“If you listen to your body when it whispers, you won’t ever have to hear it scream.”
Joyce Meyers
We’ve all been there. Been at the point where your body is screaming at you. Screaming so loud that we either fall ill or we are at the point of feeling exhausted and are burning out. If you haven’t felt like your body is screaming at you, then you’re lucky and are very in tune with your body and overall physical wellbeing.
For everyone else, the body screaming can show up in different ways, and is unique to an individual. It could be a physical symptom like a headache, stomach ache, recurring tension in the body leading to pain/discomfort or maybe back pain. Whatever it is that you may experience, there may be symptoms beforehand that you weren’t quite noticing, which led you to the worse state you may have already experienced or are currently experiencing. Our body talks to us in many ways.
But do we stop and listen?
Becoming aware of physical signals or body screams can make it easier to spot patterns, recurrence, intensity of the sensation or symptom, especially when it’s a negative symptom.
From practicing yoga, I’ve learned to notice my body and body signals more, well and my mental thoughts and feelings too. But for this blog post we will stick with the body. ONE thing that’s been made clear to me, is that our body has a lot to say.
My body screams at me with tension headaches, or worse when I get a migraine/tension headache combo, also known as a cluster headache. These headaches when they get out of control, almost always end in my throwing up. After the cluster headache, I always take time to reflect back on how the headache creeped up on me and what can I do next time to avoid onset. It’s almost always not just one thing that triggers these headaches for me, it’s a combination of things. Not having enough water, not taking enough breaks from screens, sitting too much and not a very active day due to meetings. Saying yes to others, while ignoring my own needs. Not eating timely or enough food to sustain my energy. I could go on.
When I don’t stop to listen, the headaches come…the screams get louder and come more often.
Tap in. Notice. Breathe. Move. Repeat.
Tapping into how we feel, physically, is equally as important as noticing how we feel mentally and emotionally. Tapping in on a regular, if not daily, I think and know from personally experience, is that it’s vitally important to our wellbeing. It can make such a huge difference and make us aware of things that may impact our health positively and spot negative signs much earlier.
The simple act of bringing our attention to something like sensations or symptoms in the body, by default, makes us more aware of it. Whether it be, I need more water or I have to say no to something or someone, so that I have time for self care, to eat, to breath, whatever space required for some rejuvenation time.
Maybe if you’re like me the body scream shows up as recurring headache, or maybe even burnout/exhaustion where you’re super tired all the time, unmotivated. Maybe you’re sick all the time. Whatever it may be if we again don’t stop to notice we may be allowing symptoms to get worse, which could lead to feeling bad or worse get sick.
How can you prevent the body from screaming?
Tap in. Notice. Breathe. Move. Repeat.
For me I know YOGA has helped. Helped me prevent my body from screaming. Why?
In the yoga practice we tap into how we feel every time we step on our mats to practice yoga asana (physical postures) or even the practice of meditation (dhyana) and breath work (pranayama) brings our attention INWARD. With practicing yoga poses, you right away notice, imbalances, weaknesses and limitations in your body. Yoga after all is the union between body, mind and spirit. When these three elements are aligned or in balance, we feel the most balanced in our lives.
From my own yoga practice, I saw how this came true the union between mind, body and spirit. When I stepped on my mat to practice physical postures, the physical postures made me notice limitations, my injured spots a little more, body sensations and my quality of breath during the movement. I noticed how my energy was, where I was tight in the body, and if I was headachy. This allowed me to better track how often I had headaches, and bring awareness to my triggers.
The more I practiced, the more discipline I got, the more I noticed. Especially after a long day at the office (my day job), I would notice how tight my shoulders, neck and upper back would be. But when my practice wasn’t consistent, then the time I took on my mat to truly be present with myself to notice, that slipped too.
Through YOGA I was able to learn to listen. Tap into myself, body, mind and spirit and truly listen.
But know this practice takes time, and with time, consistency and repetition something like practising tapping in, reflecting, tuning INWARD, whatever you want to call it, can become habit. The more I practiced yoga, the more aware I became. But when I stopped or took a pause away from my yoga practice, for example when travelling would be hard to maintain a routine, I noticed my body eventually got to a place of screaming. I ignored certain things that were creeping up (like my tight shoulders, and neck eventually led to a headache), all because my practice stopped being consistent. When consistency returned the pattern to notice came back.
Tapping in, we become aware and eventually become in tune with listening to our bodies, thoughts, feelings and emotions regularly. Which further can help us lead more balanced lives or if you don’t know what balance is it’s pretty much when we are living the kind of life we want for ourselves in a zen like way. With minimal discomfort and move through life with ease. I leave you with a poem to remind you to move INWARD consistently.
A poem to tap in...
Practice awareness.
Mindful movement.
Find connection.
Tap in. Notice. Breathe. Move. Repeat.
Listen to your body. Don’t let it scream.
Inhale. Allow yourself time to listen.
Exhale. Whispers.
Inward.
Listen.
Mind.
Body.
Soul.
Listen. The three unite.
The union between mind, body and spirit.
This is yoga.
This is balance.
Peace.
Inhale. Tap in.
Exhale. Notice.
Inhale. Breathe. Exhale.
Move.
Repeat.
This is yoga.
Namaste,
Marzena
P.S. If you like my blog post, please like and share to whatever social media platform you choose! Don’t forget to tag me @marzenayoga