Your Body Is Talking: Learning to Trust and Listen To Your Body.

Have you ever had the feeling that your body is trying to tell you something?

Perhaps you’re getting the odd niggly headache. You become exhausted in the afternoon. Your digestion isn’t quite right. You start waking at 3am. You feel anxious for no obvious reason. Your breasts become tender, your cycle changes, your jaw feels tight, or you simply don’t feel like yourself.

It can be frightening when your body suddenly feels unfamiliar.

Sometimes we are very quick to silence these messages.

We take something for the headache, push through the tiredness, ignore the digestive symptoms and tell ourselves that we are “just stressed”.

But what if, rather than seeing our symptoms as something our body is doing to us, we started to see them as information?

Rather than immediately thinking, “What is wrong with me?”, another question can sometimes be helpful:

“What is my body asking me to pay attention to?”

Perhaps it needs more rest.

Perhaps your nervous system has been running on overdrive and you are supplementing it with more coffee, sugar or scrolling.

Perhaps you have been carrying an enormous emotional load.

Perhaps something needs investigating medically.

Or perhaps you simply need to stop and listen.

Your body is constantly communicating with you.

The body is remarkably intelligent.

It is continually responding to sleep, food, hormones, stress, emotions, relationships, workload, environment and everything else that is happening around us.

This doesn’t mean that every symptom has an emotional cause, or that we should blame ourselves for becoming unwell. There are very real physical, hormonal and medical reasons why symptoms develop and these should always be investigated by your GP when appropriate.

But there is another layer that is often missed.

Your body can tell you when something isn’t quite working for you.

The problem is that many of us have become disconnected from that conversation.

We have become very good at overriding our own signals.

We work when we’re exhausted.

We eat when we’re not hungry.

We keep going when we need to stop.

We say yes when our body is screaming no.

We stay in situations that don’t feel right because our mind tells us we “should” be able to cope.

And eventually the body has to speak a little louder.

Symptoms are not your enemy

I don’t believe that our bodies are broken or working against us.

I believe they are constantly trying to adapt.

Sometimes they need support.

Sometimes they need rest.

Sometimes they need nourishment.

Sometimes they need medical investigation.

And sometimes they need us to finally listen to something we have been ignoring for a very long time.

Acupuncture can help you reconnect with your body

One of the things I love about acupuncture is that it gives us an opportunity to slow down.

During a treatment, we aren’t just looking at one isolated symptom.

I want to understand the whole person.

How are you sleeping?

How is your digestion?

What is happening with your cycle or hormones?

How are you feeling emotionally?

Are you holding tension somewhere?

What has changed recently?

What does your body feel like?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, symptoms are viewed within the context of the whole person. We look at patterns and relationships rather than treating every symptom as a separate problem.

This can help you begin to recognise your own patterns.

You may start noticing that your headaches appear when you have been pushing yourself too hard.

That your digestion changes when you are anxious.

That your sleep deteriorates when you haven’t had enough downtime.

That your period symptoms become worse when you are depleted.

That your body feels different when you are living in a way that isn’t right for you.

That awareness is incredibly valuable.

EFT can take this a step further

EFT — Emotional Freedom Techniques — can be particularly useful when there is an emotional response that you feel stuck in.

Sometimes we know intellectually that we need to relax, let something go or stop worrying.

But knowing something and actually feeling it are two very different things.

EFT can help you explore the emotions, thoughts and beliefs that are keeping your nervous system activated.

It isn’t about pretending that everything is fine.

It is about creating enough space to listen to what is actually happening underneath the surface.

Sometimes the body says:

“I’m overwhelmed.”

Sometimes it says:

“I don’t feel safe.”

Sometimes:

“I need to stop.”

And sometimes it simply says:

“Something isn’t right here.”

Learning to listen doesn’t mean becoming obsessed with every symptom.

It means developing a relationship with your body where you can notice, investigate and respond rather than immediately suppressing or fearing what you feel.

Are you listening to your body?

Acupuncture and EFT can be part of that process.

Not by telling you what your body is saying, but by helping you become quiet enough to hear it for yourself.

If you have been experiencing symptoms that you don’t fully understand, or you feel disconnected from yourself and your body, acupuncture or EFT may be a useful place to start exploring what is going on.

Sometimes the first step towards feeling better isn’t doing more. – Sometimes it’s learning to listen.

Book an appointment with me at Log House Clinic if you would like help to you understand your what your body is telling you and to treat your symptoms with Acupuncture, Chinese Medicene or EFT.  

 

Call me on 051 393 574 , 087 900 2307 or eva@loghouseclinic.ie, Facebook @loghouseclinic,  Instagram @evaheffernanacu

#acupuncture  #wellbeing #waterford #tramore #innerwisdom