in.

90. I love how honouring your feelings made space for you and supported you and everyone else around you. I know I can go into drive to get what I think needs to be done when actually there is a lot more play to be had about when to do things and how that comes with honouring my feelings and trusting them.

91. What is wonderful about listening to our body and honouring our feelings, is that the more we do it, the more our body seems to speak to us. And we are slowly and lovingly guided through a forever unfolding path back to living everything we ever deeply wanted – loving, open and expressing as the Sons of God that we are.

92. This is great timing as yesterday I felt overwhelmed by a ” time line on a project” which in turn depleted my energy, today I will be loving in honouring my choices and allow the day to just be without going into the picture of the future. Strange thing is in my body I know I can complete what’s needed if I stay honouring my rhythm.

93. I totally understand what you mean in the difference in vitality and energy between both going to bed early and also living in a way that puts you first (but not in a selfish way, obviously). Thank you for putting this into words, it’s exactly how I feel as well

94. It is important to stop pleasing other people and therefore overriding what feels right in a situation, even if it might be challenging first to start communicating to somebody how we feel. But it is a great step to do.

95. “I had to make a seemingly difficult choice – I didn’t want to let my dad down but also did not want to override my own feelings.” It is interesting when we try to calibrate to another…we make ourselves less and assume something of another which may not even be true. It is often the fear of anothers reaction that makes us calibrate, and in that calibrating comes the difficulty of making a choice. However if we remain with what is true for us and express this to the other person, the truth of what we say is felt and there is no reaction – it is an easy choice.

    1. Beautifully said Paula, when we speak what is true and right for us in any moment, there is the opportunity for the other to feel the truth and then choose to align or react.

96. What a great lesson to learn at 24 – all those nights (and days) ahead of you to be filled with stillness, joy and vitality. Pretty Cool. Awesome work.

97. Exhaustion is the doorman who lets confusion, off-rhythm, mental thoughts etc. in. To me this buddy needs to be replaced by rhythm and anything one requires self-love*

    1. True, Monika2808! That’s why consistency is a helpful tool to set a rhythm leading to a way of living where exhaustion can be prevented by simply making choices to not get exhausted 🙂

98. ‘I would be feeling exhausted by the end of the day but then in the evening I noticed how I would easily become stimulated again and distracted from feeling the exhaustion… I would then get involved in doing something that would result in my going to bed later than I had planned.’ This is my story too, and very much a work-in-progress. we are so used to ‘catching up’ on our sleep, it’s a big turnaround to ‘prepare ahead’ for a great night’s sleep by being gentle, unwinding, and going to bed early. Switching off computer and smart phone well in advance of bed time is a great plan too. Spending time with ourselves and connecting deeply, honouring our bodies and the tiredness we feel without overriding it with food and other distractions.

99. I found it is so easy to get distracted from the clear and simple messages from my body by either thinking I should do this, finish that first, or by interpreting how other people will feel or react. It is amazing how much we learn to not honour ourselves and what we feel. Good thing though is that when we start to pay attention to it and honour ourselves more the results are instant and amazing!

100. The joy you felt from doing something that was honouring of your body is so inspiring.

     1. Indeed inspiring when we feel another choosing truth for themselves.

101. I feel that one day, humanity will cast their eyes back and feel how lost or disconnected humanity was in this era – as we can do now and feel the brutality of life decades or centuries ago. This disconnection is evident by alarming statistics and the way many people treat each other today. There is little lightness or love when I read or see the wars, conflict or abuse. However, there is a light beginning to shine and Universal Medicine shines very bright for me, presenting another way to be and live that has allowed me to connect to my body and honour the light that is within.

102. I love going to bed when I feel tired, but this does not always happen, as I have not completed some tasks that I have committed to on a daily basis. This leads me to look at how I have used my time during the day. Has the day unfolded in a way where I had space and didn’t use it wisely or is there another reason for me to look at. Because the fact remains that I am tired and in honouring my body tasks go incomplete, and this needs to be explored, especially if it is a reoccurring theme.

103. The answer to our exhaustion epidemic is the following lines –I realised that I could no longer live in a way that made me exhausted. I knew I had to develop a routine that honoured my body during my day – one that supported me to be ready for bed and not still be running with everything I had done that day. Imagine the quality of our health if we honoured ourselves?

104. What you and other have written here about honouring ourselves during the day instead of driving ourselves through it is a lovely reminder for me to play with today.

     1. Michelle I feel to do the same.

105. Sleep is something which really needs more attention in our lives. It is such an integral part of our well being and life. I too enjoy an early night, often waking feeling very nourished indeed because I have cared enough for myself to turn the TV off and go to bed early. After a recent spate of late nights I can honestly say I enjoy my mornings, my days and myself so much more when I am in bed by 9pm.

     1. I agree, Michelle: sleep / repose is definitely meriting more attention – both on an individual and personal level and in terms of our scientific understanding of its true meaning, quality and purpose. As a society, we seem to have lost the plot with sleep – witness the huge amount of pharmaceutical and herbal assistance required for so many to even get to sleep and I have a sense that the true quality of sleep is yet to be researched and understood.

        1. I agree coleen24. It seems as though sleep is something that is meant to just happen when we have finished doing everything else at the end of the day rather than being seen as absolutely one of the most important parts of our day that needs to be prepared for carefully as we would for any other important part of our day.

106. I love your comment Ariana. So clear and beautiful, and it actually connects me to my furnace within more 🙂

107. You have looked up some bigs areas here, concerning self care, sleep, how we prepare for sleep, how we exhaust ourselves in other ways not connected with our sleep patterns. Allowing issues and circumstances and the world to dictate what happens in our lives is exhausting, I agree, I used to feel I lived like that, as I am finding a more supportive daily rhythm, sleeping in a more restful way, learning to listen to my body and learning to say ‘no’ some times, I am generally feeling more vital, well and myself. Indeed inspiring work is presented by Serge and Natalie Benhayon.

     1. I feel that the way we prepare for bed is as important if not more so than the actual time we get to bed. I have also found that there is a big difference in the quality of sleep I have if I get to bed at 9pm rather than 10pm. The sleep in the early part of the night seems to be so important and rejuvenating.

        1. True Lee, preparing for bed is underestimated and for many may not be a consideration (perhaps other than believing that watching TV is preparing for bed). I know many times I have continued into the evening as if it were the middle of the day and expected to sleep immediately and well. Sometimes when chatting to family and friends about going to bed earlier it is quickly dismissed as impossible as they would never fall asleep that early, even though both getting up earlier and winding down in preparation to sleep are two simple tactics if this is really the concern.

108. This past weekend, I had booked to participate on two Unimed webcasts on separate days, it was something I really wanted to do. But as the event date approached, I began to feel a pull in my stomach, uneasy, a tension: my head wanted me to go, but my body was not aligned to my thoughts. I knew deep down there were things I had to attend to before going away for three weeks, and ignoring them would give me an unsteady start to this period of work. I listened to my body, stayed at home, quietly and steadily, attended to things, rested when I needed to, ate simply. I re-entered my place of work, feeling refreshed, connected to myself and client and within there is a quiet steadiness. It pays to honour our feelings.

109. “I realise that I have been letting the outside world run my life for a long time.” When I stop and really feel where I make my choices from it’s staggering that the vast majority of choices come from what I feel others would think, or what I feel should be the right choice, rather than feeling on the inside what is truly right for me. I am learning to honour myself too and make choices that work for me. I know in so doing I am honouring others too.

110. Incredible to read a blog like this and see what a gigantic difference such seemingly small changes can make. This is true medicine, true science.

111. Adhering to what the body requires is the best medicine that can be obtained

112. 9 o’clock now is a late night for me, I am usually tucked up in bed by 8 and sound asleep by 8.10pm but just recently I have had two late,late nights a 10.30pm and a 11.00pm. Shock horror! I felt a bit woozy for a bit next day but it wasn’t for long as my past rhythm carried me through. In the past I used to go to bed later sometimes than the time that I usually get up now.

     1. ‘ In the past I used to go to bed later sometimes than the time that I usually get up now.’ Kevmchardy – I smiled as I read this as it reflects how much we can change when we are supported to connect back to our bodies and feel from the body how nourishing it is to be asleep by around 9pm. Many people have a regular bedtime of 11pm, 12am and 1am and get up and go to work, perhaps getting through the day propped up by caffeine. While this is possible, it is not health-full and to me it demonstrates humanity needs to return to listening to the body, valuing its wisdom, and having discussions like the one this blog has inspired.

113. Leike- I could relate to all that you shared, in overriding my body’s feelings to please others, to be accepted etc. But I now know that this indeed leads to feeling exhausted at the end of the day.
     “Paying attention to these little feelings and honouring them is the key to staying with myself and feeling vital throughout my day.”

114. These considerations in our lives, such as not wanting to offend, let another down, or not fit in, are manifestations of first choosing a rhythm in our lives that does not honour ourselves truly and lovingly. It has taken some time for me to begin to acknowledge what Serge Benhayon has been saying for many years – that we actually choose to live without connection to the love within us – we choose it in our movement, posture, even in our breath, in our food choices, in the way we look at another and relate to them. All this then feeds back into our lives to keep us making those choices and not wanting to offend seems normal, and a proper way to live.

115. Yes Luke, if we take responsibility for us, what we feel and honour that, there is no space for resentment or blame – we are doing our part, and as it opens the space for all to do the same.

     1. Agree everything is connected…

        I have read a few comments now and its great how the majority share this view also.

116. ‘By virtue of not pleasing everyone throughout the day, I felt full of energy, but also very still and ready for bed’ resonated deeply with me. A great article that reminds us to check in with our body and truly honour our feelings.

117. Your blog has inspired me to look at my day differently and be open to other possibilities of what could be affecting my energy in the day. I go to bed early but maybe need to be more observing of some situations instead of trying too hard ” to make them work” .

118. It’s seems to be the ‘norm’ for most people to feel tired during their day. Excepting this as a way that life just is. It would be very cool if everyone did your experiment for 9days, I’m sure many peoples lives would change.

119. Isn´t it interesting how much we act like robots, because we want to avoid others feeling uncomfortable. It is great to read, that adjustments of your sleep rhythm gave you the vitality and clarity you needed to see through this pattern that actually exhausted you on a daily basis.

120. A great reminder Leike that everything we do and how we do it contributes to how we feel. For us not to discount any feelings we have and to keep coming back to the wisdom of our bodies, not overriding them with our shoulds and should nots.

121. All my life I’ve fooled myself with being me as a character that I bought into. That character was quite disconnected from his heart. Nowadays I am honest when I am disconnected – which still happens a lot. I do not feel tenderness at that moment, no (beholding) love, no power, no stilness, no joy, no playfulness. The list could go on and on and on. Even with cooking I am now feeling the warmth in my chest at times. Which to me is completely new. I’ve locked myself up in my head for a long long time. So delicious to feel the true me.

122. If kids can be brought up to read the energy of emotions and behaviours of others and to remain being themselves, it would save a lot of compromise and wasted energy later in life. I had this very conversation with my eight year old daughter again today and suggested that she includes me in this. I’m now on the radar, but in truth I already was.

123. Very beautiful and powerful blog, it really supports me at the moment to read this. As I am feeling very exhausted at the moment and for over quite some time now, as I read your words I can feel that I have been overstimulating myself to not feel that I am tired and have made to many late nights. This is a signal to stop for me and check in with my body, also if this means that I will be feeling more tired, at least I am being honest with myself. Than I can choose to go to bed by 9pm again, and choose to not stimulate myself so much at night/evening. Time to bring back self-love in my sleeping/daily rhythm. No need to drag myself in exhaustion any more!

124. What is interesting that when we make such a commitment – 9pm bed for 9 days, what then gets revealed is far more than just what happens to our health and vitality, but rather a huge learning for how and why we sabotage such a simple practice in our everyday.

     1. I agree Annie, one simple commitment can often reveal so much more to us than we expected. In fact it can take us on a journey of healing.

125. I’ve also being reflecting on my body and how i can deepen the care for my body, because i know from experience that when i sleep well and how i treat myself through the day makes such at difference at the end of the day. Honouring my feelings is very energising and also builds a true inner confidence.

     1. Yes Karoline I would never have guessed the seemingly simple practice of honouring one’s feelings consistently, is a powerful support in building true confidence, the steady inner confidence that is not reliant on how good you are at something, but rather the confidence of knowing yourself and that it is from that quality that you will learn what is needed.

        1. Very true Annie. The practice of it really is simple but when we look at the reasons why we don’t go to bed early – late night overeating, staying up to do more work, sending emails/texts, social media… it all seems to point to a lack in our day. For me can be lack of expression, lack of connection to joy in my day, lack of commitment and flow in the day, so seeking to fill the gap with other things – focussing on getting things done without the appreciation of me, but we have everything to appreciate about ourselves.

     2. Thanks Karoline for the awareness that a true inner confidence comes from honoring ourselves. This inner confidence is essential to support the next choice. One self-loving supporting choice supports the next self-loving choice. Just choosing to rest earlier in the evenings is such a powerful choice to make to commence a loving foundation.

126. Leike this is such a great article, it is very simple, if we honour ourselves, our feelings that changes our quality of life….being supportive to what our body needs and looking after it by going to bed at a time that allows the body to deeply rest….yet many of don’t make it this simple. Also i love how you shared ‘It was like the excitement of starting something new had faded and the initial improvements in my wellbeing and vitality were becoming ‘normal’.’ this is such an important insight, and you took it further by looking at how you live during the day. Where often many know this start of something new, then the consistency fades….but your commitment took it further. Commitment to you!

     1. Absolutely so, Karoline, that consistency and commitment are the keys to any true and lasting changes in health and lifestyle. Without them we have neither action, nor understanding of what is required to return us to our true and natural state of health.

127. “At the end of the day, by virtue of not pleasing everyone throughout the day, I felt full of energy, but also very still and ready for bed.” I find this one exhausting as I have invested being a people pleaser all my life. Choosing to look at every choice and the motivation behind it can be very revealing.

128. Going to bed early is a big building block of having a life with a lot of joy and life energy. It may not be enough by itself but, once it comes naturally, it is one of the most supportive things we can do in our life.

129. 9pm for 9 days, there is something beautiful and rhythmic about those numbers! I like how you segmented a particular amount of time, and the experimental approach you took to this program, there is definitely so much more to tiredness than the amount we sleep.

130. ” I didn’t want to make my dad feel lonely or rejected and that I had almost gone with him to not feel that. I talked about it with my dad and it turned out he was absolutely fine with going on his own.” It’s crazy how much we override how we are actually feeling and what’s true for us in order to please someone else. Great blog

131. How strong and powerful it is to honor our feelings, or: to honor our KNOWINGS, I have to say. I know where I have to be, to go, what to express, know what is needed viewed from a bigger picture. There is a place for me in the divine plan and I naturally know where this is. The more connected I am with me, the more I know where to be. To ignore thess knowings to please others – who do I serve here? I separate from The Plan and so from the true me and also from the community. On the other hand, to follow those feelings/knowings, like to go to bed early, does deepen my connection. I say YES to The Plan and my part in it. I am connection to the divine source I am coming from and so blossom up again. And this blossom is so inspiring.

132. This was so beautifully constellated for me to read now for it is exactly what I need to contemplate. I too have absolutely let the outside world dictate my life and have overridden my feelings to allow this and in doing so have avoided taking responsibility for the harm this not only does to myself but to others as I live and reflect a way of living that is not true. Thankyou for your wise words and the inspiration to more deeply honour my body and its innate wisdom.

133. Great blog. It shows that it is 24/7 the signals our body give us. It is up to us to honour them. It all adds up the choices we make where we listen to these signals or not. I have felt for days i.e. the effect of an evening where I stayed up late to be sociable towards others (my idea of what is sociable…). Staying up later I felt as compensation / cover up I started to eat – but not what my body asked for – …..and there I went. It was a lesson of don’t override the feeling. Go home, when the body says: tired! 🙂

134. I love how you shared about talking to your Dad. Sometimes we can avoid saying what needs to be said for fear of the response. This serves no one. You have shown here what often happens, we share our true feelings and the other person totally accepts and understands. Beautiful.

135. Going to bed a bit earlier or paying a bit more attention to how I am and what I am still doing in the evening and before bedtime I have also found to be of great significance towards my well being and vitality the following day. It is amazing how gladly my body takes any self-caring and self loving gesture of mine showing me the vitality, strength, endurance and awareness I naturally hold within my physical frame in a very tender way.

136. I have lived most of my life being the mouse in the maze, running the same way that walls made me go and it became just the way life was. My walls are almost all gone now and I chose what direction to shall go, when to sleep, what to eat and it feels so freeing and true to just be myself.

137. What a great self-care experiment! I have also recently committed to a few daily rituals including a walk, a meditation (the Gentle Breath-as taught by Serge Benhayon) and a more refined diet (less sugar and grains) and I feel so much more consistently joyful for it! I felt this line was gold: ‘At the end of the day, by virtue of not pleasing everyone throughout the day, I felt full of energy, but also very still and ready for bed.’ Something, as has been said, we need to look at if still tired with enough sleep! XX

138. I relate what you have shared here and I too have found how living life pleasing others and choosing to override what my body tells me will have a direct impact on my energy levels and wellbeing , and the more I honour myself, commit and choose love in every way possible the more my life has also been transformed in ways never imagined.

139. This was so supportive for my own rhythms at this time. I only last night talked with my husband about why we may be feeling tired, and we touched on the fact that we are not honouring ourselves enough and thus any choice that is not true for each of us leads us to feeling tired. Your blog is confirmation that I need to deepen my rhythm in honour of myself.

140. I agree Amelia, ‘Honouring 101’ is hugely important and ought to be built into every course that we take irrespective of the type of work/study that we do.

141. So true Luke I can absolutely relate to what you have said. Listening To My Body And Honouring My Feelings is an amazing way to live. “Honouring our feelings and acting on them is the best thing to resolve resentment. I have found that staying strong to my feelings allows me to be confident and clear and satisfied with life. If I don’t, I can easily become agitated and go into blaming others.”

     1. Glad you like it Margaret 🙂

142. It is draining on our life-force of energy when we compromise our true feelings for anyone else, including family, children or strangers alike. Stepping out of our own rhythm and stepping into or measuring alongside another’s is like trying to swim against a current that is otherwise naturally flowing for us and in deep connection with all others in their own pool .. when we are all choosing our own natural flow this is when we bring true harmony to the one greater universal pool that we are all undeniably and beautifully apart of.

     1. Thanks cheriseholt for that reminder that trying to fit in to someone elses rhythm is like swimming upstream. It is something I do constantly and wonder why I’m always feeling drained.

     2. So beautifully and clearly expressed Cherise, brought to mind a school of fish, each one totally separate but swimming together in perfect harmony.

143. What a totally priceless sharing for someone of 24 (or any age) to realise. I love the line “I realise that I have been letting the outside world run my life for a long time.” – how incredible is it to feel that. This is a book I will be taking a leaf out of. I can only imagine how clocking and chooseing this approach will support your life from here starting now in your early 20’s – superb. So much more recommended than playing catch up later in life.

144. A great experiment and beautifully executed – and when you say that you could feel after a while that your consistency was waning, I can really relate to that. For me it feels like an identification with doing something ‘new’ and better’ rather than truly living, appreciating and enjoying the change that a new rhythm has brought.

     1. What you have expressed here Gabriele covers a multitude of approaches to our making choices – I can use my will to override my mind that wants to stay up and do more stuff but that is still not fully self loving, it’s trying to be ‘good’. Likewise I can use my will to stop myself going out and buying a sweet thing to eat, but willpower doesn’t work because, as so many of us experience, it fades over time, whereas respecting and honouring our bodies feels great and we automatically don’t want to do anything that would harm ourselves.

     2. Yes Gabriele, i feel it is very common, i know for me too, how our consistency can wane…
        But as you beautifully expressed, the antidote is as you state .’…appreciating and enjoying the change that a new rhythm has brought.’

        1. Great comment Gabriele, I have found when doing from my head as in being “good” or “better” the consistency inevitably will wane, as opposed to truly connecting to my body, and clocking it’s responses whilst making changes. That way the positive responses encourage consistency, truly living it in my body I can appreciate and enjoy the changes the new rhythm is bringing as they unfold.

145. Haha, I loved reading this Leike, as I had just made a commitment to myself to go to bed at an earlier time for a week as I had been feeling out of sorts, with my usual rhythm, it was not working. So what you have written is very confirming and also inspiring for me. Thanks heaps!

146. Such deep wisdom in the words, ‘life is about honouring our body, re-connecting to its innate wisdom and living from there’. That well-used phrase, ‘early to bed, early to rise’ really does ring true. My body loves it when I do honour it by going to bed early. I’d almost describe it as gleeful – and my body then wakes up in the same mood and mode as it went to sleep – a really superb way to start a new day. But it does take true commitment to stay consistent and it’s at the point when we begin to take on new activities, things to do before we go to bed, that we start to dishonour the natural cycles that support our rejuvenation through sleep. At the end of the day, literally, it comes down to choice, to responsibility and to how much we want to honour what truly supports our wellbeing.

     1. My rhythm of going to bed “early” is very established (so much so that I now no longer call 9pm early. 7.30 is early. 9.30 is late!!) But what I appreciate in your comment Cathy is the next phase of refinement – or indeed, I should say the equal partner in this rhythm. And that is the wind down before going to bed. I have to really look after myself here. I do a lot of work with the USA and their day is just getting going at 7-8pm, so that is when the phone calls start coming in. What I am doing more and more is not engaging at that time, but connecting with them in the early morning UK which is their end of the day.

147. Yes it is exhausting but I have felt quite ashamed of trying to please everyone because not only does it dishonour me, it also insults them because it presumes that they can’t take me being me and all that comes from me…whatever I say, do or even ask.

148. Yes Marion, I have noticed that myself, the lighter and earlier the meal the more my body likes it. I also find that there are days where I have eaten enough at lunch and my body doesn’t need more in the evening, a herbal tea is all my body really wants.

149. An early to bed mini program. I love it and it’s just what I need. Nine nights of restorative sleep. I’m going to give it a try, thank you for the inspiration.

     1. Agree fioancochran01, great idea, inspiring, am going to try a mini program of ‘early to rise’ and see what comes up…

150. It is really good to be aware of the way we are during the day and how it affects our sleep

151. I am very inspired Leike, and will be looking more deeply into my own way I am expending energy by being pleasing, meeting ideals etc.

152. You chose stillness instead of distraction and look at the effect it had on you!. I appreciate that you describe that exquisite feeling of stillness and vitality that you wake up in, as something you deeply enjoy. I have checked in and realized with your blog that I still have a little bit of that old belief that stillness is boring, and that belief is not natural to me, but something I learned and is predominant in society…it is actually imposed, if I stop and feel, I really agree with you: I deeply enjoy stillness and vitality.

153. Exhaustion is the latest plague, and the truth you share here of how to live a more loving and vital way in going to bed early, honouring and expressing our feelings and what our body needs, has a responsibility and simplicity to it as well – and it is so worth living this way!

154. Nico, this is a great way to look at self care, “to live from our own plan instead of from the plan that is provided to us by others”. I’m not sure when my own feelings became less important than others, but it simply does not work and results in self neglect.

155. Thankyou Samanthaengland and James. I’ve realised I’ve made speaking up about how I feel more complicated than it needs to be and that people don’t mind at all if plans need to change or I cannot say yes. It’s better for everyone if I am in harmony with myself and caring for my own needs.

156. Listening to your body and honouring your feelings and not override those feelings to fit in to what you think others expect of you is taking responsible care for yourself and something we all can choose to do.

157. I have found it relatively easy to live according to how my body feels when there isn’t a great deal of pressure on me but when lots of things come at me at once eg in a work situation where a few things can require attention at the one time and can’t be put off, then it is easy to get swamped and loose the rhythm and connection to my body. For me it is certainly a life long learning to find and maintain a steady balance across all settings. What I am grateful for is that I can now quickly recognise when I have lost my rhythm and take steps to come back into sync, even if this takes a while.

158. Science as a lived experience – this is maybe how schools will work in the future.

     1. Gosh what a difference that would make in our School years!

159. Thank you for sharing this Marion re the last meal of the day.

160. It’s a real celebration when you share Leike that you chose not to override your feelings.
     When you honored how you felt and what you needed you could talk with your dad. From this you discovered so much. Enjoy being all of you with everyone in every moment.
     It allows people to be all of them and this is such a great celebration.

161. Yes Samantha trying to please others was something I knew very well too. Its amazing what we can uncover when we stop and honour ourselves first and do not let the comfort overrule.

162. I too “… am forever thankful for, and inspired by, the work of Serge Benhayon, Natalie Benhayon and Universal Medicine, who have presented the fact that life is about honouring our body, re-connecting to its innate wisdom and living from there”, Leike. It has proven the ONLY life-changing path to follow amongst the many I have tried.

163. Reblogged this on florisvanderschot's Blog.

164. This is a classic example of really feeling your body and then giving it what it needs – identifying how we have put our bodies into patterns that can last from childhood to adulthood – and that they can tangibly affect our everyday is just the sort of scientific experiment that the whole world needs to know about.

165. I agree Luke, staying strong to our feelings builds a foundation within to trust what we feel, this builds a confidence within. And if it turns out wrong at times, then we still do not have to bash our self but learn from the experience and move on.

     1. Agree diana1975, from our mistakes there is still an opportunity to deeply grow. Recently I have been experiencing this more often. I’m not saying they are huge mistakes but little details that I would do differently next time round. And you’re right no bashing whatsoever.

        1. That is true Luke, everything offers us a reflection.

166. What I love about this blog is how simple the choice to follow your feelings were and what followed afterwards. It completely wipes away all that drama and worry and ensuing harm that comes from desperately trying to cover up our feelings that never stop wanting to come up and out from us for whatever reasons we take on from the outside. Our world is designed as such that we are taught to express in only certain and trained ways from only our head or mind. We are not supported to live from our bodies which is a shame because it makes life much simpler.

167. “I realised that I could no longer live in a way that made me exhausted.” I have come to this realisation too – and what makes me exhausted is reacting to things, people, choices, what I feel and situations. Plus there is no joy living in this way, it’s crazy why we do it, it’s a comfort thing.

     1. Agreed Gyl, this article has inspired me to go deeper with my self-care, to truly honour what is true for me rather than completing a box ticking exercise.

168. It so cool the knock on effect when we choose to make changes in our lives. I have also noticed that when i commit to one area it can expose a whole pattern of behaviours that are holding me back.

     1. True that Nicolesjardin; one area of awareness quickly leads to another area and so-on and so-forth.

        1. Like dominoes and the momentum behind it can work to evolve (grow) and expand or contract and be small.

169. “..which was much more supportive for me, and for everyone”. I love this sentence as it shows that honouring your body and what you feel is not only about self, but it includes everybody. When you truly honour you and what is needed in the moment, then you honour everything and everybody around you as well.

170. Once we take our lives into our own hands and are prepared to look at the fact that only we are responsible for what we do and for what is happening in our lives, the choices we have to make suddenly become so clear and simple.
     Our whole life is easy then, as we do not have to please others constantly.

171. This is an inspiring example of how our evolution (development) is not just based on getting one thing or a bunch of factors right, but about the whole – that is, our relationship with ourselves, our body and what is true for us. This is clear in what you share when you realised you needed to look at how you were living during the day and not just on getting the sleep ‘right’. It’s like we take one true step, and the next step reveals itself – love it.

     1. Gorgeously said Sarah – I felt this too – one supportive choice and commitment shows what the next area of develoment is thats on offer.

     2. Correct Sarah, and we then end up walking the steps back to who we truly are and all because we have the power to change our own behaviours.

172. Super true Luke- I have found the exact same. If i don’t follow my feelings all sorts goes down and the resentment, agitation and blame comes in. Following how you feel for me has definitely boosted my confidence… I’m becoming my own little cheer squid- letting myself understand what I’m feeling and choose is okay.

     1. This is great to hear Emily and I agree.

173. Like it makes sense what you share and it takes loving discipline to do this consistently.

174. Well said Susan – so easily done, when we don’t have a solid foundation of love for ourselves to build on.

175. I know that feeling of not wanting to disappoint someone, but am learning to choose the honesty of saying No. I have spent far too long giving my power away to what other people think or how they might react and this way of being only allows a shadow of my being to be in existence.

176. And to add to this Luke, the interesting part I’ve found is that when I honour my feelings and what I know to be true and supportive to me, not only is there less opportunity for resentment and blame to fester, I can feel how much my choices also support and honour others and how this supports to build relationships that are more honest, aware and open to more expression and connection.

     1. Totally agree Angela. At first it seems as though we honour our feelings to benefit ourselves. However once time passes and we constantly choose this honouring we can see how our choices affect everything. We realise our choices are actually for everything and everyone as much as it is for ourselves.

177. That’s a great realisation you have shared Marion – it’s quite a different approach to preparing for the next day – but makes so much sense. It is so empowering when you realise that the choices we make today – in everything from food, to our bedtime to whether or not we go into pleasing others instead of doing what actually feels right for us – has a direct impact on how we feel the following day. We can either awake fresh and revitalised, or “hungover” from the buildup of our choices that have not been so supportive.

178. It is incredible how seemingly ‘nice’ and ‘considerate’ thoughts for others can completely undermine our own necessary support systems. It is something I still struggle with, yet with each choice made, the consequences speak louder and louder in my body. It is truly important that we live in accordance with how we feel and not with what everyone else needs.

179. Me too Samantha, I have found it so easy to go into pleasing mode, telling them what they want to hear rather than the truth. The problem is they do not then get to hear the truth and I end up frustrated and exhausted! So much better when we honor ourselves and everyone else!

180. Great point Luke. When we agree to be and do something we know is going against what we truly feel is best in that moment it can lead to feelings of resentment. I’ve found when I make loving choices in one moment it sets me up for the unfolding of many more loving moments’ afterwards. Doing things to please others is living in disregard and can have disastrous outcomes.

     1. Agree Tracy, this is also how pleasing others is so draining and can never be fully sustained.

181. ‘When we honour ourselves we in fact honour everyone,’ that’s such a great point Samantha. Not only are we making loving choices and listening to what our body needs in each moment, we are inspiring others around us to do the same and give them an opportunity to connect to their essence. If we made living like this the norm then coffee and exhaustion wouldn’t plague humanity as it currently does.

182. I’ve found over time that I can no longer over ride what my body wants and if I am resistant and do so, then I am on the end of the consequences of that choice with either a wound or a knock on the head to knock some sense into me. I found what I could get away with overriding years ago is no longer possible. Honouring our body and our rhythm is something that keeps being refined and taken deeper. It really is lovely when we stop choosing to let the outside world dictate so many of our choices. Making choices that support and nurture our body feels incredible and something to always be checking in with.

183. There is so much we can learn about ourselves if we set a cycle for ourselves, like you did with the 9 days of going to bed at 9pm, and observe ourselves on a specific theme or action. Doing this is a form of self-care in itself and allows us to deepen the relationship with ourselves.

184. Reading your blog this morning puts me on notice that I am still doing things because I feel I ought to sometimes. When I catch this tendency in myself and explore it, as you did with your Dad, I often find the duty that I had imposed upon myself did not truly exist. It was of my own fabrication and not real at all. How beautiful it is to shine the light on this falseness that keeps us away from being the powerful players in the world that we truly are.

185. Isn’t it beautiful? We learn something, claim it into our living and then…the next learning is already knocking.

186. Yes samanthaengland, by honouring ourselves we show others the value in honouring themselves.

187. I have spent a great deal of this life doing for others at the cost on myself. I, as you Samantha am ‘learning that when we honour ourselves we in fact honor everyone.’

188. Knowing what is best for us in any given moment is already a gift to have, then to be able to see that we despite this knowing tend to do otherwise as we do not want to hurt somebody, get too much attention, disturb the seeming harmony, basically break out of our comfort/old ways is a step further, but to make the choice to stay with what we know is right for us is a gift for everyone as your example with your dad shows so clearly. And it does not turn out to be complicated or hard.

189. I agree Susan, this is a great line. We need to remember how to live from the inside out, so that we do not get swamped by letting the outside in. Love emanates, and all that is not love, imposes.

     1. Love also that point Liane. How to not get spammed by something. When I am living an aware, strong and deep connection with my body ‘the outside’ can not so easily fill me with something that does not fit to me, because there is already something: love/me. No space for what I am not.

        1. “No space for what I am not”

           Very beautifully put Sandra. When we live the fullness of our love we are enormous, and in that space, there is no space, for all that is not of this love.

        2. I agree with you Liane, there is such a huge power, presence and enormity when we live in the fullness of our love – that what is not doesn’t even stand a chance.

     2. So beautifully worded Liane and Susan, it’s when we get ‘swamped’ by the outside world that we lose our rhythm which is so simply connected to by listening to the body. When we listen and make the choices that the body calls for, then our rhythm is naturally there and we don’t feel the need for a deviation or distraction, and the rhythm and our relationship with the rhythm gets stronger with each self loving choice such as going to bed early if we are tired, or staying home to study if we feel that this is what is needed at the time. It is so much about living from the inside out and not getting swamped by living from the outside in.

     3. Great simple summary of how love works Liane – Love emanates, and all that is not love, imposes. Philosophers through the ages have tried to define Love in streaming volumes of writing and you have done it in 9 words. Lovely!

     4. Beautifully said Liane. Living from inside out and not outside in has always struck me as being the essence of the Way of the Livingness. And I love the simplicity of Love emanates, and all that is not love, imposes. That’s a fridge sticker for me.

190. Yes Johanne learning how to self care is a very practical thing. When we consistently make those self loving choices the loving quality we invite into our bodies can be deeply felt and is gorgeous to feel.

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