Are there messages coming from your body and the way you are living in the right now that may be telling you that your life is not as simple as your body needs it to be, in order to maintain optimum health for all your cells?

Like the lights on your inner dashboard, there will certainly be indicators coming from your physical, mental, emotional or spiritual self, warning you that change is necessary.

Here is a test which will help you to recognize some of those warning signs. The author calls it the Sick Canary Test because the miners, in the old days, used to take a canary down the mine with them. If there were toxic fumes, the canaries would die, alerting the miners to evacuate immediately. Are you splitting off from your body and its needs, cycles, and rhythms? Take this test and see:

Score 2 points for each “yes” answer.

1. Do you watch TV because you are too tired to do anything else?

2. Do you get less sleep than you really need?

3. Do you skip meals because you are too busy to stop?

4. Do you feel overwhelmed by your tasks and obligations?

5. Do you ever need a stimulant, such as coffee, to get you through?

6. Do you ever curse your natural rhythms (your menstrual cycle, your “slumpy” time of day, your energy fluctuations)?

7. Do you turn to fast food and instant meals because you are too busy to cook?

8. Do you dread mid-life, menopause, old age, baldness, turning 50, drooping breasts?

9. Do you drive everywhere because there isn’t time to walk or catch a bus?

10. Do you tend to skimp on exercise or meditation whenever something urgent needs doing?

11. Do you find yourself saying “Hurry Up!” to your partner, your kids, your friends, your dog?

12. Do you feel a pressure in your chest or gut at traffic lights, in queues, waiting for things to download on your computer?

13. Do you go for hours without laughing?

14. – or without singing?

15. – or without stretching?

16. Do you postpone going to the toilet because you are busy with something else?

17. Do you forget to drink plenty of plain, filtered water as well as other drinks?

18. Do you suffer from tension headaches?

19. Do you go for days without cuddling another human or other live creature?

20. Do you spend more than two thirds of your waking hours indoors?

Scoring
0-10 = You’re doing well
11-20 = Check your priorities;
20-30 = You may be a sick canary;
30+ = It’s time to call the vet!

Millions of people in our industrialized, Western culture would score somewhere between 20 and 40 on this test. So if you, too, scored high, you are probably closer to our culture’s “normal” than someone living a really simple, healthy life.

If your score was high, you might consider starting a meditation, yoga, or stress management program. Or just do the opposite of everything you answered “yes” to!