Listening to your body

Right now, my body is telling me that it's pissed.

Too little sleep, too much activity. Too much goddamn arthritis and not enough medical assistance. Useless Doctors.
I didn't work out today. I trained three classes, and had little runs with two of the three, but I didn't go to the gym. My back hurts, I pulled something weird in my neck yesterday doing shoulder press and my knees are screaming.

I am not listing excuses. I am not.
(that repitition is more for me than to convince you).
I struggle with backing off. I am good at going balls to the wall. I am not good at saying hey this isn't feeling right perhaps I will rest.
I am good at telling people to never push through pain. I do it anyways. I tell people how important rest days are, but I struggle with taking them. The teacher is always the worst student.

There is a difference though between finding an excuse and listening to your body. I often need some quiet space to really listen- we are so busy and distracted and distanced from our physical selves we rarely just listen... The only thing we seem to be fully connected to is our smartphones. Everytime THAT makes any noise, we jump and dive towards it. When the body makes a noise, we ignore and keep going.

I am super tired today, so if that makes no sense I apologize. My 5 year old had another nightmare and the only cure for that apparently is sleeping on my head, then I was up at 4 for work. No amount of coffee will save me today.

So. Due to my brain function or lack of and my pain in various places, I will take today off. Maybe a nice yoga flow to loosen things up and calm my monkey mind, but not a hardcore leg workout that was scheduled. And I will TRY not to beat myself up all day. TRY.
I am not weak. I am listening to my body cues. I am not slacking, I am honoring my physical body with what it needs.

I am still not convinced.