Your body communicates with your mind using a non-verbal language. Life can be so busy that these communications are often ignored or misinterpreted. Think of a time when you thought a churning stomach was a bug, only for it actually to be nervous apprehension about an upcoming event.
Our body can speak through physical sensations and emotions. Your experiences, your posture, the thoughts in your mind and what you imagine might happen in the future.This called interoception . What if you could learn to listen attentively to your body and detect the subtle changes before the thoughts and catastrophising became dominant. Would it help you change your behaviour?
It’s not uncommon for your body to be communicating messages that say no, but you find yourself saying yes! Sometimes this is known as people pleasing.
Your body might be trying to guide you in different ways. These ways could be physical, like feelings of muscle tension or a clenched jaw. This often presents with nighttime teeth grinding when you’re stressed. Or breathing patterns alter, often becoming rapid and shallow with feelings of unease. Your heart rate can be elevated with stress and tension can cause a quickening of the pulse.
Your body language can be another way the body communicates. A hunched posture might convey feelings of shame and insignificance, or you might be fearful of being seen. It can also be a protective posture. Tense muscles, clenched fists and jaw tightening could be sending messages that your body is ready to take action when threat is perceived. This has strong links with pain.
Emotional messages might be feelings of dread or a sick feeling in the stomach. You might recognise this as anxiety or panic. Sometimes the emotion presents as overwhelme or worry. These emotions often merge together and can be difficult to interpret, especially if you find it hard to choose language to describe these emotions.
This is particularly difficult if you are not used to describing and recognising the sheer variety of emotions. People usually stick to the familiar terms of, ‘I’m fine/sad/angry’. But expanding your emotional vocabulary can be helpful when deciphering your emotions.
Thoughts accompany the body and are constantly popping up through the day or night. Some will be more powerful than others and they can obscure everything.
For instance, it’s difficult to pay attention to anything when thoughts aren’t helpful like, ‘this is too much’, ‘I can’t do this’, ‘I don’t know what to do’. ‘I’ll be rubbish anyway’. These thoughts dominate the mental landscape, and it can be a struggle to hear anything else.
Difficult thoughts lead to rumination and imagining worst case scenarios. You remember what has happened in the past and especially those memories where things didn’t work out well. This catastrophising is unhelpful and can stop you from doing the things you want.
I believe knowing your body can help you feel more at home in it. Being better attuned to yourself, will then help you navigate mental and physical changes in your life.
I have decades of experience in health care, including years spent working as a senior physiotherapist in the NHS. I’ve taught Pilates to hundreds of people. And I’m a qualified psychotherapist with a suite of therapy skills to draw on.
By working together, we can plot your pathway to a healthier, happier life.
