Listen to your body

The reason you should listen carefully to your body is so that you can experience more ease and comfort in your life

You may be hearing a lot about body awareness but may not actually know what it is or why it is crucial to living a balanced life. Let me enlighten you.

Why knowing what body awareness is critical to being more balanced?

If we are truly going to reach a state of complete wellness, we have to listen to our bodies. What does that mean?

It means learning to “hear” and pay attention to the feelings and sensations moving in our bodies 24 / 7 and to be in tune with pain and discomfort before they reach crisis level.

The moment we recognize our internal discomfort, we have a choice – to avoid it or to allow ourselves to experience it.

When we avoid discomfort, we use whatever tools we have in our mental / emotional “toolbox” to keep the feelings at bay. On the other hand, when we allow ourselves to experience the discomfort, we can process our discomfort and then let it go. This practice of acknowledging the discomfort and then letting it go sets us free.

Having some experience with knowing what body awareness means, we can build on that awareness and recognize how we feel and act.

You have a choice:

Either you plow through your day unaware of how your feelings affect you… 

…or you pay attention to your internal well-being and recognize when your body needs your attention.

What is the benefit of paying attention to your body?

Your behavior is negatively affected by the feelings and sensations you avoid. But you can be in control by choosing what you will act on. Actively paying attention to what you feel helps you to be in synergy with your internal landscape, aware and awake and body-mind connected. Instead of being reactive, you then have a choice in how you want to behave.

When you catch yourself being angry, moody, or depressed, it’s essential to remember to stop and feel into your body and notice what “runs you”.

Four steps you can take to help you feel stabilized

In my body-mind healing practice, I use an exercise that I also recommend to my clients. In my workbook, I describe it as a “Balance-Behavior Check-In” and call it “Stop! Drop! Check! Choose!” Here’s how it works:

STEP ONE: Stop!
Look around. Notice what you’re paying attention to.

Ask your Self: Do I feel safe? 

When the answer is “yes”, do STEP TWO.

STEP TWO: Drop!
Exhale. Let go of your breath, and, like the sand in the hourglass, simply let your attention sink into your body.

STEP THREE: Check!
Ask your Self: What am I feeling in my body right now, and where? What do you notice? Tension? Pressure? Discomfort? Emotions? A specific mood? Stay in this step for a few minutes. Do nothing! Allowing it to be will set you up for STEP FOUR.

STEP FOUR: Choose!
You now see that you actually have a choice in how you will proceed. How do you want to behave? How can you get there? What can you do to feel better now? Allow the feelings to emerge. Give your Self a few minutes and then you can Choose…how to respond.

This practice is helpful for three reasons:

1.   It helps you become present in the moment. 
2.   It teaches you, over time, that when you give space to your emotions and don’t resist them, they often shift and resolve on their own. 
3.   It demonstrates that the more you can allow your emotions, feelings, and sensations simply to be, the more empowered you become.

Watch what an empowered day you can have when you live fully aware of your body-mind.