KNOWING YOUR OWN BODY

Standing in a dance class, at the beginning of warm up, a teacher said: 'Ask your body what it needs today. Listen to your body, your body knows what it wants.' That was the first time I heard that sentence and I was to hear it repeatedly every day for many years afterwards. The concept wasn’t difficult for me to adjust to. I felt that I could instantly tune into my body. But what I soon realised was, I had only just begun to scratch the surface. I learnt that my head had one idea of what I could do and wanted, and my body had another. As I began to work with clients and used that statement, I found that same situation resurfacing- clients asking how to listen and often listening to the ideals in their headfirst. So, how do we really learn to listen to our bodies? Here are some basic tips to get you started.

1.       One great way is to start with a Body Scan. Start sitting in a comfortable quiet place, eyes closed. No need to have any music on and start paying attention to the feelings in your body physically. Just for a few minutes. Start by noticing any sensations in your body, and draw your attention to those and ask your body the question, Why does it feel that way? Continue to do this for any part of your body, whether it feels pain, tingles, feels different from the rest of your body or feels great. Once you notice these sensations you can begin to move into whether you want these to change or whether you want the rest of your body to meet these sensations. If it helps, in the beginning you can try to tell your brain to focus on different parts or imagine them, but over time, try to slow down by not talking inside your head at all.

2.       The above practice is a great way to start your journey into listening to your body because as you continue to practice this, you will be able to bring it into your exercise practice, whether that is Pilates, Yoga, Running, Dancing, Gym work outs. Once you start to bring this into your practice, you can ask your body new questions during your exercise- Is this a feeling that you should be pushing through to learn to be at peace with or, is this feeling something that your body doesn’t want? A great tell-tale sign is if you feel awful after pushing through or if after taking a break, your body- not your brain- feels like it could have benefited from holding out.

3.       Another much talked about amongst advertisers and weight-loss companies is the

craving. Start to pay attention to your food cravings, even your non-food purchase cravings. How did you feel after such consumer indulgence? Was it a high that quickly diverged into depressing feelings again or was it a calm satisfaction that paid off over time practically? Once you’ve addressed how it impacted your emotions and the practical side of these purchases, you can start to tune into how your body physically feels during this. You don’t have to wait till you purchase a massive dine out meal, you can check in with your morning coffee/tea, that extra snack you keep trying to not take or (in my case), those extra Pilates mats you bought for your use only.

4.       Finally, another great way to learn to listen to your body is really remembering how you feel. Not all of us have time to keep a diary. I started one in January for my health and got lost around June. But if you get a chance to quickly record your emotional and physical feelings during any of the above times, you can always look back even six months on for patterns that emerge. From there, mentally reminding yourself how you feel can help you when you exercise again and with good habits and memories, you can remind yourself how you felt before when you are uncertain and can make the decision whether to continue, not continue or perhaps, start a new pattern.

I hope this has been of use for you to begin your journey of listening to your body! If you'd like, these wakeup videos here are more exploratory and gentle Pilates videos which may can help you in your journey.

PS BONUS: If you are ever in the middle of a busy day and don’t have time to tune in but really need to, a great idea is to stop what you are doing (stand up if you’ve been sitting), stand still and take a deep breath in and out three times. In those moments let your mind relax and then open your eyes and carry on.