Are You Ignoring the Universe’s Whispers?
- vasallophoto
- Sep 27
- 3 min read
It happened in slow motion.
I was hurrying down the narrow spiral staircase in our house, baggy pants brushing against my ankles, when my foot caught in the fabric. Four steps from the bottom, where hard stone awaited, I knew I was going down. I reached out instinctively to protect my head and landed on my knees and hand with a loud thump. My husband and daughter came running at the sound of my yell.
I lay there still for a moment, in pain, tears running down my face, realizing what had just happened and waiting to see if I could move. Relief came in pieces: my kneecap scraped and swollen, my hand bruised and swollen too, my whole left side knocked out of balance. And yet, nothing broken. Nothing life-altering. Just a big scare.
I’m so grateful it wasn’t anything worse. Gratitude and presence could be an article of their own, but for now, I’ll just say — I don’t take that for granted.
It’s been years since I had a fall like that. And yet, I don’t believe it was random.
What the Body Tells Us
When something goes wrong in my body — a headache, a tight neck, a flare of pain — my first question is always, Why? I believe the body is constantly trying to communicate with us. A symptom is rarely just a symptom. It’s a signal.
One of my late mentors, Louise Hay, taught this so powerfully in her book You Can Heal Your Life. After working with thousands of clients, she began noticing consistent patterns between emotional states and physical ailments. Certain feelings or unresolved experiences would show up again and again in the body — grief in the lungs, anger in the liver, inflexibility in the knees, stress in the stomach.
It made me wonder whether accidents, too, might sometimes be part of that same conversation — moments when the body, mind, and spirit are signaling us to stop, pay attention, and realign.
I often say the universe whispers first. Then it taps you on the shoulder. And if you don’t listen, eventually it hits you with the metaphorical 4x4.
That fall felt like my 4x4!!
The Week That Forced Me to Stop
The timing was no coincidence. My daughter had been sick for several days with flu-like symptoms. She ran a fever the first day, which passed quickly, but she still wasn’t well enough to return to school. I wasn’t consumed with caring for her every minute, but her being home forced me to slow down, put things on hold, and hold space for her recovery.
By Wednesday night, I was itching to get out again. I had already mapped out errands I wanted to run the next day. But that same evening, the fall happened. And by Thursday morning, with my hand sore and grip weakened, carrying anything was out of the question.
The message couldn’t have been clearer: Slow down. Pace yourself. My husband has been saying it since we first arrived here: life here is a pacing game. Everything takes more time. Everything asks you to adjust your rhythm.
Lessons in the Tumble
As much as I wanted to push forward, I couldn’t. And maybe that was exactly the point.
Here’s what I took away from this experience:
The body is a messenger. Symptoms, pain, and even accidents are ways the body speaks to us. The question is whether we’ll listen.
The universe speaks in layers. First the whisper: my daughter’s illness kept us home. Then the tap: my restlessness to dive back into errands and activity. And finally, the 4x4: the fall that forced me to stop.
Rest is not wasted time. We live in a culture that glorifies doing — always busy, always producing (something I explored in my previous article on busyness). But sometimes the most important thing we can do is stop. Be present with our children. Sit in stillness. Notice the pace of our own lives.
Choosing to Listen
I don’t like admitting these moments. It takes courage to say, “I tripped. I fell. I got hurt.” But sharing it feels important, because it’s not really about the stumble. It’s about the message underneath.
The universe doesn’t always shout. More often, it whispers. But if we ignore the whispers long enough, it will do whatever it takes to get our attention.
This time, I’m choosing to listen.
Where in your life might the universe be whispering for you to slow down?
With courage and love,
Tania
