My stomach is sending me messages. It might be considered hate mail. I have been feeling rather under the weather since Saturday. I thought I had turned a corner, so I tried to go to the gym. The sad error of my ways was explained to me all the way there by a repeated sharp pain in my abdomen. I’ve decided that pain is my stomach’s way of forcing me to listen.
“You wont pay attention to nausea. Let’s see you ignore this.”
So I made a quick return trip, and now my night looks like a long hot bath and early to bed. Maybe with a few cups of tea thrown in for good measure. Maybe if I am lucky the pain will go away long enough for me to get a little writing done along the way…but I’m going to try not to be greedy. Do you hear that stomach? You and I have a deal. I pay attention and go to bed early, and in turn you agree to keep your hate mail to yourself.
I think we have a deal.
Writing Exercise:
Each part of our body speaks with its own voice. The part we listen to most frequently, our mind, chooses the mouth to deliver its message. But each part of our bodies have their own way of making themselves heard.
Pain is a common message system, but there are others. Your heart for example beats in patterns that can inform you about your environment; the thudding pressure of danger, the flutter of passion, the slow thick pulse of grief.
Choose a body part, your skin, your stomach, a muscle or organ. Think about how that part of your body delivers messages to you and let that part of your body tell you the story. Set a scene with feelings rather than dialogue allowing a part of your body to take the role usually played by your mind. Aim to write for twenty minutes.
