How to Listen to Your Body in Midlife With Care

I am learning to listen to my body in midlife while sleep, strength training, pain, and work keep handing me different instructions about what needs care.

When sleep becomes a checklist

The numbness and tingling wake me throughout the night, almost as if I am coming slowly out of a dream.

If you can imagine waking up in the middle of the night with your arm slightly bent, realizing that it is not helpful to have your hands curled or your elbows bent, and feeling this tender pain radiating from your elbow. You feel a numbing, tingling sensation in your pinky and your ring finger, along with some tension in the pads of your palm as you slowly uncurl your fingers.

As I unfurl them, I feel this awakening of pain.

For a couple of months, my CPAP machine was actually helping me sleep. It still does. The only issue is that my cubital tunnel makes the pain come across more painfully at night.

As I am sleeping, trying to move into a comfortable position with a CPAP, sometimes with the air powerfully moving out of the nose pads, I am making sure that my hands are not curled, my elbows are extended rather than bent, and my arms are not above my body.

I cannot even sleep without my mind moving through a checklist of the positions my body needs.

The Tarot card I pulled today brought exactly this feeling. It was the Four of Swords from the Modern Witch Tarot Deck.

Rest. Stillness. Recovery.

What do I tend first?

I started working with a personal trainer because I had been so tired, and I knew that part of the tiredness and the foggy brain was tied to a lack of motion.

The strength feels amazing. It gives me energy. It gives me ease. It gives me this swagger and confidence that I love. Lifting weights makes me feel like a badass.

The first day, the heavy lifting helped me sleep. It felt like I had found something that supported the part of me asking for rest.

Then, after a consistent run of personal training, my arm started to hurt.

It seems that the weight training may have exacerbated the cubital tunnel, the nerve issue in my elbow that creates the tingling in my ring finger and pinky. I may need physical therapy. I may need to see an orthopedic doctor. And underneath those practical next steps is the worry that I will not be able to continue the weight training that has been helping me move forward.

I wrote about the strength, support, and confidence I had begun to feel in Strength Training in Midlife and the Inner Work Beside It.

When tending one part uncovers another

My deepest feeling holds both fears: that the process helping me move forward will stop because of another circumstance, and that tending to one part of me means yet another part will be uncovered that requires care.

It is strange when the thing that is helpful and beneficial creates pain because of an underlying problem. One problem contains smaller problems, and it becomes difficult to know what to do first.

This feels like a microcosm of business too.

There are so many amazing things happening that I feel proud of and delighted by. There are concerns still present. There are levers I can pull and some things I cannot control. Tending one part can reveal the next part asking for my attention.

What collaboration helps me remember

This morning, I felt this deep love for the women in my LUSH Business Mastermind and for how one of them is preparing her first summit. She is so excited, and she has been very intentional about the process while ensuring that this is her first and that she does not get overwhelmed.

She reached out to everyone in the mastermind, inviting us to participate, and we all said yes to contributing, including me.

Today was the day I had scheduled to gather all the resources and create the tool I will contribute. It was so fun to do, not only because it was creative, but because it was supporting a dear client of mine whom I absolutely love.

I witnessed yet again the sense of collaboration that happens when one woman shares what she is creating and invites others into it.

As the sun continues to shine between the clouds, it feels like it radiates a future where women come together within their businesses, focused on collaboration, amplifying each other's voices, and helping each other out in so many incredible ways.

That makes my heart simply sing.

I also keep thinking about what one piece of support might be most useful to you now. It might be something that helps you understand what is happening, something that helps you move forward, an energy session or experience, a tool, or a glimpse behind the scenes.

As a Projector, I want to hear the invitation clearly. Finish this sentence in the comments or in an email to me:

I wish Sora would...

I am so here to listen.