Your body is performing thousands of tasks every minute, just to keep you alive and kicking. It’s an incredible machine that wants to work for you. Plus, if you listen to your body, it will give you information to help you take care and maintain it for optimal results.
Your body is always sending you messages, whether you’re aware of them or not. These physiological signals are unique for each individual. For example, some people experience a racing heart because they’re nervous, while others feel low on energy for the same reason.
Stress may cause one person’s stomach to churn and another to start sweating excessively. How does your body communicate with you and demand your attention?
Together, the mind and body form a whole. It is artificial to separate the two. You can’t have a single thought, sensation or feeling without your body. Even the most inspired spiritual thoughts, feelings and sensations all have a physical component.
The structure of modern life often prevents us from doing natural things and listening to our bodies. As a result, we work until we burn out because we ignore our bodies’ signals to rest and relax.
We exercise to the point of injury and fatigue or eat according to the clock and not our stomachs, either stuffing or starving ourselves.
Prolonged stress puts your body in a continuous state of readiness for physical activity. When your body has no time to re-establish equilibrium, it becomes overworked, and your immune system weakens, making you more susceptible to illness. Many essential bodily processes are disrupted, and your risk of health problems increases.
Your body is always giving you feedback on how well you are taking care of it. Your job is to listen to it.
The first step to listening to your body is to cut out the background noise of life. This requires a stop. It is difficult to listen to our body’s voice if we are busy and distracted by life and its demands. Taking some time out every day to bring everything to a standstill is essential if we are to develop a deeper relationship with our body.
Any practice that can help you to relax will be beneficial, be it meditation, yoga, breathing, healing sounds practices. Mindfulness techniques can vary, but in general, mindfulness meditation involves a breathing practice and an awareness of body and mind.
The relaxation response from meditation or other relaxing practices helps decrease metabolism, lowers blood pressure, and improves heart rate, breathing, and brain waves.
Tension and tightness seep from muscles as the body receives a quiet message to relax. If you’re having trouble practising mindfulness meditation on your own, consider downloading the DeepH App which offers healing and relaxation meditation, which can help you quickly unwind using the transformative power of specific sounds.
Your biggest responsibility is YOU. To become a friend to yourself is not an easy task. It means considering your own needs and wants as you engage with the world. It’s a fragile balance and a constant negotiation. It’s also learned behaviour because it’s not something we typically learn growing up.
