Following last week’s blog, I got a lot of questions on how to go about listening to your own body!? All of us have the so called “gut feeling”, but because of the environment and reality that we live in, we have completely forgotten how to hear, detect or even be aware of our “gut feeling”. So, I want to share with you some easy ways, that will help you be more aware of your instinct and “gut feeling”, and will make it easier to listen to your body:

• meditate – it can be in any form really, but the important part here is to quiet your mind! As a beginning you can start by taking a few minutes each day where you can relax and focus on your breath! Another way is to sit in comfortable position or lay down and do a “body scan” – start at your toes and work your way to the top of your head by checking how the different parts of your body are feeling / doing. There are many different techniques when it comes to meditation, but I personally will focus on these two in the beginning.
• questions – take time each day and ask yourself different questions about certain situation, and pay attention to the first thought / feeling that comes to you. This way, you are made more aware of your instinct and the so called gut feeling. What could be helpful is to write down the questions and the reactions, which over time might be able to detect patterns in your reactions / feelings.
• journaling – this might help you understand better certain situations, and your emotions when it comes to these situations. It might be able to also help you discover a certain pattern in reactions / emotions.
• nature – take time as often as possible to spend time in nature, this tends to relax us and quiet all the chatter in our mind, which in turn allows us to hear what our body is trying to tell us.
• feel – our mind is busy thinking and arguing all the time, which in a way suppresses our feelings, or our ability to hear them. Try to practice as much as possible to feel……with all five senses.
• creativity – whether drawing, singing, playing music, or whatever else try to plan some creative time for yourself. Creativity helps calm the mind, and allows us to feel more.
• notice – every time your body is not feeling well (e.g. bloated after a meal, knee pain, headaches, etc), ask yourself WHY. Try to understand whether it is certain type of food that your tummy doesn’t agree with, or whether you are not drinking enough water and that’s why you get headaches (this is usually what happens to me when I get dehydrated). Try to understand why you are feeling the way you are feeling, what is your body trying to tell you in that moment, and whether there is anything you can do differently. Usually journaling is really helpful here.

Bottom line is whatever you do, try to quiet your mind and pay more attention to the signals and signs that your body is sending you……be more aware of each moment and of each signal. I challenge you to try some of these methods for the next month.

Stay healthy

Anna

Photo by Luciana Meister