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Natural Awakenings Central New Jersey

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Listening to Inner Wisdom

5 Instincts To Heed

Listening to our instincts can help us stay safe and deal better with life-or-death decisions. Making the most of the wisdom of this inner voice also enables us to live a more satisfying life in the moment. How do we choose which gut feelings to trust? Here are five messages we’ll be glad we paid attention to.

“Something feels wrong in my body.” Listening to our body’s subtle signals is a critical part of exercising an intuitive sense. The body is a powerful intuitive communicator, delivering early warning signs when anything feels off, weak or just not right, so that we can address it sooner, rather than later.

“I’m in danger.” Social conditioning has helped to create unconscious beliefs that can cause flawed first impressions and ill-advised snap decisions; it’s vital that we check our subjective feelings against mental rationalizations. If some person or situation feels untrustworthy, pause to pay attention, even if the feeling might later be proved inaccurate.

“I want to help.” Evolution has inherently enabled us to quickly “read” faces and other emotional signals. For example, the sympathy instinct nudges us to change the subject when wedding talk makes a newly divorced colleague cringe or general conversation about past rough landings makes an airplane seatmate nervous—subtle gestures that can make a big difference in another’s day.

“I know how to do this.” When tempted to overthink something we know how to do, try a little therapeutic distraction, such as saying the alphabet backwards when a yoga teacher leads the class into a dreaded handstand. Briefly engaging the mind with something other than the task at hand can leave our instincts free to do their job and enjoy the fulfillment that diligent practice has made possible.

“This is it!” Most people have a great “I just knew it was right” story. It might be about the time they first spotted their sweetheart or crossed the threshold of their new house. When intuition signals that we’ve found something or someone truly right for us, the choice often becomes easy. It feels healthy and good, without resistance or conflict.

Using our instincts helps lead us to smart choices that improve our quality of life.

Inspiration Instinct Wisdom
Tick Talk

Spring officially sprung on March 21. We have turned our clocks ahead. We are looking forward to warm winds, sunny skies and the smell of fresh cut grass. The daffodils and tulips have recently bloomed and we are just starting with the yard work that comes with the warmer weather.  Sadly, another season has started ramping up.  Tick season.

•             The best form of protection is prevention. Educating oneself about tick activity and how our behaviors overlap with tick habitats is the first step.

•             According to the NJ DOH, in 2022 Hunterdon County led the state with a Lyme disease incidence rate of 426 cases per 100,000 people. The fact is ticks spend approximately 90% of their lives not on a host but aggressively searching for one, molting to their next stage or over-wintering. This is why a tick remediation program should be implemented on school grounds where NJ DOH deems high risk for tick exposure and subsequent attachment to human hosts.

•             Governor Murphy has signed a bill that mandates tick education in NJ public schools. See this for the details.  Tick education must now be incorporated into K-12 school curriculum. See link:

https://www.nj.gov/education/broadcasts/2023/sept/27/TicksandTick-BorneIllnessEducation.pdf

•             May is a great month to remind the public that tick activity is in full swing. In New Jersey, there are many tickborne diseases that affect residents, including Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, Powassan, and Spotted Fever Group Rickettsiosis.

•             For years, the focus has mainly been about protecting ourselves from Lyme disease. But other tick-borne diseases are on the rise in Central Jersey. An increase of incidence of Babesia and Anaplasma are sidelining people too. These two pathogens are scary because they effect our blood cells. Babesia affects the red blood cells and Anaplasma effects the white blood cells.

•             Ticks can be infected with more than one pathogen. When you contract Lyme it is possible to contract more than just that one disease. This is called a co-infection. It is super important to pay attention to your symptoms. See link.

https://twp.freehold.nj.us/480/Disease-Co-Infection

A good resource from the State:

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/topics/tickborne.shtml

 

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