Something I’ve noticed about myself over time has been that my body knows what’s best for me, even better than my mind does. Our mind can be something that can be quite hard, if not impossible to pin down, but our body is always right there telling us things about ourselves and the world around us. Yet for some reason most of us tend to ignore what it tells us.

In many cases what it tells us is so concrete, ranging from a gut feeling to a twitching sensation, from a nervous reaction to a fluttering in our chests. A lot of times, our body can tell us things before we know it mentally. Sometimes we even get sick, and believe it or not it may even be for good reason. Maybe we just need to slow things down in life, and yet we don’t… but our body just shuts down sometimes and gives us no choice but to slow down and rest.

Another way our body tells us what’s best is when we get hurt. Recently, I’ve been recovering from a severely strained ligament in my right hip/leg. Being that I am so active, it’s been really difficult for me not to engage in some type of exercise or physical activity. I really haven’t had much choice but to limit myself though, because the pain has been so constant and rather intense. As I slowly recover, I can feel my mobility coming back but really it’s up to my body to tell me when I can resume the type of dynamic movements I am accustomed to doing. Again, my body knows best!

Smarter Training

If we listen to our bodies as well when we train, we can also prevent injuries from occuring, or lessen their impact. This seems obvious, but as many athletes will tell you, they always seem to push themselves harder than they should. Our bodies will cramp up telling us we need more fluid intake for example, or the pain is not the good pain from a muscle ripping workout, but something deep in the tendons or connective tissues that tells us to let off and go easier.

I’ve ignored my body many times in the past and to my peril. From overstretching certain joints thinking I needed to push, push, push to ‘get there’ and thus causing damage… to pushing myself too hard, too fast in a run without going gradual first to allow my body to adjust and adapt because I haven’t done that particular type of run in a long time. We can be our own worst enemies, although our intentions are usually good.

Sometimes we get so used to certain workout routines that we do daily and we will do them no matter what! I’ve noticed that sometimes when I take a break for a few days (longer than I’d really like to, I admit) I come back stronger and faster than ever it seems. It’s like the break in between is what our body needs and craves for us to take things to the next level.

Greater Awareness & Safety

Our body will tell us things that can often save our life as well. From the odd feeling deep down that someone is watching us, yet we don’t see anyone (usually someone is watching us in most cases) to the gut wrenching sensation that something bad is going to happen and then it does! This is usually the case because we went on doing what we were doing without pausing and reflecting in that moment to make the necessary changes.  We usually don’t notice that we had that feeling until after the fact.

I remember, I had this really weird feeling about this party many of my friends were going to when I was much younger, it kept nagging me. I was actually on my way to the party after I got out of work late when I turned my car around and went home instead. I couldn’t explain it at the time, I just chalked it up to me being ‘not in the mood’ to really go. Turns out, a huge fight broke out and some people got really badly hurt. This has happened to me more than once, where I just felt strangely uncomfortable in a place and decided to leave instead of forcing myself to stay and turns out something bad happened later I found out.

There is a reason why they call it a gut feeling, (some will call it intuition) but it comes from your gut and your body is telling you something! So do yourself a favor and get more in tune with your body and to listening to it, you’ll thank it later.