Body numbing can often allow us to get through difficult moments in life. Sometimes it is the only way we can function because if an experience is too horrible to face, our brains would overload and short circuit without it. Numbing happens every day of our lives and in every person. Not being numb takes deep personal work and an awareness that transcends the ordinary unconscious patterns we so enjoy each day.
What's Inside?
Most of the time we do not even realize body numbing is taking place because we are dead to ourselves. The more the mind and body practice it, the less we notice it.
Out of fear, we numb. Out of an overwhelming life, we numb. It is biologically part of our human experience, but when we stay in the state of body numbing, we lose ourselves and we lose being human. We fail to enjoy life when we numb and we fail to live up to our fullest potential.
The Brain Shuts Things Down
If you are in some horrific situation where being fully alive and feeling or sensing everything would become too great, the brain has a way of shutting things down by numbing. Body numbing in these circumstances can save you and help you get through the horrific moment you may be facing.
After all, who would want to feel all of their body if they had just lost a limb in a car accident or if they were being chased through the woods by a bear? It is easy to see that numbing in these scenarios is essential for survival.
The same goes for chronic daily stress. The more stress you are under, and the more deadlines you face as you perform functions necessary to keep your job, the less you feel in your body.
Not Feeling Everything
Consider a news reporter in a war zone or at a major disaster. If that reporter felt everything that was going on and became one with the overwhelming dread and pain taking place, would they be able to report the news? Most likely, they would not. Yet, in order to report the news, they need to stay detached and numb to their environment in order to get the story out.
The same goes in the job where you are on a deadline and maybe missing it would cost your company billions of dollars. This would not be a time to feel everything in your life. It would require body numbing to get the job done.
Another example could be a rescue worker dealing with life and death situations. While many of them feel emotions and compassion for those they are rescuing, they can only go so far before they would become overwhelmed. In these cases, they must numb themselves to deal effectively and efficiently with the situation before them. In order to save someone else, it would require them to turn off the full force of feelings and sensations in their own body.
Body Numbing Becomes Our Sensation
As you can see, body numbing is critical in our everyday lives. Unfortunately, if we don’t discharge all these experiences on a regular basis, the numbing never gets turned off. The numbing begins to become our sensation and feeling, thereby robbing us of a human experience. Our brains become altered and our experiences are dulled because we are no longer able to feel and sense all that we are.
Turning off body numbing requires us to stop, sense, and feel. By doing this, we discharge all the chronic stress and experiences we have endured so that we once again reconnect the brain and the body together.
When we are connected to ourselves, it is then that we are fully human, living the life of fullness, richness, and feeling alive. The more numb we are, the less we are, but the more fully awakened and connected we are, the more we are living life the way we are meant to live.
Body numbing plays out in many ways. Below are some ways in which we numb the body, and how numbing shows up. This is by no means an exhaustive list. The order listed is random. I am writing this from my observations and experiences in life.
Signs Of Body Numbing
1) Food
While food is necessary, when we use it to self medicate or give us a high or become our comfort, it is keeping us from feeling and connecting. Food is a common form of body numbing for many people and the proof is the weight issues we face in this world. One of the major marketing industries is that of weight loss. When we eat food to avoid feeling and connecting to life, we are numbing our life.
2) Alcohol
If alcohol begins to be a crutch to help you sleep, relax, be part of social situations, or deal with your problems, then it is body numbing your life. When it becomes the necessary go-to-source of ease for your life, it is a numbing mechanism. It directly numbs the body from feeling and when used frequently and over the limit, allows the individual not to truly feel what is going on in their life.
3) Drugs
Too many turn to drugs to face difficult moments in life and situations beyond their control. In addition, many turn to prescription medication that do the same thing as illegal drugs. In each case, they keep the individual from dealing with their life situations.
If it is a medical condition you are dealing with, you can claim it is not the same thing, but I would suggest that you are still body numbing. Medications don’t bring about bodily awareness. They are designed to take you, your mind, and your body away from awareness.
4) Addictions
We can become addicted to many things. It may be something that appears to be a good thing for us, but when it begins to rule our lives, it is a way we are body numbing ourselves.
When life gets too tough, we tend to gravitate to more of the same or the things we know. Addictions become our safety, security, comfort, and crutch. Through additions, we do not have to feel. We become numb.
5) Religion
Spirituality is a good thing. Religion can be good, but too many times, we get in and make up so many rules and adhere to so many made-up beliefs that religion is nothing more than a body numbing practice or escape from the real world.
I am not saying that all religions are bad, but when beliefs and opinions are used to view the world in a very rigid way, you have passed the point of being numb.
Religion and spirituality can be helpful and uplifting pillars of our lives, but when they keep us from being human, they are numbing obstacles.
6) Frequent Unsatisfying Sex
Sex is many things to many people, but sex without feeling can come from body numbing. If sex holds very little feeling to you through the little touches, chances are you are numbing to the full effects of it. If you’re going through the motions and not fully feeling every part of it, then you are numbing out.
If the release is the ultimate pleasure point, the body is missing out on all the feelings, sensations, and senses. Numbing decreases the feelings and sensations of sex and requires frequent occurrences in order to feel or have a pleasurable experience.
7) Buying Stuff
One of the most common ways people are body numbing is by buying stuff they don’t really need. All you have to do is take a look at the many yard sales, the stuffed rooms, and closets in a house or the mega storage unit industry that is alive and well. Buying stuff gives many people a high. It helps numb us from the difficulty or stresses of the day that we face.
8) Hoarding
With its own TV reality series, this is becoming an epidemic way in which we numb. Again, when we lose our feelings and sensations in lieu of numbing, we are losing all that life offers us. Holding on to objects to the point where they consume our lives is body numbing in the fullest. We lose ourselves through situations like this and to counteract hoarding, we must once again feel and sense within the body.
9) Live In Fantasy More Than Reality
Every day I see and hear about moments that are filled with fantasy in our world. We have reality shows, movies, and games that are nothing more than made up fantasy. Fantasy can allow you to create and live beyond your current life, but when it becomes so ordinary that you need to go further into fantasy, then you are losing touch with reality. When we lose touch with reality, we are body numbing ourselves to all that is evident and present in life.
Fantasy can involve being lost in some spiritual practice or make-believe setting that has lost its grounding. It can involve living an attitude in life that is not backed up in your everyday life. While escape and positive thoughts can be helpful, if they become the way you avoid every unpleasant thing in your life and you fail to feel the bad stuff, then you are body numbing.
10) Constantly Busy
One of the easiest ways to numb is to keep yourself so busy that you don’t have time to think, feel, or connect with your body. For some it is the best way to numb because by doing this, nothing important matters. It is all superficial and allows you to turn off a part of you that needs to be present.
Being constantly busy keeps you from being fully conscious and alive. Taking the kids to this event or that event, helping out here and there, running a zillion errands, doing tasks that really don’t serve a healthy purpose, or just making yourself busy can be nothing more than body numbing. It is all in how you find balance and rest in the moments of your day.
11) Live For Medical Procedures
While many may think they don’t do this, you can see evidence of it through advertisements and lists of procedures that many have gone through. It becomes an insidious way of life, consuming the person long before they are conscious of it.
As controversial as it may sound, there are people who derive pleasure, love, and support from all the medical procedures they go through and it keeps them from feeling all that there is. It keeps them numb to the mind body connection.
12) High Sugar Intake
The less you feel, the more you need. High sugar intake is comfort food. Sugar is one legal and powerful drug that has become the main dish in our diets. It is a security blanket and when the stresses and pains of life get to be too much, sugar takes over the feeling aspects of being human.
It allows us to numb, just like alcohol or drugs or other things would do for us. Many food companies and restaurants know this and use body numbing to increase the consumption of their products.
13) Excessive Fitness Junkie
Some people feel their workouts and do it to help themselves, but some instead use workouts to numb their mind body connection. They don’t necessarily listen to the pain in their body while engaging in excessive fitness. It is almost as if they are building up their body to ignore what is truly going on. Fitness is good for the body, but only when done with the mind connected.
14) Junk Food
In many ways, it is similar to sugar. Junk food is often referred to as comfort food. When junk food is taking the place of feelings and emotions then you are body numbing to the experiences of life. If it gives you that feel-good high, then you are not experiencing life through your mind and body. Junk food on its own isn’t necessarily evil, but what is important is how much it controls your life. How easily can you say no to it? Do you really need it?
15) Deep Tissue Massage
I don’t know how many times I have had people tell me that the only good massage is one that is deep, and I mean deep. You could almost stand on their muscle with a pointed object, and it would not be enough. I practically had one person beg me to do that one time. I’ve had people tell me to go deeper when my own sense is that I’m at the farthest edge of pressure, and anything further would cause harm.
I’m not saying that deep tissue is not beneficial, but when you do this without the person being connected, it serves very little long term benefit. In this case, the person is body numbing. The only way they can feel is by applying excessive pressure. In massage and bodywork, what matters is not how deep you go, but how connected you are.
16) Turning Life Into A Joke
Making light of a very difficult experience or traumatic moment can take us away from truly feeling the pain we endured. It is taking us away from what happened as if to avoid it, rather than going in and dealing with it. Laughter can be some of the best medicine, but not at the expense of body numbing where we lose sight of reality.
17) A Long List Of Medications
Watching and observing people, I see them consume medication after medication. While many may be necessary and valid, the greater your list of medications means a greater risk of body numbing.
Medications don’t heal. Medications are designed to help you ignore the messages of your body. They are numbing enablers and the more you can discover what your body is trying to tell you, the more connected and fully alive you will be.
18) Spacing Out
I used to be able to space out with the best of them! Spacing out gives us a moment of disconnect and separation from our day, but when it becomes a way of life and a common recurring practice, then most likely it is nothing more than body numbing.
When things get too difficult to bear or we’re inundated by ghosts of the past, spacing out allows us to numb and not connect to all that is going on in life. Sometimes spacing out is necessary to help us survive, but we just don’t want to forget to turn this numbing practice off.
19) Excessive Web Surfing
Can you imagine a time when we did not have internet-connected devices and computers? While they are part of current life and society, they can get out of hand all too easily.
These days the internet is a necessity in life, but when you find yourself disconnected from social interaction and physical connections, then you may likely be numbing yourself out from being connected to your day. When the internet and your computer surfing take the place of normal interactions in your life, it’s time to put the pause button on and disengage from these body numbing devices.
20 Excessive Game Playing
Games are fun. As kids, games often kept us entertained for hours while we broadened our minds. Unfortunately in today’s society, games engulf people and keep them from truly experiencing life. When you’re worried about fake crops in an online game needing to be harvested, or getting the right game piece, something may not be in balance.
Yes, these can be fun to play and participate in, but they are designed to consume you and keep you completely hooked. By excessively playing games to the point of withdrawing from your normal life, you are body numbing. There is some part of your life you are escaping from and it is wise to take inventory of what is going on in your world.
21) Constantly On Your Smart Phone
While I love smart phones, it is so easy to become disconnected and distracted from normal social interactions. I’ve watched people spend every moment looking at their smart phone and avoiding conversations and people and experiences going on around them. It is body numbing at its finest and is happening in epidemic proportions these days.
Disengage from the phone and begin to understand why you may be numbing yourself. Look for the underlying reason and assess for your own life what this behavior means to you.
22) Adrenaline Junkies
If you can’t truly feel, you need more of whatever it is that you desire. For adrenaline junkies, it goes way beyond a thrill or an experience. It becomes a replacement for feeling in life. Experiencing joys and thrills can be fun and help you test the limits of your own feeling of safety, but when you need to go to further extremes just to feel it, you may want to pay attention to how and why you are body numbing from life.
When we numb out, our senses are dulled and so in order to feel, we must have greater amounts of adrenaline running through our bodies. Any time you continually force your body into extremes just to function normally, you are asking for serious implications on down the road.
23) High-Risk Activities Become The Norm
This type of body numbing can be very similar to the adrenaline junkie, but it may just be more from the mind than maybe something physical. In order for some people to feel, they may take risks driving or investing or with jobs that most would not normally do. The risks would be in an effort for them to feel or experience life because they were numbed out to daily life. It is almost like the normal logical boundaries of their mind through daily activity was turned off, while the risk became something they experienced as a regular part of their day.
Of course, what is the risk to one person may not be a risk to another, but this is going above and beyond the norms and become the all-consuming daily routine of life to these individuals.
24) Looking Outside Of Yourself For Answers
I would say this one is an epidemic in our world. Whether it is new age spirituality or religion or consumerism or politics – a majority of this world and civilization looks to everything else and everyone else for the answers. It is beliefs, products, rules, and philosophies that become the answer to the individual. No longer do we know what truth is, because it is has become an enticing piece of candy dangled before our eyes as being the only thing we can hear.
Many of these things on their own merit can add value to our lives, but when we are numb we give up our control and power to others. It is when we fail to go inside and find the truth of our innermost self that we are numb. What you experience deep within you at the purest point is something you can proclaim from the mountaintops for yourself. What you experience from what others tell you is something that has been regurgitated to you.
If we were not body numbing as a civilization, we would far more easily know the difference, but this type of behavior happens as if it is the norm. If you don’t want to observe this in yourself, just watch the news or check out any advertisements and that should be more than enough proof of what I am stating here.
25) Not Drinking Enough Water
Apart from how much water the body needs to adequately hydrate itself, water is the purest substance we must consume in our day. It helps our brains operate with peak efficiency and our muscles and cells operate effectively. Without enough water, we become muscles and cells wandering through our day. Body numbing helps us prove to ourselves that we can drink all kinds of flavored beverages and coffees which just force the body to work harder to separate out the good from the bad.
Body numbing helps us think that water has no taste, and in fact the current trend these days is to add “some type of flavoring”. Our body works best when it gets adequate supplies of pure water, not something that was never intended for us to consume. Don’t buy into the advertisements and beverage funded studies of the day to prove that you are right. Instead, try hydrating your body with precious pure water (not adulterated and treated water) so you can see just how much it makes you come alive and helps you function in your day.
26) Poor Eating Habits
Nutrition is a subjective thing. If you line fifty nutrition experts up in a row, you’ll get 50 different viewpoints. The more numb you are, of course, the more your eating habits will not be as healthy for your body as they need to be. If you are not numb, you will be able to taste the food in a raw and uncooked form, feeling the whole expression of what it offers you.
If you’re eating a lot of processed food or heavy food, you’re not consuming the healthiest intake for your body. The more whole the food and the less it needs to be cooked in some type of butter, grease, flavoring, or spices, the more alive you are, and the less numb you are. As you stop body numbing, your tastes will change and your body will inherently understand what is healthy for you and what is not.
Just because you were raised to eat in the way that you do, does not mean it is a good eating habit or routine. Too many restaurants adulterate the food and then serve it in portion sizes too great for an average person to consume. Even the simplest of dishes are so adulterated with things that are unnecessary, it makes my head spin. As you wake up from body numbing in life, the taste of food will be like the greatest awakening you have ever had.
27) Obsession With Making Money
Money is needed to operate in our world and there is nothing wrong with having money. Some call it money and others call it abundance. However, when your every waking moment revolves around how much money you can make in a day, you’re probably not living consciously. More than likely you have numbed out in your life.
We all have a purpose for being on this planet and money is secondary to that in my opinion. When you find out your purpose and you quit body numbing, the money and abundance will take care of itself. The obsession with money is an action without true and deep consciousness. It is a disconnect of the mind and body. While you may be able to pursue it for many years, at some point it will bring you down.
28) Obsession With Control And Power
I believe that those who are so obsessed with control and power are completely numb. There is no connection between the mind-body consciousness. True feeling and sensation in the body have deteriorated to the point of complete numbness.
They are almost like zombies walking around and going through the motions, but firmly acting like they are in control. The obsession with control and power is the mirage cloaked in body numbing. In too many facets of our society, this is running rampant as people make up for their own numbness in life. It can be seen as well through the constant monitoring of actions via webcams, smart phones, and other technology.
29) The “Story Of The Day”
Body numbing keeps our interest confined to the concerns of the masses. Numbing keeps our horizons focused on the mind-numbed stories of the day. Whether it is through the news media or the local water cooler gossip, the more numb you are, the more important these stories are to you. The greater the connection of consciousness between the mind and body, the less relevant these things become. While they may have importance to your life, if we don’t keep things in perspective and in balance, we will be drinking from a mirage in the desert.
30) Getting Lost In Politics
This article was written back in 2014 and this section is more relevant today than it was at that point. Body numbing by getting lost in politics is an epidemic problem in this day and age. Everything these days is politics. I’m not sure someone could recommend drinking a glass of water without it becoming a political issue. It is divisive and separating, not lifting up of others or working together with people from all walks of life. It is numbing in high gear.
Politics focuses on power and control, not on solving any issues, or at least that is the current theme of our modern day. The more numb you are, the more politics can play a major role in your day. At one time I believed that being engaged in politics was essential, but I’ve since seen that it was a numbed out way of looking at life.
32) Not Listening To Others
Numbing allows you to totally disconnect from everyone around you. Sure, there can be other reasons for not listening to others, but we all know the type that will usually fail to listen. When you are body numbing, no one else matters in your life. It is all about you and yourself.
33) Everything In Life Is About You
This sign of body numbing is almost the same as not listening to others in the above section. However, this one entails more daily actions that show others they just aren’t important. When you’re so numb to life, you only care about yourself because you are trying to survive through each moment of the day. Numbing is a disconnection from everyone, yourself included.
34) Excessive Caffeine
Caffeine is a drug and often is an addiction. Try going cold turkey off of caffeine and see what happens. It is powerful and it helps give us a rush. At the same time, excessive caffeine helps you from having to feel, and enables body numbing. It kicks your body into high gear but disconnects you from your mind. It is often a crutch and something you need which keeps you from connecting your mind and body together.
35) Telephone Junkies
Have you ever been around someone that just has to talk on the phone constantly? They get off of one call, and it is on to the next phone call. If they aren’t receiving calls, they are making them. Body numbing, anxiety, and the fear of socially interacting with people close to them go hand in hand with telephone junkies. At the heart of it though is a disconnect or a numbing from life and the people around you, including yourself.
36) Non Stop Excessive Talking
If you have ever been around a constant chatterer, you will see how fast they talk without hardly taking a breath. When I’m around them, I find myself wanting to breathe for them. It is different than telephone junkies because, in nonstop excessive talking, they are trying to keep control of the conversation. They don’t want the conversation turning around to them because it may make them feel things they don’t want to feel. They would rather be numb to as much of the pain and difficulty in their life as they can.
37) Lying To Yourself Or Others
I’ve watched this all my life. Lying for some people has become such a way of life that even truthiness is more than they are able to display in their life. Lying allows you to avoid the truth or truthiness of something in your life. Lying can be so sly that most of the time the person doing it is not conscious enough to see it, and it is body numbing at its finest.
When you lie to yourself, you are numbing yourself. When you numb yourself, you are lying to yourself. They really go hand in hand. Unfortunately, we don’t just lie to ourselves, but we also lie to others. We try to prove to everyone around us that either we know what we are talking about and doing, or that what we say is the fact of all facts. The more honest we are, the more in touch we are with ourselves and the more real we become.
38) Helping Others At Your Expense
It is great to help others and I personally believe we should be doing more of that in this world. If there is any doubt, you may want to watch the movie, I Am. However, if you disregard your own self and the things you need to take care of while putting your emphasis on helping others, you are body numbing.
For many years, I tried to put the needs of many other people above myself. Some may have seen me as helpful, but in the end, I was just numb to my life. Helping others was an escape for me so that I did not have to face the reality in my life.
Many medical providers and caregivers suffer from this. When you are numb, you look for ways to escape with your mind from all that is unpleasant and difficult in life, and caring for someone else can be an effective way of doing that. I’m not saying don’t care and don’t help, but make sure that you aren’t body numbing and you are taking care of yourself. Make sure as a healer, you are continually healing yourself.
39) Not Being True To Yourself
I believe this one is an epidemic in our world. I’m not sure if people even really understand how to be true to themselves. So many have lived a life where numbing was taught from birth that they never woke up and became aware.
Body numbing thrives when we are not true to ourselves. It shows up in many ways, including chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and many other physical conditions. If you constantly are hiding and keeping secrets from yourself, it overloads the nervous system. It takes great courage and willpower to go in and begin to learn how to be true to yourself and unlearn all the unconscious patterns of your life.
40) Excessive Anger
Anger is a valid emotion, contrary to what many teach these days. Anger is just as valid as happiness or peace or love and without it, you cannot have these other emotions. Unfortunately, when we suppress anger over our lifetime, we become so numb to it that it comes out as excessive anger.
You can see it in road rage, or the pounding of the fists on the desk of an executive. You can see it sometimes in body issues where someone has turned their anger inward on themselves. Excessive anger can show up as vengeance against some group or someone and it doesn’t always have to be readily seen.
Excessive anger can show up as someone having to control a conversation and everyone around it or it can also lead to violence and the abuse of others. We all know what excessive anger is, but in its simplicity, it is body numbing from all that is going on in life. It is numbing from learning how to let anger out in a healthy way. The more we tell others how bad anger is, the more we are contributing to the problem of numbing through excessive anger.
41) Blaming Others For Your Life
This one is so familiar to me because I saw it displayed in my family throughout my life. In order for them not to look at themselves, they blamed everyone for everything in their lives. I was taught this from an early age. After all, most of us don’t want to really look that hard at ourselves and so it is easier to blame others by body numbing.
You see this readily through politics these days where one side blames the other. You see it through modern journalism and the news media where they set up the news to pit one group against another. You see it in the churches and religions that are more focused on groups they don’t agree with rather than striving to be all that they can be. It is such a part of our society that we’ve lost the ability to understand just how numb we are.
42) Looking For Abusive Relationships
Most likely we’ve all encountered abusive relationships. If you haven’t, you may not be looking hard enough because they are present everywhere. People stay in abusive relationships out of fear, but it goes hand in hand with body numbing.
When you are not fully conscious and aware of the patterns in your life or the reasons that you do the things you do, it sets up an environment where abusive relationships can flourish. To numb is to lose one’s self and this is exactly what an abusive relationship needs to thrive, grow, and consume its victim.
43) Vanity and Narcissism
The more we numb, the more we look superficially for our validation. I do find it sad these days that people go to great lengths to make their lives appear as if they are perfect and normal (whatever perfect and normal is).
This is not something new and has most likely happened from the beginning of time. Acceptance of ourselves and numbing are polar opposites. Numbing does not allow you to see yourself as you are and in fact, it does not want you to see this. To be alive is to not numb. Body numbing helps you avoid being real with your life, your thoughts, and how you appear to the world.
44) Divert And Distract From Uncomfortable
Diverting and distracting from uncomfortable questions is by far one of the most common things I see people do when they are body numbing. If you begin to talk about the substance of life and even get close to a topic that brings discomfort to someone else, they will do whatever it takes to divert and distract attention away.
I remember one time when I was beginning to share something about my life to those that had not seen me for some time. I was not even going to talk about some uncomfortable parts, but one person thought I was. Before I could continue, he looked at me, and in no uncertain terms made it clear they did not want to hear any more from me. It was very venomous and hurtful and toxic.
Things in life that desire to be unconscious will stop at nothing to keep them that way. It allows us to numb our lives like no other thing possibly could. There are so many ways that we do this and if we begin to be truthful, we will notice just how much we divert and distract from uncomfortable questions or thoughts in life.
45) Loss Of Taste
Over spiced foods goes hand in hand with the loss of taste. While a little spice always enhances a dish or meal, this is more about adding too much spice. The sense of taste is so dulled and numbed, that the only way to detect the spice is by adding more.
When we over spice our food, we are numb to the sense of pure taste. Adding too much of any spice over a period of time is not necessarily good for the physical body. The loss of taste is one of the things that you will notice in body numbing especially, as you begin to wake up in life.
46) Avoidance Of People
Often when things become too difficult in life and we’re overloaded with the input of other people, we become so numb that we avoid people. For many highly sensitive people, this becomes the norm. To learn to feel without body numbing is necessary to function, but that takes setting boundaries, caring for ourselves, and fine-tuning our nervous system, consciousness, and awareness.
47) Over Emotional Or No Emotions
Numbing gives us the ability to escape. When we are over-emotional, the reflex reaction is to numb out and show no emotion. While this may be the way that we operate, a healthy nervous system and mind-body connection takes us out of body numbing and helps us enjoy a balance of emotions.
Emotions are a good barometer of where we are in life including how numb we are or how alive we are. Highly Sensitive People can numb out quickly, but the goal for people who are this way is to learn to discharge and balance their nervous system.
48) All Positive All Of The Time
While it may sound nice to be a positive person, what is happening on the inside may not be reflected on the outside. Being positive is fine but when everything is chirpy birds, pretty trees, and flowery words, then numbing can most often be found. It does not mean that one has to be negative or one can’t be positive, but on any day of any human, there is negative and positive. Hiding one or the other is evidence of numbing.
It becomes easier to numb out than to feel the pain or the negative parts of life. Even if it is an unconscious thing, it is still body numbing. A healthy balance between positive, negative, and/or being real is good for the soul. It helps us interact with others in a way that is connected and uplifting, not one that is shallow or fake.
49) Feel No Pain
All too often, people claim they feel no pain. Its easy to think that way because our lives have become so numb that we have ignored the pain. It is not uncommon to experience pain or places of tension and strain in the body. However, the numbed out person does not feel or recognize these in the moment. They are oblivious to them.
To overcome body numbing does not necessarily mean that you will experience pain every day, but the person who listens to the messages of pain in their body is the one that will find a way to move through them.
The brain and the body are powerful when it comes to healing one’s self and seeing what is behind the pain. In our state of human consciousness, we often ignore everything related to this. We are often numb, and so the correct messages never reach the synapses of our neural pathways.
50) Acting As If The Past Never Existed
It’s easy to rewrite history after years and moments go by. It is easy to view things however we want to because our minds are extremely powerful. However, most people don’t do the work necessary to heal and so they act as if the past never existed. Its a classic numbing technique that is quite effective.
The ego is at the height of its power when we act like things don’t really affect us any longer. In all reality, that matters little in the course of one’s life. What really matters is that you keep peeling the layers of the onion away in your life. You keep discovering more of who you are and you’ll find in the process that these little fragments of the past will rise to the surface to be released.
Don’t numb yourself by focusing on how much you’ve healed. Instead, go in and go further into the discovery of all corners of your life by acknowledging how you are body numbing.
51) Not Sensing Joy
When we are body numbing, the joy of life is gone. Many times we have so overloaded our nervous system and mind-body connection that we’ve burnt the candle of our life into oblivion. We’ve exhausted our mental, physical, and emotional energy to the point where numbing is our only hope to make it through the day.
When we have numbed our lives so much, sensing joy is like dreaming you will win a million dollars. When you stop numbing and begin waking up to all parts of your life (including the pain), there will be a deep sense of joy that will flow up like a never-ending spring in your life. Yes, you need to work through the pain to find it, but once you do, it is a beautiful unfolding that happens.
52) Missing The Beauty Around You
So many people walk out the door and never hear the birds chirping or observe the flowers blooming or feel the energy of the sun on everything around them. We’ve become so numb in our world and through keeping our lives as busy as we can, that we miss the tiny little moments of beauty in our day. Body numbing takes these moments from us, but if we take just a few seconds (even one minute) and stop to sense and feel, we will become alive in so many ways that we cannot even imagine.
53) Having All The Answers
Body numbing gives us the illusion that we know all and we can share with the world just how much we know. Numbing prevents us from understanding that it is okay to be vulnerable and not be an expert on every subject known to mankind. Numbing allows us to see what is truly important and that having all the answers cuts us off from reality and from truly being in touch with ourselves, our senses, and the deepest parts we protect.
54) Dissociation
Simply and basically, this is body numbing. Dissociation keeps us from feeling and connecting to all that is around us. We often don’t even realize it when we are dissociating and it takes conscious awareness to begin to see it. The more we numb, the more we dissociate. It can show up through the foods we eat, how we spend our days, how we listen or don’t listen to those around us, or just walking around with our head in the clouds avoiding reality that is grounded.
55) Conversion Disorder
While this disorder is many things, numbing is a big part of it. I remember when I was in the hospital and they were placing needles in the bottom of my feet to see what I could feel. I was not able to feel a thing.
In conversion disorder, body numbing is what got you through whatever it was in life that overloaded your system. It was a survival technique, but one that never got a chance to exit and discharge itself.
From what I have experienced as well as what I have seen in people suffering from conversion disorder, there is numbing to a high degree. It is that numbing that often stands in the way of recovery.
56) Acting Carefree In Spite Of Difficulties
Body numbing gives an individual a blank slate. Numbing makes it look like everything is okay, regardless of what may be happening. The bullets may be flying overhead, the arrows may be landing around us while the bombs burst on the ground, but numbing hides all of that.
When there are serious difficulties in life that we may be facing, numbing gives us that way of life where everything is fine and dandy. We may convince the world around us and we may even convince ourselves that everything is perfect and fine, but deep down below the numbing, we will innately know this to be a hidden poison looking to surface.
Is There More?
By all means, these signs of body numbing are not exhaustive. It is not the only list of possibilities that can show up in a person’s life. I have tried to list some that I have experienced firsthand or have seen in other people.
While some things on this list may ruffle some feathers, they are all legit ways we experience body numbing. It may take us waking up consciously before we begin to understand some of these behaviors.
It isn’t so much about if you agree or disagree, but how you go forward in life and discover all that is within you. The human population tends to live in an unconscious state of body numbing. That’s no way to live life to its fullest.
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