Take A Step Back And Question Yourself

Most of us need to work on our listening skills, but the person we tune out the most? Ourselves. 

Okay, yes, that sounds very Millennial or like something you’d hear from an eye-roll-inducing yoga instructor. Just hear me out. 

We rush through our days. We go through a lot. We are impacted by a lot of things. We feel the tension and hurt, both mentally and physically. 

Yet, we don’t process enough to keep up with all of this. We don’t step back to click together the pieces and connect the dots. We don’t ask ourselves a lot of questions and stop to listen. 

In the middle of a spiraling emotional whirlwind, have you ever stepped back and asked yourself, “What made me feel this way? What is REALLY going on here?”

When there is anxiety thrumming in the back of your brain, have you stopped to connect the dots on what’s making you anxious? 

When you begin having weird physical symptoms, have you considered the mental causes along with the physical? 

Our bodies, our souls, our minds – they’re connected. You can’t separate the three, and it’s important to recognize that they impact one another. God made us as one whole human with overlapping pieces. 

One of the best practices I have adopted is to come to a forced stop in the middle of a rush of emotions or observations and ask, “What’s going on?” 

Is my headache because of not enough caffeine or allergies, or is it because I’m anxious or not sleeping enough? 

Am I really mad at that person, or am I mad because they triggered deep-rooted insecurity?

Are the muscles in my shoulders hurting because of my workout or because I’m holding unspoken stress there? 

Your questions don’t have to be mine, they don’t have to be deep, and they don’t even have to be that strategic. They just have to be asked, and then you must be willing to listen to the answer. 

You’ll be surprised at what you hear.