You’ve probably heard the advice countless times: “Listen to your body.” But why listening to your body is important to your health goes beyond blindly following a piece of advice.
Listening to your body involves an active, mindful engagement with its sensations and messages. It’s about developing an understanding of what your body is communicating, and responding to it in ways that enhance your health and well-being.
In this blog post, we’ll learn exactly why listening to your body is important and explore how to cultivate this essential skill.
It Starts With Body Awareness
A fundamental piece to understanding why listening to your body is important lies in building your body awareness.
This happens through the practice of consciously observing and getting curious about the sensations and signals your body communicates to you. It involves noticing how your body feels in various situations and recognizing the subtle cues it provides to you about your health and well-being. By tuning into these sensations, we can then make informed decisions that support our overall health.
How to Listen to Your Body Throughout the Day
To build body awareness, it’s essential to take moments throughout our day to pause and tune in to our body. This can be done informally, such as checking in with how your body feels while sitting at your desk, having a conversation, or while out for a walk.
Start by tuning in to the various sensations your body experiences throughout the day—muscle tension, warmth, tingling, clenching, softness, fatigue, etc.
Simply observing without judgment is the first step towards building body awareness.
We notice what’s present, make a mental note of it, and then choose whether to take action.
During a stressful moment, for instance, you can bring your attention to your breath. You can notice how it feels as it enters and leaves your nostrils or with the rise and fall of your chest. This can give you information as to how you’re responding to the moment. In turn, you may decide to deepen your breath in order to help calm your mind and bring clarity to your current situation.
Tune Into Your Body Using a Body Scan
Body awareness can also be practiced more formally through mindfulness practices like a body scan.
A body scan involves systematically bringing awareness to each part of your body, one at a time. Listening to your body in this way requires removing distractions, slowing down, and directing your full attention inward.
Regular practice with body scans is one of the best ways to see first-hand why listening to your body is important. Body scans help you to become attuned to your body’s baseline state and enhance your sensitivity to subtle changes within your body that may go unnoticed otherwise.
How to Do a Body Scan
There’s a lot of flexibility when it comes to how to do a body scan. It can be done lying down, seated comfortably, or even standing – whatever works best for you in the moment. You can also change positions throughout the practice if you need to. Your eyes can be closed or open with your gaze lowered.
Start by focusing on your toes, then slowly moving your attention up through your feet, legs, torso, arms, hands, and finally your neck and head. Notice any sensations, areas of tension, or relaxation, and simply observe them without trying to change anything.
With body scans, the goal isn’t to find anything in particular. Instead, it’s to take the time to simply observe what is unfolding in a specific area of our body, with curiosity and openness. There may be parts of our body where we don’t notice anything – and that’s ok too!
Differentiating Between Pain and Discomfort
Not all bodily sensations are the same and being able to differentiate between them can go a long way to helping you respond appropriately to your body’s signals. Let’s look at the difference between pain and discomfort.
Pain is *typically a sharp or intense sensation that may or may not indicate an injury or strain. In instances of pain, it’s wise to pause what you’re doing and assess the situation, but to do so with a curious perspective.
For instance, if you experience a sudden sharp pain in your lower back while lifting weights, pause to evaluate the situation to prevent further pain or injury. You may evaluate your technique, consider the number of reps you’ve done, or adjust the weight of the resistance you’re using. It may very well be that the pain resolves on its own and you’re able to continue lifting. If pain persists, however, seek professional advice from a trusted health professional.
On the other hand, discomfort is usually a duller ache or milder soreness that occurs as a result of challenging your muscles, adjusting to new activities or positions, or sustaining static positions for a prolonged period of time (hello desk work!).
This type of sensation can be a normal part of growth and adaptation, such as the muscle soreness you might feel after a new workout or the mild unease when trying a new yoga pose. Sometimes even a movement you’ve performed many times might result in discomfort. It will depend on the demands you’ve been placing on your body and how it’s responding in the moment.
While discomfort can be uncomfortable, it often signifies that your body is adapting to new demands (or telling you it’s time to change positions) rather than indicating a serious issue.
By learning to recognize and distinguish these sensations, you will hopefully begin to understand why listening to your body is important – it’s crucial for making informed decisions about your health and well-being. This nuanced understanding allows you to address issues promptly and appropriately, ensuring that you take the right actions to support your body’s needs. I share a couple examples in the next section.
*pain is a complex experience, varying from individual to individual, and moment to moment.
So You’ve Listened to Your body. Now What?
So you’ve taken a moment to tune in and gently observe whether there is tension, stiffness, softness, or ease in your body. You’ve also acknowledged these sensations and messages. Now you can respond to them in a way that supports your overall health and emotional balance.
For example, if you notice growing tension in your lower back while working at your desk, taking a moment to stand up, move gently or walk around can help alleviate that discomfort and prevent further strain. This simple act of self-care can improve your focus and productivity, as well as prevent chronic pain from settling in. It may even ease the irritability you feel towards your co-workers at your next meeting!
If you’re out for a walk or run and you notice your knees starting to feel sore, taking a moment to slow down, adjust your stride, or alter your route to may help alleviate that discomfort and prevent injury. In turn, you may take steps to ease the soreness post activity so that you can continue doing the activity that you love. Continuing to participate in the activities we love plays an immense role in our mental and physical well-being.
Why Listening to Your Body is Important for Emotional and Physical Well-Being
Body sensations and emotions are closely linked. When we feel stressed, anxious, or joyful, these emotions manifest in our bodies as physical sensations. For instance, anxiety might present as a tight chest or a knot in the stomach, while joy can feel like lightness or warmth.
Understanding this connection is a key part of strengthening our ability to listen to our body.
By recognizing how our emotions manifest physically, we gain insight into our emotional state and can work towards addressing it thoughtfully rather than reactively.
This awareness allows us to respond to stress, anxiety, or even positive emotions in a way that supports both our emotional and physical health. More on this a bit lower down.
How Pilates and Mindful Movement Support Listening to Your Body
Pilates is a powerful practice for developing body awareness because it emphasizes mindful movement.
Pilates encourages awareness of body alignment, movement control, and muscle engagement. It also promotes the connection between breath and movement.
Throughout a Pilates class, you’ll be encouraged to notice the alignment of your body in different positions and through various movements. You’ll practice coordinating your breath with your movement, enhancing the efficiency and control of your movement. You’ll be guided to observe which areas of your body are working and to identify when you fall out of form or don’t feel certain muscle groups activating. Subtle adjustments are made regularly throughout a Pilates class to improve your form and activate the correct muscles.
Contrary to how it’s often portrayed, Pilates is never about perfection. But it does requires conscious effort and awareness. This detailed attention to movement, form, and breath helps you stay present in your body. Over time, you’ll become more attuned to how your body feels and functions, developing a heightened sense of body awareness.
The Role of a Mindfulness Coach
A Mindfulness Coach can play a crucial role in helping you understand why listening to your body is important, and in guiding you to become a better listener of your body.
Earlier in this blog post, I introduced the close connection between body sensations and emotions. Understanding and truly feeling this connection within ourselves, however, isn’t always easy. This is where a mindfulness coach can provide invaluable support.
I often start my mindfulness coaching sessions with a body scan, helping my client to make a connection with their body right at the beginning of our time together. By offering them the space and guidance to tune into their body sensations, they become more attuned to how their body feels in the moment.
Following the body scan, I might check in and hear that they noticed tension in their jaw. With further questions, my client may link that physical tension to underlying stress or anxiety currently present in their life. Through this mindfulness coaching process, they build awareness of how emotions manifest in their body.
Conversely, a client might bring up a situation that evokes strong emotions. To help them gain clarity, I may guide them to tune in to what they’re feeling in their body and where those sensations arise. This practice helps build their confidence in identifying and embodying the emotional-physical connection.
Perhaps most importantly, a mindfulness coach will empower you to carry this heightened awareness from the online space and into your daily life.
This may involve working out how to incorporate a mindfulness practice that resonated with you into your daily routine, how to check in with your body throughout a busy day, or how to prioritize responding to the signals your body is sending you.
Listening to Your Body Takes Practice and Self-Compassion
Like any skill, listening to your body requires regular practice. Consistently integrating body awareness techniques into your daily routine strengthens this skill over time, leading to long-term health benefits.
Start with small steps, such as dedicating a few minutes each day to mindful breathing or body scanning, and gradually increase the time as you become more comfortable. You may choose to do this at the same time every day to help turn it into a habit.
Be gentle with yourself throughout this journey. Recognize that learning to listen to your body involves patience and self-compassion, especially when dealing with past experiences, fears, or trauma that may affect your relationship with your body.
Acknowledge your efforts and progress, even if they seem small. Celebrate the moments when you successfully tune in and respond to your body’s needs.
Take An Active Role in Your Health
By understanding why listening to your body is important, you can take an active role in your own well-being and become more in control of your physical and emotional health.
You learn to trust your body’s messages, which allows you to make informed decisions about your health, whether that means adjusting your posture, modifying your exercise routine, or recognizing when to rest.
The Benefits are More Than Worth the Effort
Ultimately, this understanding empowers you to care of yourself more effectively, fostering a deeper connection to your own needs, and helping you lead a more balanced, fulfilling life.
But remember, this is a lifelong practice that will evolve with you.
Stay curious, stay compassionate, and keep listening to the wisdom of your body.
And if you need guidance or accountability on this journey, learn more about my Mindfulness Coaching services here.