When was the last time you stopped and noticed how your body actually feels?
Not how it looks, whether it is behaving as you think it should, or what you would like to change about it, but what it feels like to be in your body right now. Perhaps there are areas of tension or tightness, your breathing is shallow or you’re more tired than you realised. Maybe you’re hungry, restless or holding your jaw tightly without even noticing.
Our bodies are communicating with us all the time. Yet many of us have become remarkably good at not listening. We push through tiredness, eat while we’re distracted, ignore tension and discomfort, and override the need to move, rest or slow down because there is always something else that needs doing.
Learning to notice these signals doesn’t mean becoming preoccupied with every sensation. It means developing a more attentive relationship with the body we live in, and this means becoming better able to recognise what we need.
Your Body Has Its Own Language
Our brains are continually receiving information from inside our bodies. Signals from the heart, lungs, digestive system, muscles and other internal systems help the brain build a picture of what is happening within us. Our ability to notice and interpret these internal signals is sometimes referred to as interoception.
We experience this in very ordinary ways. A dry mouth may tell us we’re thirsty. A growling stomach may signal hunger. A pounding heart might tell us we’ve exerted ourselves, or that we’re nervous about walking into an important meeting.
Other signals may be more subtle. We might notice heaviness when we’re tired, tension when we’re under pressure or a restless feeling when we’ve spent too long sitting still.
Your body is continually providing you with information. The challenge is learning how to notice it and understand what it might mean.
Why We Become So Good at Ignoring It
Modern life doesn’t always encourage us to pay attention to our bodies. In fact, we are often rewarded for doing the opposite.
We learn to keep going when we’re tired, work through lunch when we’re busy and sit at a desk long after our bodies are asking to move. We may notice tension building in our shoulders or jaw, but tell ourselves that we’ll deal with it later. Even leisure time can keep our attention directed outward as we move from television to phones, messages and social media.
Of course, we can’t respond immediately to every bodily need. Sometimes we genuinely do need to keep going. The difficulty comes when overriding our bodies becomes our normal way of functioning.
Eventually, we may become so accustomed to pushing through, that we only notice what our bodies need when the signals become difficult to ignore – when our body is shouting at us. Part of the problem may be that our attention is so rarely directed towards the body in the first place.
Living from the Neck Up
Many of us spend much of our lives living, metaphorically at least, “from the neck up”. Our attention is absorbed by thinking, planning, remembering, worrying, solving problems and anticipating what needs to happen next.
Meanwhile, the body becomes something we notice primarily when it causes trouble, which can create an interesting disconnect. We may know a great deal about what we should be doing for our health while remaining surprisingly unaware of how we actually feel. We can track our steps, calories, sleep and heart rate, yet fail to notice that we’re exhausted, tense or desperately in need of some quiet.
So even though technology can provide useful information about our health, data and body awareness aren’t quite the same thing. Sometimes one of the most useful sources of information is much closer to home: our own lived experience.
Noticing is Different from Judging
For many people, paying attention to the body immediately brings judgement with it.
We notice that we’re tired and think, I shouldn’t be this tired. We notice tension and tell ourselves to relax. We feel uncomfortable in our clothes and criticise our bodies for changing. Even signals such as hunger can become tangled up with rules about what, when or how much we think we should eat.
Body awareness asks something slightly different of us. Rather than immediately deciding whether a sensation is good or bad, we can begin simply by becoming curious about it. Instead of rushing to explain, dismiss or change what we’re feeling, we can pause for a moment and ask ourselves a few simple questions:
- What am I noticing?
- When did this begin?
- What has been happening recently?
- What might I need?
That small shift from judgement to curiosity can change the conversation. Instead of treating your body as a problem that needs correcting, you can begin listening to the information it is offering you.
A Signal isn’t Always an Instruction
Listening to our bodies doesn’t mean automatically doing whatever a sensation seems to suggest.
If your heart is beating quickly before giving a presentation, it doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t give the presentation. Feeling tired after sitting at a computer all day doesn’t always mean you need to lie down; a walk outside may be more restorative. And feeling uncomfortable when you’re trying something unfamiliar doesn’t necessarily mean that something is wrong.
Bodily signals need context. The sensations we notice are information, but understanding that information requires us to consider what else might be happening physically, emotionally and in the world around us.
This is an important part of developing body awareness: learning to distinguish between noticing a sensation and interpreting what it means. Sometimes our first interpretation isn’t necessarily the most accurate one.
Rather than asking only: What am I feeling? we can begin asking: What might my body be responding to? and What might it need?
This shift creates a little more space for thoughtful choice rather than automatic reaction.
When Emotions Show Up in the Body
Our emotional lives are also embodied. We don’t experience stress, excitement, sadness or anxiety purely as thoughts.
Think about some of the language we naturally use…we might say things like “butterflies in our stomach”, “a lump in our throat”, “a heavy heart”, “being sick with worry” or “feeling tension in the air”. These expressions reflect something we intuitively understand; our emotional experiences often have a physical component.
A difficult conversation may leave our shoulders tense. Anxiety may change our breathing or make our heart beat faster. Emotional strain can leave us feeling physically depleted even when we haven’t done anything particularly strenuous.
This doesn’t mean that you should attribute all your physical symptoms to emotions, but it is important to remember that your mind and body aren’t separate systems operating independently of one another. Understanding how you’re doing sometimes means paying attention to both.
Learning Your Own Body’s Language
There isn’t a single correct way to experience the body. Some people notice physical sensations very readily, while others may need to deliberately turn their attention inward before they recognise what is happening. Think of an old-fashioned radio that needed to be tuned in to the station. In much the same way we begin to pay attention and tune in to our body and what it is trying to tell us.
A simple place to begin is to pause occasionally during the day and notice:
- How is your breathing?
- Where are you holding tension?
- Do you feel energised or depleted?
- Have you been sitting in the same position for hours?
- Are you hungry, thirsty, restless or overwhelmed?
Mindfulness can help you to practise this kind of awareness. The aim isn’t to empty your mind or achieve some perfectly calm state. It is simply to notice what is happening in the present moment, including what is happening in the body, with a little less judgement and a little more curiosity.
And when our attention inevitably wanders, we simply practise coming back. Over time, those small moments of returning can help us become more familiar with our own body’s language. If you’d like to learn more about mindfulness, you may want to read our article: Mindfulness: More Than Just Being Present
Listening Also Means Knowing When to Seek Help
There is an important caution here. Becoming more aware of our bodies should never mean assuming that persistent symptoms are simply the result of stress, tiredness or a busy life.
Unexplained fatigue, persistent pain, changes in appetite or weight, digestive symptoms, breathlessness or other new or concerning physical changes may have many possible causes and deserve appropriate medical assessment.
Listening to your body sometimes means resting, moving, eating, setting a boundary or recognising that you’ve been under more pressure than you realised. At other times, it means making an appointment and asking for professional advice.
The purpose of body awareness isn’t to diagnose ourselves. It is to become better at noticing when something may need our attention.
Take Away: Coming Home to the Body
We spend a great deal of time thinking about our bodies. We monitor them, exercise them, feed them, compare them and sometimes criticise them. Increasingly, technology allows us to measure them in extraordinary detail. But there is another dimension of physical wellbeing that is much harder to quantify: how connected we feel to the body we actually live in.
Perhaps looking after ourselves begins not only with asking What should I be doing?, but occasionally asking What am I noticing? and What might I need right now? The answer won’t always be obvious, and we won’t always be able to respond immediately. The value lies in creating the habit of listening.
Because your body isn’t simply something to look after, or something to look at. It’s where you experience your life. If you’d like to explore ways to feel more connected to your body and support your overall wellbeing, contact the Neuromed team https://www.neuromedclinicireland.ie/about/ to find out how we can support you.
Contact us at our Galway office (091) 379 215, Dublin office (01) 965 3294 or email info@neuromedclinic.com.
Dr. Susan McGarvie
Mindfulness-Based Therapeutic Coach
Dr. Susan McGarvie works with adults to support personal change and growth using mindfulness, positive psychology, and coaching. With over 20 years of experience across healthcare, nonprofits, and academia, her work combines evidence-based practice with compassionate, practical support.
