How To: Listen to Your Body
Especially as we live increasingly digital lives, metered through screens, it can be easy to neglect or ignore our bodies. Many of us never learned how to really listen. Your body is a well of information and support. It nurtures you, and it needs to be taken care of in return.
Often, our bodies know things before our minds. Our minds tend to hold on to expectations, plans, and assumptions; where our bodies simply react to changing circumstances as they come. By listening to our bodies, we can be present and more easily adapt to change. By nurturing our bodies, we can process trauma and anxiety and help ourselves to move forward.
To learn more about how trauma is stored in the body and how physical movement can help resolve it, read The Body Keeps the Score by Bassel van der Kolk.
Tools for listening
Here are some techniques for getting in touch with your body and learning to listen and nurture it more deeply:
Move mindfully
From light movement like walking or stretching to strenuous exercise — when you move your body, pay attention to it. Learn the difference between good and bad pain.
This is important for multiple reasons. Movement, especially mindful movement, takes you out of your mind and helps you understand and connect with your body. It also nourishes your body and keeps it strong and limber so it can continue to support you. Being mindful during movement can protect you from injury.
Walking meditation is a great tool for simply being present in your body.
A few rounds of repetitive full-body movement, like Surya Namaskar/Sun Salutations, can help you notice which parts of your body are strongest, which parts are stiff, and which are tender.
During any exercise, recognize that taking a break or simply stopping if you’re in pain is always ok.
Scan your body
From your feet to your head, take a few minutes to feel each part of your body separately. Where is there tension? Where is there ease?
Don’t judge your body. Just notice. If you’re used to being disconnected from your body, this can be a powerful tool. You can start with a guided body scan meditation, or you can do this on your own; but really center yourself on each part of your body, and when your mind wanders, bring your attention back to that spot.
Describe your sensations
The next time you feel a strong sensation in your body (or maybe you come across something during your body scan), sit with it and describe it. Words help us understand and notice more deeply.
You’ll notice that most emotions have a bodily sensation that accompanies them. You may start to see that you have tightness in your hips almost every day (if you’re sitting, walking, and riding a bike, you probably do). Or you may notice a specific burning in your stomach when you eat certain foods. Taking the time to describe these sensations will help you understand what your body is trying to tell you.
Touch yourself
Whether it’s running your hands over a sore spot to see what’s wrong, massaging out a point of tension, or self-pleasure; all of these things will help you listen to your body.
Don’t be afraid of your body. Touch isn’t just between people; it’s something you can do for yourself. Give yourself a hug and notice how it feels. Self-massage can be an especially enlightening tool for learning about the muscles in your body and how you hold tension.
Check in
Bring yourself back to bodily awareness several times a day. Notice what actions, foods, and habits make your body feel good.
Once you’ve learned to pay deep attention to your body, you can start integrating that attention into a more constant practice. Of course, paying attention to the messages your body is giving you and what kinds of actions they’re related to is just the first step.
Learn about human anatomy
Learning about how muscles interact with and support each other or how the nervous system triggers our fight/flight response can take you to a new level of understanding.
If specific muscles are always tight on your body, learn their names and what other muscles they connect to.
If you experience anxiety often, learn about the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
Respond to your body’s needs
Eat when you’re hungry.
Drink when you’re thirsty.
Stand up when you’re restless.
Stretch when you’re tight.
Don’t just listen to your body; respond. This might mean learning better posture when your back starts to ache while sitting at your desk all day. It might mean making sure to eat lunch rather than skip it while you’re working. It might mean avoiding foods that make your stomach hurt or eating more vegetables and probiotics to improve digestion. It might mean exiting a situation when your body tells you that you don’t feel safe there.
Listening to your body will open a well of wisdom; use it!
Cover photo by Alexander Krivitskiy on Unsplash
