There is an old adage “If you listen to your body when it whispers, you won’t have to hear it scream.”

Great advice. Really. But do you follow it?

Think about your car for a moment. Don’t you just hate it when you get in, start it up and one of those darn red warning lights comes on?

You know the ones that indicate that the tire pressure is low, that your oil needs changing soon, that one of your rear lights is out or that you are almost out of washer fluid.

If you are like me, you pay attention to that red light.

Why?

Because…

• you don’t want to get a flat tire (because the tire pressure is too low)
• you don’t want your engine to seize up (because you never changed the oil)
• you don’t want to get pulled over by a cop and given a ticket (because your light is out)
• you don’t want to end up on a slushy winter day in Minnesota, driving down the highway at 65 miles per hour when an 18-wheeler drives by and literally has diarrhea all over your windshield completely blocking your vision, and not be able to clean the mess off quickly so you can see the road (because you have no washer fluid)

When you get in your car and that red light goes on it is annoying because it throws a wrench in your routine. You are going to have to take time to take care of this or that. But even though the red light is annoying, the red light is actually friendly and kind.

The red light is your car whispering to you: “Something is amiss. Nothing bad is going to happen right this moment. But I am giving you adequate warning to do something about it soon so something really bad doesn’t happen in the not-too-distant future.”

When your body has those little niggles–you know, those little pains that don’t go away–that is your body whispering to you. That is your body’s red light saying “Something is amiss.”

What do you do with those whispers?

Do you listen to them?

Do you find the whispers annoying? And put them aside? And rationalize along the following lines?

• I don’t have time to make an appointment with the doctor
• I have too many things to do
• It’s not really that painful
• If I just tape it before I run it will be fine
• And plus, I hate going to the doctor

Often you get away with not listening for a time. Maybe a long time. In fact, if you ignore the whispers long enough you stop even being able to hear them anymore. Until one day you have a bigger problem and your body screams.

Those little niggles are friendly and kind. They are trying desperately to get your attention. You’d take your car into the shop. Why don’t you take yourself to the doctor and get checked out? I am not saying that doctors have all the answers. They don’t. But listening to those whispers and getting things checked out early might just keep you from having to hear your body scream later.

Treat yourself as well as you treat your car and listen to the whispers.

Image by Robin Higgins from Pixabay