Good morning from New York City. What I’m thinking about today is body intelligence and the clues and cues we get from our body. It can be knots in our stomach, our heart skipping a beat, or our blood pressure slightly rising.

I’ve been talking about the fact that I am throwing my hat into the ring on various jobs, and I noticed the other day that I started obsessing on how I don’t check off all the boxes, and how my experience might not hold up in a particular job. Well, let me backtrack for a minute here. Because I have been a business owner and I’ve had a non-linear path over the last several years, my resume can be read in a couple of different ways. In fact, I’m going after several different categories of jobs. Anyway, in this one particular category there were some really great jobs, yet I noticed that I was reading the job descriptions with a negative lens. I was negotiating with myself on how I wasn’t good enough, and how my experience didn’t quite measure up.

Then it dawned on me. Every time I was reading this one particular category of jobs, I was actually getting nervous simply reading the job descriptions. When I was able to connect the dots between my body reaction and the actual category of jobs that were triggering this nervous reaction, I realized it was a clue. I was able to say to myself this is not really what I want to do. I want to feel excited and confident, and I want my mind to be running away with all the ways I might be able to contribute. As soon as I had this realization, I pulled away from that job path. I started thinking about how important it was to listen to my body, and how great it was that I was able to connect the dots between the job search and the reaction my body was having.

Our bodies are often screaming at us, and we actually ignore the signs. Our body is such an amazing instrument sending us constant signals, whether it’s indigestion, racing, heart, or high blood pressure. These signs can also be really positive things – a surge of energy, a chill up our spine, a deep breath, or a sigh of relief.

So what signals is your body trying to send you these days? What’s giving you energy or making you feel excited? What or who is making you tired or somehow depleting your energy? What can you do to change direction or adjust how much time you spend with someone? I remember I used to go with one of my friends and I noticed that I was always extremely tired after I left her. In fact, I did an episode called Cope Ahead, and that was about anticipating how you’re going to feel or think or react to a situation, and outlining your plan of action in response. How can you perhaps cope ahead?

I’ll leave you with that thought today. Until next time, from my heart to yours.