How to Listen to Your Body. Practical tips for making the right wellness decisions for your body.
If you’re familiar with the online healthy living space, you may be noticing a shift that is happening. A decreased focus on “clean eating,” and broader discussions on balance, living life beyond our phones, and whether or not healthy living influencers are doing more harm than good.
While things are moving in a more positive direction, I have struggled to find ways to truly help those who need to take a more relaxed, intuitive approach to wellness. The most common phrase used by myself and many others in this space is “listen to your body.” I find myself constantly telling readers, my personal training clients, and pretty much anyone who asks for wellness advice to listen to their body because there is no one-size-fits-all approach to wellness.
Although this is solid advice, I was recently asked a glaringly obvious question that needs to be addressed – “What does ‘listening to my body’ mean? And how do I do it?”
Oof. That, my friends, is not as simple.
For the context of this post, when I say “listen to your body,” I’m referring to knowing when to listen to your body to take a step back from having an obsessive relationship with wellness. I’m referring to understanding what your body needs in order to truly feel good, not just to look a certain way or to fit someone else’s definition of “healthy.”
Here are three practical tips to help you listen to your body.
Trust Your Body
This one is the hardest, because we are hardwired to believe that we can’t be trusted when it comes to knowing what’s best for our bodies. However, I’ve found the opposite to be true. When it comes to your own health, you have to be your own biggest advocate to know what’s best for you. Your body is incredibly smart and powerful, and just because you haven’t been listening to signals your body hasn’t been giving you, doesn’t mean those signals aren’t there. Having a strong mind-body connection is key. Trust that your body knows what it needs, because it really, truly does.
Understand Your Body’s Signals
When was the last time you finished a meal and felt completely satisfied? Like you ate enough food, not too much, and like the ingredients you consumed gave you the energy you needed to fuel your day?
How about fitness?
When was the last time you woke up the day after a tough workout feeling sore, stiff, and completely exhausted? What did you do? Did you clock in another HIIT session because you were “supposed to? Did you do nothing? Did you stretch your achy muscles to prepare them for next time?
I know I just threw a lot of questions at you, but these are important points to consider. Are you asking yourself questions like this? And more importantly, are you listening to what your body is trying to tell you?
After your next meal or workout, check in with your body to see how you feel. Writing it down helps too. Don’t just look for negative side effects, look for good ones too. Whether you feel satisfied, stuffed, still hungry, energized, achy, sore or ready for your next workout, take note of how you feel and what you did to feel that way. Understanding these factors can help you build a wellness plan that works for you, based off of what your body responds well to.
Stop Treating Online Content as Absolute Fact
Not everything we see on the internet is absolute fact – especially when it comes to wellness. Online influencers shape how many of us receive wellness information. The problem is, many influencers are sharing their own personal experiences and perspectives when it comes to wellness – they aren’t prescribing or advising their readers on what to do.
When we take another person’s “What I Ate Wednesday” as “this is what and how much I should eat,” we experience a mind/body disconnection that puts us out of touch with our bodies’ own natural hunger cues and satiation levels. When we mimic every “fitspo” Instagram account’s workout routine because we want to look like the people we see online, we can lose our ability to understand when our bodies need rest, and when our bodies can be challenged a bit more. Unless you are working with a licensed professional who has assessed your needs, has full context of your situation and is working with you directly, take any and all wellness content you read online as subjective information – not absolute fact.
If you want to be able to effectively listen to your body but find social media sometimes gets in the way, repeat one of these phrases the next time you scroll through the ‘gram:
I will not make wellness decisions based off of others’ content.
I will not take wellness recommendations from someone online based off of how they look.
Good for her, not for me.
Ok fine, I borrowed that last phrase from Amy Poehler. But you have to admit, it does apply to just about everything.
Your Turn:
What do you do to check in with your body? Share any tips you have in the comments below!
Love this post Les! Could not be more true. Learning how to listen to your body (and trust it) is definitely a big step in the right direction towards overall wellness.
AMEN SISTER. It’s so hard, but so important.
I love this post! I recently read Intuitive Eating and have been actively focusing on being mindful about what my body needs! It feels so good not to be a slave to healthy food and actually listen to my body! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Thank you so much Rebecca! I read Intuitive Eating a few years back and felt the same way. It’s such an amazing and refreshing feeling.
Thank you for writing this! I think it’s so important and something I’ve been trying to do better at!
You are so welcome! This is something we are definitely all still a work in progress with, but I’m happy to help in any way I can.
YES. YES. Yes! I love that the online conversation is changing a lot, and it’s been absolutely delightful seeing influencers like you, Les, encourage people to listen to their bodies and to take care of themselves above getting a tough workout in.
Ahhh Emily, thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful comment (as always!). I am so glad this resonates with you.
Try as I do to listen to my body, sometimes I use that as an excuse to get lazy (like when my alarm goes off at 5:30am and I decide to sleep in instead of hitting the gym). It’s a tough skill to learn, but so important when making sure we aren’t overworking our bodies.
I’m right there with you. It’s a tricky balance, but is so important to learn.
I’m so happy to see this change in the blogging community. It’s been a gradual process and there is more to improve upon, but I’m hopeful. For once, I feel hopeful. It’s a good feeling. I love these *practical* tips. It’s not some overwhelming all-encompassing attempt to be better. It’s simple tips- especially about understanding body signals. I still have a ways to go with this one, but just being more mindful of the responses I get from my body is so so important.
I’m happy to see it too. It’s been a long time coming, but the online wellness space is definitely making a shift for the better. So glad you like the tips!
This post is so spot-on. One practice I’ve incorporated into listening to my body is actually taking note of my mood. Often times, what I eat tends to have an effect on my mood – which was super weird to think about at first! When I eat foods that make me feel less energized, I tend to consequentially feel a little more down in the dumps. I’ve learned that when deciding what I want to put into my body, to pay attention to how I feel mentally and let that guide me – as long as it’s not based on being “guilty” about eating something.
Totally agree and love your approach. Ain’t nobody got time for guilt!
I can’t get enough of this post – it’s SO true. THANK YOU.
xx krissy
http://www.champagneinchurch.com
Thank you so much Krissy! So glad you agree <3
This is a great and truly needed read. Between my real life and the life I’ve “built” on the internet in search of self-motivation, I do find that I get wrapped up (read: warped) in what people are saying and doing a little too much. Thank you for one of the MOST self-less posts I’ve read in awhile.
Thank YOU so much for the amazing comment. It is always my goal to make my content about my amazing readers, not me. I am so glad you get it, and appreciate the post <3