Listen To Your Body

Have you ever been in yoga class and a pose you normally do easily feels very uncomfortable?  You might decide to come out of the pose, modify it, or push through as you have done the pose many times before without incident.  From my own experience, the chance of being in significantly more pain and potentially injured increases exponentially every time you ignore what your body is telling you.  It is important to listen when your body’s whispers.  If you don’t, you may be forced to endure its screams.

Yoga is just one example where listening to your body matters.  Our body talks to us all the time just not in words, but in sensations.  It is constantly sharing things like it is hot, hungry, tired, or in pain.  However, despite the incredibly close relationship we have with our body, we often choose to ignore its messages.  Instead we try to master our body by disregarding or devaluing bodily sensations.  I think this is a mistake.  The body is pliable, but only to a point.  When you cross the line, it demands to be heard.  It retains the ultimate power to break down or shut down.

Our body is the temple inside which we live.  Shouldn’t we revere it instead or trying to control it?  Why not make peace with our body and become friends?  What if we listened to our body intently and treated it kindly?  What if we responded to its whispers?  If we became more in tune with our body, might we know immediately when something isn’t right?  Perhaps seek medical attention sooner?  Catch illness in its early stages?  Decrease the risk of injury?  Would we eat healthier because we sense how our body responds positively?  Nourish our body with meditation and more sleep?  Practice yoga or exercise with regularity?   Only when we become partners, can we live in harmony with our body.  Perhaps one day integrating mind and body, or mind, body, and spirit.  Listening to your body is the first step.