Shambhala Black Belt Life-Skills bring us back to the original meaning of the word "health" by recognizing the interconnectedness of the mind, the body and the spirit. Shambhala Black Belt Life-Skills unify and strengthen the bond between the mind and the body, resulting in a powerful spirit that becomes your guiding Life-force.

SELF-COMMUNICATION is one of the most important Shambhala Life-Skills. It not only enhances the self-study process, but it is necessary to develop an integrated relationship between your mind and your body. SELF-COMMUNICATION is an essential Life-Skill for developing and maintaining the Integrity of your inner self. It is also primary to developing and maintaining your Integrity with the outer world.

Without this ongoing communicative interaction between your physiological, emotional and mental self, you will not be able to figure out what kinds of experiences will enrich the quality of your life. You will not know how to put yourself at peace with an outer world that is always in constant turmoil.

If you do not foster this communicative interaction between your mind and your body you will be essentially “body dead.” You will not be able to listen to what your body is trying to tell you.
Your body has an intelligence of its own. Expressions like "cold feet," "chills up and down my spine," "a racing heart," "a knot in my stomach," "warm-hearted," and "swollen with pride," indicate you have much to learn from a body that is all too willing to communicate, if you pay attention and learn how to listen.

The split between your mind and your body, and the distrust which accompanies it, can be eliminated if you can become sensitive to the already constant interplay between your mind and your body, and the outer world. SELF-COMMUNICATION can be used to monitor stress, because it will foster your understanding of your own self-systems.

It is important to become a supportive rather than an interferent participant in these communicative interactions between you and all of your parts. Being harsh, critical, and judgmental closes down all communication within yourself just as they close down communication between people. If you can not be a patient and careful listener to yourself, you will not only miss what your body is saying, but you will not hear what the people you love are trying to tell you.

As with all the Shambhala Life-Skills, Self-Communication is only as valuable as the way in which you use it. It is not a tool meant to enable you to police and/or intrude upon your own natural physiological processes. Instead, it is a skill which facilitates the knowing of yourself, simply because you are worth knowing.