How Does Your Body Tell You What it Needs?
It was Wednesday. That meant it was workout one of two with my personal trainer for the week. The room was dark and cold when my alarm sounded.
I shut my eyes. A feeling of tiredness and being worn down had taken over my body.
Time continued to pass and I continued to lie in the bed. That was a sign. I was exhausted.
Abruptly I flung back the covers to force myself to get up. A wave of the chill of the room swept over my body. I begrudgingly flipped my feet to the floor and headed to the bathroom to start the process of getting ready for our workout.
This routine of tiredness was becoming the norm. I did not like it.
I struggled to be at my peak performance, but my trainer and I got through the work out. In order to combat what my body was going through, I lowered the weight I used on almost all of the exercises.
What I was going through was becoming commonplace, not a once-in-a-blue-moon type of occurrence.
That was a sign that my body was telling me if I did not slow down it was going to slow me down.
When your body is telling you what it needs, do you listen?
Before we move onto how you go about showing your body that you are listening to it, we must first listen to what our body is telling us.
What was my body telling me? Regard the words I used: exhausted, begrudgingly, routine of tiredness, and struggled. Those words screamed that something was off.
I had the choice to ignore what my body was telling me or to listen to it. I chose the latter and that is what I am sharing with you here.
How to Listen to Your Body When It's Talking to You?
In choosing to listen to your body, what does that mean? Trust me, it is not easy for me, but I am doing what is best for my health. That is what I encourage you to do too. Take care of you.
Stop. For the overachievers and go getters, this may seem like asking a lot, but stopping is what you need to do. I am not talking about for good. This suggestion is for you to shut yourself off for a day to recharge. If you choose not to stop, your body will stop you, so, hey, stop before it does stop you.
Delegate. Ok, you are feeling uneasy about that whole stopping thing. I get it. Go through your list of what needs to be done. Pull out what you can pass on to someone else. Giving up control may make you uncomfortable, but recall if you do not do this, your body will probably keep you from it anyway.
Have fun. We go and we go and we go to the point that we do not stop to take time to have fun. This is me giving you permission to stop to have some fun. Do something you have not done in a while. Kick up your feet on a couch and binge watch a show.
Do not worry about the time you will miss.”What about all I have to do?” is running through your mind. You have way too much to do and the idea of stopping to have fun or stopping at all gives you fits. Here is what you do. Think about what it would mean to lose two or several days. What scares you more: several days off or one day off? Yeah, several days off is pretty dang unsettling and that is what you are at risk of having off if you do not slow down.
Start the discussion: What do you do to listen to your body? Share in the post comments, on Facebook, or Twitter.