Are You Listening to Your Body?
Are you listening to your body? It’s a question that gets flung around a lot in the health and well-being industry. But what does it even mean? And why is it important?
Have you ever had a morning where you have woken up feeling sluggish, bloated, nauseous? or a day when you haven't drunk enough water and you end up with a headache and feel tired and irritable? These symptoms are your bodies way of trying to tell you something is wrong, in the same way that craving certain foods can often tell you what vitamins, minerals and nutrients your body is lacking.
We have forgotten how to listen to our bodies
We have forgotten how to listen to our bodies, and we have forgotten how to eat to nourish our body!
Have you ever stopped to think about what these signals of fatigue, restlessness and aches and pains actually mean? Or on the other side, the meaning of having extra energy, a skip in your step?
What is ‘Listening to Your Body’?
Our bodies are very clever and finely tuned machines. They know when something is wrong before we do and will always let us know what it needs, and when something is wrong.
Listing to your body is a practice rather than a simple action. It is taking the time to be mindfully aware of your mind, body, and emotions each and every day. Being aware of how you usually feel and noticing when things feel different.
The simplest way I can describe it is to learn to look for and recognise the symptoms and triggers your body gives you when it isn't happy. The things that you feel both physically and emotionally on the days when you don’t feel your best.
To listen to your body means that when your body is feeling something, anything, you consider that a signal for something. So often we feel aches, pains, stiffness, soreness, or emotions, and think nothing of it. Similarly, we can have a particularly good day where we feel amazing and have extra energy, and think it’s just luck… Hint: it isn’t.
However, when you practice listening to your body and are able to note these small changes and build up a bigger picture of your health and any changes over time you gain the ability to use that information to make decisions + take actions to better your health + wellbeing.
Listening to your body requires tuning in to your thoughts, feelings and behaviours in addition to being mindful of any symptoms that are unusual for you.
Why Is Listening to Your Body Important?
In today’s modern world it’s easy to become trapped in the ‘more is better’ mindset. More work, more productivity, more social engagements, more exercise… to tell ourselves that if we just keep going, just do this one more thing then we’ll be satisfied and take a break. But it’s never ending, and we end up putting our health + wellbeing at risk.
There is 100% a time and place for pushing through and testing your limits, but it is not 100% of the time.
I can relate to having a stubborn and competitive side. One that enjoys pushing myself physically and has a drive to perform my best and go the extra mile.
But that drive has also ground me to a halt. Going hard every day caused sickness, exhaustion, and injury all at once. And was ultimately the cause of my M.E/CFS.
Being able to push through tough days, challenging workouts, relationships or financial stressors can make you very resilient. But is not a space you can live in permanently and stay healthy.
The body cannot thrive in these stress states. The body needs to feel safe, at rest to renew, sustain, heal and work at it’s best.
With prolonged periods of productivity + business and/or resilience and stress the body will begin to throw you warning signs.
To listen to your body is to incorporate periods of rest. relaxation, restoration and self-care. The process of action, productivity + creating is a cycle. One that includes times for rest and introspection as part of the ebb and flow of human existence.
Being able to stop and practice periods of inward focus allows for a more productive, creative, happy + healthy human.
By listening to your body and being aware of when it needs periods of rest you are connected to the ebb and flow of your energy and able to care for your body, mind and soul more fully.
Listening to your body is also paying attention to how it feels and reacts after eating certain foods, being around certain people, doing certain activities.
Do you feel drained and exhausted? Or do you feel more alive, joyful and uplifted?
Do you feel satiated and fueled after eating or are you feeling gassy, bloated, or suffering from indigestion?
Do you end up with a headache or other symptoms after eating a particular food?
Is there a particular time in your monthly cycle where you are particularly sensitive or tend to feel more tired? or perhaps more prone to breakouts?
All these things are signs and signals from the body for you to pay attention to!
How To Start Listening to Your Body
Are you ignoring your body’s signals?
The first step of relearning how to listen to your body is promising yourself to be completely honest and not ignore or brush aside any signals. Remember that signals of fatigue have absolutely nothing to do with your “worth” as a person.
The second step is to practice a body scan, and remember to repeat this regularly through your day until it becomes a habit.
A body scan is exactly what it sounds. Taking your attention to each area of the body and assessing what you find there —
Are their aches and pains?
Any discomfort?
Headaches, nausea, rashes?
And what about your mood and mental state; are you angry, frustrated, happy, sad, confused?
Feeling creative, lacklustre, productive, focused or unfocused? In need of relaxation or ready for action?
The gentle scanning practice is one that takes time to get used to and to begin with can be easier to practice if you find a quiet place without distractions.
Before you start take a few deep breaths and as your breathing slows begin your scanning process.
This practice forces you into the present moment and to focus on your physical body so in many ways it’s similar to meditation of a mindfulness practice.
I like to think of it as a two way relationship. If you look after your body, if you listen to your body + what it needs: it will look after you!
We should all be making the effort to take are of our bodies, after all, its the only place you have to live!
If list to your body and beginning to understand it’s patterns is something you want to try for yourself one of the easiest ways to start is to keep a simple diary each day. Just have a notebook handy + list all the things you do each day, how you were feeling, the foods you eat each meal, your sleep quality, mood, any exercise, and symptoms or discomfort + any symptoms you had after eating.
The idea of keeping a diary or daily tracker is both to help you monitor your daily activities - from sleep and water intake, to supplements, symptom treatment results, and daily food - and allow you to look back and see your progress.
For eg.
The effects of what you eat will materialise from 2 to 48 hours after eating. If something doesn't feel right to you look at what you consumed over the last 24-48 hours. The food that was different to what you usually eat, is often the culprit. Symptoms can include feeling sick, stomach cramps or bloating, headaches, gas, heartburn, digestive discomfort. Or any other out of the ordinary symptoms you notice.
If you can pin point what you think is the cause, cut that food out for a few weeks. Over this time monitor how you feel. Do you feel any improvement? Does your mood improve? Does our skin clear up? Do your digestive issues go away? etc.
If your mood and energy levels improve, you feel less sluggish or there is a lessening in any other symptoms you had, then it is likely your body is telling you to eat less of that food.
I'll admit it's a bit of experimentation to begin with. But if you can improve your health I believe it is SO worth the effort!
This tracking method applies to everything else as well. Document what you did, when, how it made you feel, and symptoms for each day. Look at the 4-5 days previous to see what may be causing you discomfort in the present day & then tweak your routine and habits to remove the negative influences and improve they way you feel.
If you would like to start your own health tracking + journey to better understanding your body I have a handy printable Health Tracker template available.
Download my PDF via the link below.
Emily xo