Have You Ever Wondered What it Means to "Listen to Your Body?"
Let's break it down.
The body speaks to you all day long, are you listening? What does it mean to “listen” to your body? Your mouth might speak words to communicate to other humans, but the body speaks to us in the language of sensation.
Your body tells you:
it's time to eat when you feel hungry
it's time to hydrate when you feel thirsty
your bladder or bowels are full when you feel the urge to urinate or defecate
to stay off your feet when your ankle hurts
to rest or sleep when you feel tired
etc.
Overriding sensation
But how often do you pay attention to these sensations? How often do you eat when you are not hungry but are actually bored or lonely? Do you notice yourself pushing through the pain due to messages like “no pain, no gain?” I hate that one, by the way. Are you grabbing for caffeine instead of resting when you are tired?
These are just 3 examples of ways we try to override what our body tells us, there are so many more. Numbing is another way that we ignore the body’s wisdom. As human pleasure seekers, we don’t like to feel discomfort and we’ll go through many unskillful behaviors to not feel.
The problem with this is if we ignore the signals our body gives us, they only get louder. If your blood sugar drops too low, you get dizzy and hangry. When you get too exhausted your brain gets fuzzy and your reaction times slow. When you push through the pain, you end up injuring yourself more. Your pain levels go higher and higher until you just can’t push through any more. And by then, you may need more significant interventions, like PT or surgery, rather than simply allowing the body to heal itself.
Where it started
This Body Centric view can be challenging, especially if you’ve lived your life dissociated or disconnected from your body. When kids go to school, starting around age 5, intellect becomes the “ruling party” in life. Kids learn to think, discern, and analyze, but they don’t learn to feel or even notice what their body is telling them. They have to “hold it” until the bell rings, or wait until lunch to eat. While this makes teaching 20+ kids easier for the teachers, it also teaches kids that bodily sensations can and should be overridden. They are not as important as learning with their brain.
This may seem innocuous, but ask yourself what has happened since then? As an adult, how many times do you ignore your hunger, put off going to the bathroom, or ignore pain? While I don’t believe in stopping your life for every little sensation, I do think that listening to your bodily cues is important for overall health.
Of course if you’ve had trauma, living in your body can feel unsafe and you might dissociate when having any sort of sensation. It can take years (and a lot of therapy) to be able to feel at home in your body. Noticing that you are having sensations might be where you focus until you are more comfortable and embodied. Be kind and gentle with yourself.
Pain Signals and what they mean
When it comes to pain, especially musculoskeletal pain, it can be difficult to know what to do about it. “Pain” covers a spectrum of sensations, ranging from background noise to DEFCON 1. How do you know what to do when you have pain? You need to understand the sensations that you are feeling.
Achy/sore/stiff/tight
These types of pain, while unpleasant, are typically not something to worry about. You shouldn’t ignore them, but you don’t have to rush to see a healthcare professional either. As you age, your body becomes less efficient at healing itself when you exercise or do new things with your body, so you may find yourself achy or sore after. If you don’t regularly stretch and you only do strengthening movements, your muscles can feel tight. Also if you sit at a desk for a living. When your body is still for long periods of time, you might feel stiff when you move again. These sensations are usually temporary, are better with movement, and are self limited.
Numb/tingling
You don’t want to ignore these sensations, but they may or may not require professional intervention. You might notice your foot fell asleep while sitting, or you wake with your arm numb from sleeping on it. If the feeling returns when you move the body part, it’s probably no big deal. If you chronically wake with arm numbness, you might need to look into a different pillow or mattress which will better support your body while you sleep.
Tingling can be the sensation of a numb limb “waking” back up, or it could be more serious, like a pinched nerve or sciatica. If you experience tingling for long periods of time or if it increases over time in intensity, frequency, or the “square footage” of your body, you definitely want to be seen by a healthcare professional.
Shooting or nerve pain that moves
Shooting pain, or nerve pain that moves, like down your leg, for example, usually needs professional attention. Often this is pain with movement, but not exclusively. Sciatic pain, where something is compressing the sciatic nerve, can have a shooting quality. It might be from a bulging or herniated vertebral disc, from tight back and/or hip muscles. Other shooting pain could be from a small muscle tear, and your body is telling you to stop doing that movement so you don’t injure it more. This pain, radiculopathy, means that it is radiating and not localized to one spot.
Throbbing pain
Depending on where in your body you feel this pain, it will mean different things. A throbbing headache might mean you need sleep, water, or you are having a migraine. It can also mean your neck and upper back muscles are too tight and you need some bodywork. Throbbing muscular pain might require medical intervention, it might not.
If you just did an overly intense workout, your muscles might be throbbing from overexertion and you will most likely be sore tomorrow (and the next day). The biggest take away with throbbing pain is that your body is trying to get you to slow down and maybe stop what you are doing, but it is not yet an emergency. Don’t push through.
Sharp pain
Sharp pain means “STOP what you are doing immediately and attend to me!” This could be that you injured yourself in some way, or that you will injure yourself further if you keep doing what you’re doing.
When you are stretching, sharp pain at a joint means that the muscle itself isn’t stretching (due to a knot or some other dysfunction). Continuing to stretch will end with a muscle or tendon tear. This type of situation calls for foam rolling or rolling on a tennis or lacrosse ball to realign the fibers, then you can safely stretch. The frequency and intensity of the sharp pain will determine the necessary intervention. Sometimes all you need is a foam roller, sometimes you need a surgeon, or something in between. If you can no longer move that body part due to sharp pain, seek help.
To sum up
The body holds a lot of wisdom, but you need to notice the sensations in your body. If you are ruled by your brain and ignore your body, start simply by paying attention. Notice when you are hungry, thirsty, or tired. Notice the different “pain” sensations. Get curious about what your body is trying to communicate to you and notice how it feels to listen. This may not come easy to you at first, it might take practice. Your body is worth listening to.
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