Your Body Is Talking To You
Our bodies are constantly giving us signals, cues, and information. It’s time we re-learn that the body and mind are connected and fully benefit from building a relationship with our bodies by understanding this empowering communication channel.
Listening to the body when it talks
There’s a well-known saying: “If you don’t listen to your body when it whispers, you’ll have to hear it scream.” Discomfort is your body whispering to you.
In our modern, fast-paced society, we are rarely taught how to listen to our bodies or interpret their signals. The notion that the body and mind are connected is often dismissed, and the idea that the body has its own intelligence is frequently overlooked. In a world where we are constantly busy and distracted, where we look externally for answers, is it any wonder we are becoming more and more unwell?
When our bodies do communicate—a headache, for example, or an aching back—we often block these signals with painkillers or other drugs. In doing so, we effectively tell our bodies to "shut up." We completely ignore the whispers.
When we move in a way that feels uncomfortable or sit awkwardly, what do we do? We adjust to get comfortable, ignoring the whisper again.
But what if those recurring headaches are the result of an allergy that builds up to cause something more serious later in life, simply because you didn’t learn how to listen and remove that allergen? Secondly, if you only sit and move in a way that feels most comfortable, you avoid using and stretching many small but important tissue in your body. Over time, our bodies can become weak or very stiff, and we learn to move and hold our bodies in an unbalanced way that can later cause serious pain and injury.
What would happen if we listened?
What if, instead of ignoring our bodies, we listened? What if we worked with discomfort until it no longer needed to be there?
I’m not the kind of person who tells anyone to "shut up," so realising that I’ve done this to my body made me stop and think. I wouldn’t do that to you, and yet I have done it to myself. I ignored the whispers to the point where I lost the best part of a decade to chronic illness. For years, I could hardly walk. I had to listen to my body to heal, and that’s how I got my life back.
A huge part of rehabilitation is learning how to listen to the body’s whispers. It’s these whispers that tell me where healing is truly needed. I need to know where these whispers are in order to treat you, and that knowledge comes from you! We work together to learn how to listen to these whispers instead of pushing them away.
Sometimes, the whispers are subtle; other times, they feel more like stern words. But it's all communication. Does it make any sense, as adults, to ignore signals from the one thing whose primary job is to keep us alive? I don’t think so. How we came to disregard this communication baffles me. Moreover, apart from keeping you alive, the body’s main job is to maintain your personal, individual homeostasis—that’s why you experience these sensations. Your body is guiding you to return to this safe and comfortable state.
Knowledge is power, and understanding your body’s signals gives you genuine insight—not just physically, but emotionally, spiritually, and ethically. It’s that "gut feeling" that helps you determine what truly serves you. This doesn’t come from your mind; your mind interprets the feelings you have in your body into spoken language.
Students learning how to listen to their bodies on a Pomme retreat in Kerala, India.
How does the body speak to us?
Discomfort: Usually an ache—something you can endure for a while, but you might choose to adjust your position to ease the feeling.
Pain: A sharper feeling that will force you to jump out of a position before you’re fully aware of the pain (think of touching something hot or twisting your ankle).
Sensations: These could be "butterflies in my stomach" or "a frog in my throat."
When we experience discomfort and sensation, the mind recognises it before the body does, giving us the choice to move. These sensations are felt in the body but linked to our emotional landscape. That’s why we should sit with them, listen, and learn about our emotions—our likes and dislikes—and how we need emotional support.
The Science
Did you know we have twice as many messages travelling from the body to the brain than we do from the brain to the body?
In tribal times, while out hunting, we would have sensed if we were being stalked by a lion before we could hear, see, or smell it. This happens through the vagus nerve, a crucial part of our nervous system. The vagus nerve runs from the brainstem down through the heart, lungs, stomach, reproductive organs, and other internal organs, which is why we use the term "gut feeling."
The 'knowing' that we were being stalked by a lion (or today’s equivalent) is felt in our organs (viscera). These signals are sent to the brain via the vagus nerve, where the brain interprets them to determine our next move—always aiming to keep us alive. This inner communication system evolved to protect us.
Anxiety often stems from a dysregulated nervous system, where the messages travelling between the viscera and the brain become confused. Anxiety is essentially the loss of clear communication—an inability to understand what is needed to keep us safe.
More information on how discomfort is your body talking to you and guiding you to comfort
So, how do we learn to listen?
We pay attention.
By simply paying attention to how our bodies feel and how we feel emotion in our bodies, we practice listening to and understanding our bodies.
It’s that simple.
You can do it with the help of someone like me, and/ or simply by choosing to become interested in the sensations in your body. You might not understand them at first, but remember that your brain it built to interpret these sensations and we have been doing this as a species for a very long time! Try not to over think, let your subconscious do the work in the background.
Living connected to your body
The more we strengthen this pathway and become familiar with these sensations, the calmer we become, the less likely we are to injure ourselves or get ill, and the more confident we are in making choices and life decisions that feel right for us.
Once we understand that our body sends messages we can learn from, we start to realise that we have an inner power. This boosts confidence—we’re less likely to turn to external advice because we trust ourselves. We know we can answer our own questions, support ourselves, and grow stronger. We become more in control and less reliant on others.
By calmly accepting and listening to these messages, we learn not to run from discomfort but to welcome its lessons. Life becomes more peaceful, and our bodies become a true home.
Often, when we listen, discomfort passes as quickly as it arrives, showing us there is nothing to fear. Sometimes, the body just says, "Slow down, or you’ll hurt yourself."
The most common message? "Stop. Listen. You’re doing something that doesn’t serve you."
I’ll leave you with two questions:
What do you really, really want?
What would you feel in your body when you have what you want?