21 May What It Means To Listen to Your Body
What It Means To Listen to Your Body
What It Means To Listen to Your Body
Listening to your body means bringing your awareness to the sensations that arise through your body in the present moment. It is a mindfulness practice that can significantly enhance your quality of life and allow you to make choices for yourself that are truly aligned with what you need at this moment.
When you set the intention to listen to your body, it is a journey, one that invites all of you in. The pain, the pleasure, the spaces of numbness, the nooks and crannies of ourselves which hold the joys and traumas of our lives. The unfurling depths and layers that we reach as we become more and more present with the sacred temple of our bodies is as beautiful as the most fragrant rose. It is awakening, humbling, and can also be immensely uncomfortable as we discover places that have been neglected for perhaps decades.
It is an incredible act of love and compassion to honor ourselves, the living being that we are, by listening to what our physical body is communicating to us, what we need, this soft furry beautiful creature that is the home of our heart and mind.
If you seek greater health for your body and mind, listening to your body is a powerful gateway to vitality and wellness. Because the body is always present, it is constantly sending us messages and cues to support our well-being at every moment. Where our minds go on extensive imaginative journeys, plan for the experience of our future, and reflect on the beauty of the past, our bodies are here & now. We can allow our bodies to guide us into a higher state of consciousness, health, and authentic self-expression.
Connect With Your Body
Many practices can awaken a deeper and more present connection with our bodies. My favorite practices are the simple ones.
First, it is helpful to be aware of how we may not hear what our bodies are telling us. When we feel stressed, overwhelmed or afraid, our energy may disperse or become concentrated in a highly specific part of our brain. We can experience disassociation, which is the detachment from our body, emotions or surroundings. It’s the process of tapping out of reality. It is a natural survival technique, like the adrenaline response of fight or flight. Here you’ll find a list of simple and powerful practices to reconnect us to our bodies and the messages of wisdom they are always whispering.
The source, like all things, is rather simple. To connect with your body is to tune in to your senses. And I think the ultimate bridge between mind, body and spirit is to connect to our breath. This means becoming aware of our breathing and listening to the sounds, the sensations, the places where our breath moves fluidly, and where there are stuck sensations, pressure or tension. And just observe.
With gentle curiosity, begin to listen inwards. Simply notice. Accompany your body, like you would watch a baby sleeping, its sounds and sweet chunky little twitches. Notice your body and how it is sitting there and the connection to the ground. The way it is crossed up if there are any twists, and allow yourself to become more comfortable.
- Give yourself permission. Permission to get a glass of water, lay down for a moment, get up and dance, cry, sing or go outside and feel the sun on your gorgeous body. Whatever you need, let yourself unfold and unravel into that experience and see where it brings you.
- Grab your coconut oil, coziest socks, and tea with a tiny spoonful of honey. Whatever you need. Then sit with it, with presence, slow down and enjoy the experience your body is asking for. Be as present as possible with that experience. And when you realize you are distracted, be kind to yourself and simply return to what you are doing with your full attention.
Oh, look, a squirrel. And now come back to what you are doing. It can be a hundred times a minute you find your mind wandering. That’s a hundred percent ok. The important part is that you are kind to yourself when you realize you’re distracted. That kindness energy is the same energy that will lovingly listen with the most care to your body’s needs. So keep welcoming and nurturing that part of yourself. With deeply compassionate discipline, return to taking care of yourself like the wise and wild queen you are.
Practices for Listening to Your Body
Become Mindful of Your Internal Dialogue
The way we speak to ourselves has an enormous impact on our receptiveness to our body’s messages. If you are reading this, you are actively seeking ways to better care of your physical, energetic and spiritual well-being.
Well done, lovely. I wish you the courage for this first big step of lifelong transformation.
Get honest with your inner dialogue. Hold yourself accountable for how you speak to yourself. When you drop or break something, do you scold yourself inside? Do you patronize yourself when you have to pee three times in a row? When you fart in yoga class, do you shame yourself? If the answer is yes, you are human and even better, you are self-aware and self-honest about it.
Continue your self-love journey by speaking to your body with love and respect. May your internal dialogue be as you would speak to a dear friend. Touch your belly like you would a soft kitten. Hold your face like a mother to her young child. Speak to yourself in the mirror with kindness and compassion. Tears may fall. It takes courage. Take these baby steps, keep walking, and you will grow forever in this direction. There’s no turning back once we know. It’s a beautiful journey, and it begins from the inside out.
One guided practice for this:
Look in the mirror or put both hands on your body, one on your heart, the other wherever else feels good to have the warmth and affection of your touch and say out loud to yourself, speaking your name,
Dear _____
I am here for you. I will always be here for you. I want to know what you need so I can take good care of you.
Please guide me to be aware of what you need, and I am listening.
Thank you for all that you have carried me through. For your strength. For your healing. For this blessing, that is my life.
I respect you. I will do my best to speak to you with love and listen to you with care.
Thank you. I love you. Please forgive me. I forgive you.
Thank you. I love you. Please forgive me. I forgive you.
Make Time for Yourself
Oh yes. Make the time to take the time for yourself. Have these sweet, savory moments of checking in and taking care. If it’s exercise, meditation, a nourishing meal, journaling or reaching out to a friend, create space in your day to give yourself exactly what you need.
Get to know yourself in mini self-date retreats that include laughter, tears, movement and music. Welcome your body entirely in these moments to share with you. The intention of receiving your body is so powerful. Letting your whole being know that you are listening intently and that you are here for her is the most significant gift anyone can give to you, and it can only be you to give to yourself because it is your own body, your own experience. Make the time to take the time.
Get out your planner, create space and time for self-care, for listening to your body and taking action for what it’s asking, and honor these sacred moments with yourself. They will change your life.
Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is eating to experience your food journey fully. It is a life-changing practice that is immensely important for one’s long-term mental and physical health and is generally pleasurable. It is listening to our bodies as we nourish ourselves and our cells.
Hunger is a frequent message our body sends us, and eating mindfully is the loving response to this message. Every time we are truly hungry is an opportunity to tune in to our bodies, listen to our needs, and respond with care and presence. As we grow our intuition and sharpen our sensitivity to our needs, we can hear clearer and clearer directions of what to put into our bodies. This goes along with an active release of social or outside dietary messages that can often be shaming or self-destructive. Nutrition knowledge is wonderful if it’s framed in building awareness and balance.
However, it is only a tiny part of your food journey.
Mindful eating involves listening to what our bodies need, and then as we are eating, this is the fun part: The intention is to fully enjoy each bite. Every flavor is bursting in our mouths. The juicy experience as we salivate over the deliciousness, the absolute pleasure in satiating our hunger, the indulgence of self-love as we nourish ourselves in one of the most primitive and sensual ways possible. Every bite nourishes us and gives energy, nutrients and building blocks to our being. To eat mindfully is an offering to our body temples.
Just as we leave offerings to honor a sacred place, we eat with care and presence and take in the food offering to our bodies. This food becomes us. Taking it in with care is a building block of mindfulness for our future selves. It is re-patterning our brain and senses to hear more and more clearly the messages of our body. And the expansion of the joy of being alive. Truly the cherry on top of becoming more present.
Become Aware of How Your Body Responds to Stress
This is so big. This practice alone will affect your mind-body connection and the tension you hold throughout. If you can bring even a hint of curiosity with you in these moments of stress and feeling overwhelmed, you can reprogram your whole stress-response circuitry. For example, when I’m feeling stressed, I begin to tense my shoulders and jaw, and my thoughts start speeding up and becoming more negative.
If I notice that I’m starting to feel stressed, and I bring my awareness to my jaw and soften my tongue, my mouth, and my eyes, I notice that my breathing deepens. There’s a bit more space between my thoughts. I naturally slow down. Think more clearly. A star of compassion brightens in my cloudy sky. By becoming aware of how my body responds to stress, I create more space in the experience to slow down and respond rather than react. This allows me to be more kind to my loved ones and kind to myself in these moments.
If you commit to trying this, just keep trying, and remember to remember. If you don’t achieve this level of mastery in any given moment, be gentle with being gentle with yourself. There is no perfection. Doing your best is simply the best. Keep up the good work, you perfectly imperfect queen.
Mindful Body Scan
When you combine intention with attention, you bring a laser beam of awareness and personal power into whatever you do. Going through your body with your awareness from head to toe, lingering in the spaces throughout your body, is an enormously powerful practice to tune in to the messages of your body. It’s a fantastic practice when you first wake up or before bed.
Take Away
I invite you to take these practices like a whole basket of beautiful freshly picked herbs and sift through them, leave some out in the sun for a month, brew a tea, leave some for the soil to dry out and germinate next rainy season, incorporate them however is right for you in this present moment. The essence of each is to cultivate a deeper connection to yourself. For yourself. However resonates best with you. Mix and match, create your own, this is a build-your-own bear of care for your precious furry self. May you feel increasingly grounded in the ways that make you feel most connected to yourself and inspired to continue the journey of wellbeing in all ways always.
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