One of the phrases I’ve been seeing more and more of is “listen to your body and what it needs.” I think this is great because we are learning that every person has unique, individual needs and it is important that you learn to connect to that. So when you are doing movement or eating, you are actually present for what you need.
I think this can be incredibly difficult to do if this is not something you’ve really done before. Further, we’ve been kind of conditioned to stop listening to our body. So, it makes it more difficult to journey into really listening to what your body needs.
My Experience On Being Conditioned To Stop Listening To My Body
To give you a first-hand example of how I was conditioned to stop listening to my body, let me take you back to when I was in first or second grade and I went to use the bathroom. Thirty minutes later, I needed to use it again. My teacher would not allow me to go as she said I had gone to many times and I did not need to actually use the bathroom.
What this experience taught me was when I am thirsty, I should not drink water because my teacher may not let me go to the bathroom and I could end up sitting there in a lot of pain and needing to use the bathroom. So, for me, being conditioned to stop listening to my body started really young and even went over into healthcare as a physical therapist. There were times when I worked at clinics where I saw 16 patients a day and there was no space in my schedule to allow myself to drink water, nourish myself, and take care of myself during the day. I find this ironic because I am there teaching people how to take care of their own bodies while I am in a situation where I cannot really do it for myself.
That might be the same for you, too, when you have been taught things around movement, drinking, eating, and basically anything that you should not pay attention to because it will inconvenience someone else. Now that you are maybe getting to a point where you want to listen to your needs, it might be difficult to actually do that. This is especially true when we get really busy as it can be difficult to figure out how you can listen to yourself and how to know what you need in certain moments.
Movement And Listening To What Your Body Needs
For movement, there could be days when you wake up in the morning feeling really tired and you may ask yourself should you be moving on that day. I cannot answer that question for you because it might be something you need to look into for yourself. However, the general answer that I can give is when I am really tired and feel like I do not want to move, I will get up and move. The only exception is when I have pain, injury, or less than six hours of sleep.
Note though that my movement looks different during these times. For example, for weightlifting, whenever I am tired, I will not be lifting as heavy. When I am feeling tired, and I will do the normal movement that I do, there’s a higher chance to get injured. So, I will still move, but with lighter weights or no weights at all. As long as I move, I find that I feel more energized.
Another example was when I was having a yoga class a couple of years ago. I was really tired and I did not sleep well the night before. I was at my studio and I was feeling very stressed about the business and I had a difficult time moving as I literally felt I was moving through molasses. What I did was I positioned myself in the child’s pose and took a nap for 20 minutes. After that, I was able to get up and finish the practice although in a modified way. That time, I knew I was listening to what I needed and did exactly what I needed to do.
It’s not an easy practice for me because I’ve been trained over the years to not listen to myself. But, it’s learning and unlearning of how to be there for myself rather than worrying about inconveniencing others.
Three Ways On How To Listen To Your Body
Meditating
When you meditate and you sit in stillness, you actually get confronted with the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that you may be having and you get time to process these things. When you can sit in stillness, you can start to hear the signals from your body. Once you hear these signals, you can know what you need to do.
Sometimes, if you do not know what you need to do, you can always reach out for help and have someone help you figure out what is next for you whether it be movement, eating, and the like. Meditating can also be helpful for this. If you are new to meditating, I always suggest that you can just go ahead and close your eyes and take five deep breaths and that is it. Slowly build from there and maybe have a guided meditation. Honestly, ten minutes a day is more than enough to sit there and meditate so you can process how you feel in your body.
Yoga
Another way to listen to your body is the physical practice of yoga. It allows you to connect your breath and your movement. I tried a lot of workouts because as a physical therapist, it is important to go and try these different workouts so I can understand what my clients are doing. I can honestly say, however, that no type of movement has really helped me learn to listen to what I need than yoga has. It is a process of connecting to your breath and when you fully connect to your breath, you can be present. Once you are present, you can show up for what you need.
A lot of times the reasons why it is difficult to tell what you need is because you are not actually present. You are thinking about all the things other people told you that you should or need to do so it is difficult to tell for yourself what you need. With yoga, your breath helps you do that.
If you are newer to the practice of yoga or meditating, stay tuned because I have a challenge coming soon where we have four days of a 20-minute yoga practice and one day of a 10-minute yoga practice. This might be a good way for you to start and really get into the practice of listening to your needs.
Walking
By walking I mean intentional walking. It is when you just walk around your neighborhood without listening to music, to a podcast, or not being on your phone. While walking, you need to see what is around you. The reason is because walking can also be a form of meditation as you are intentionally moving and seeing what is around you.
Walking can be helpful because it can start to help you tune in to what your body needs.
Conclusion
These practices will help you tap into how you are feeling and you will begin to translate that into your daily life. I hope these three things will help you feel more connected to yourself.