Self-Love Reflection: Trust Your Body
Posted: February 6, 2011 at 12:02 pmI hope you enjoy this week’s topic of self-love. Try to trust your body this week. 🙂
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From our first breaths, instincts reign in our bodies. To feed when hungry and stop when full. To rest when tired and explore life when awake. To smile when happy and cry when upset. From the first days, our bodies typically function quite well through so many intricate processes and details. The heart knows how to pump blood. The lungs know how to breathe. The stomach and intestines know how to pull nutrients for fuel.
Our bodies are fabulous creations and they know their stuff. Our bodies contain more intelligence than the smartest of computers. Our bodies adapt very well to whatever we expose them. Yet, we show such uncertainty in trusting them. We lose sight of cues our bodies give us – hunger, fatigue, stress, and more. We think we don’t need to listen to them and they will do our will, no matter how damaging.
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Sure, mind over matter acts as a powerful tool. However, we shouldn’t always ignore our bodies’ wishes for personal fulfillment. We need to treat them with respect and the first step to doing so is to trust them. Really listen to what your body tells you. Do you feel hunger? Eat! Do you feel tired? Rest! Do you feel nervous? Figure out why and find a way to calm yourself.
Our bodies provide us with so much information every single day. If we tap into that, we can live the most fulfilling lives. When you care for your body you have the energy in you to pursue life and happiness. Reflect on the many ways your body displays its intellect. Trust and listen.
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Quotes to Reflect On
There is deep wisdom within our very flesh, if we can only come to our senses and feel it. ~Elizabeth A. Behnke
The body never lies. ~Martha Graham
Question of the Day - In what area do you need to trust your body more?
I used to be horrible about listening to my body when I was starting to get sick or already sick. I would keep going and going which ended up getting me more sick or prolonging it.
Now, I want to listen to my body regarding when I’m really hungry or not vs. boredom, dehydration, etc.
I’ve found that through this Core Fusion Challenge I’m trusting my body more. One of my fears with the challenge was that I’d suddenly lose muscle because I wasn’t lifting heavy weights like I’m used to doing or that I’d lose cardio endurance from doing less cardio than “normal.” But instead, my body has risen to the occasion of the CF challenge…I feel strong and healthy and lonnnnger (if that makes sense) and have no doubts or fears swirling in my mind that this “new” approach to my workouts this month will do anything but strengthen me in new ways. So I’m trusting my body, listening to it, and am loving how it’s making me feel.
And like I have said before…I LOVE reading about it all!
This is so great! I think I need to listen to my body more when it wants to be active. At work, I sit all day and have a hard time tearing myself from the computer to stretch and move around.
LOVE your self-love posts Tina! They are SO amazing!!
I need to listen and trust my body when it comes to running! When there is bad pain, I need to learn to STOP and rest it!
I need to listen to my body when it is injured. I ignored an injury for a week and am paying or it now 🙁
lesson learned
Love love love love, LOVE this post from 30 Days, Tina! I need stop trying to fool my body and trust that it will be at the weight that it needs to be to keep me healthy. I try to fool it into thinking it doesn’t need many calories, when truly, it does. In another sense, I need to trust it to with running. I have been running for a year now and haven’t improved that much, but I need to let me body decided on how fast I should be.
I loved waking up this morning, sun peering through the windows and reading this post. Sounds cheesy, but its a great start to my day.
I have a feeling I will need to gradually learn the same thing with how fast my body wants to be with running.
I love this! I’ve been trying to listen to my body much more lately.
I need to listen to my body when it is in pain. I have the tendency to push through the pain when I run, which ultimately causes me more injuries. Right now I can not run because of a leg injury, caused by overtraining, and you guessed it, not listening to my body. Now I have to trust that my body will stay in shape with the cross training exercise I am doing while trying to heal.
Love this! I truly believe this principle, both in my head and in my heart. I need to almost just trust my intuition I feel in my heart to make decisions that are best for me, regardless of others not understanding them. I know that maybe that isn’t exactly trusting your BODY but it is trusting your gut and trusting that your bodily reactions (anxiety, etc) are always there to give you signals about what you need to do next.
I think that is completely trusting your body! Like you said – our guts speak loudly sometimes.
Love it, love it, love it.
Thank you so so soooooooooo much for this post! it is just what I needed to read today =) I wish MORE people would blog about this !
This is an awesome post! I need to listen to my body when it’s telling me to rest or even take a nap! Also, I need to be more in tune with working out because I’ll go all out most of the time when sometimes i just need to take it easy. Have a great sunday!
I love the “you know more than you think you do” bit… I have really come to find that is so true, especially in going back to school! I was so scared that school would be so hard to pick back up, and I’m doing incredibly well. I need to believe more in myself!!
Lady, this is exactly the sort of message that I needed to hear today. I need to trust my body when it comes to food – I’m ready to be an intuitive eater, but I’m scared to death that if I take that first step, everything might come crashing down.
You can do it! It is scary at first but then you really learn what you like, when you’re really hungry and it changes things so much for the better.
I hope you have a happy Sunday with your husband and those beautiful kids you have ; )
I need to listen to my body better with taking rest, I some times think, no I still need to workout even though I feel dead, and I need to listen to my body and NOT workout, plus working out like that is not efficient, I would rather get a kick butt workout in when Im feeling great and rested! xoxo
I need to trust my body more when it’s telling me that I am not hungry, I am just bored!
This my first time on your blog, and WOW…loved this post and will definitely go back and catch up from the week. Thanks for sharing and for reminding all of us to just let go and trust!
Aw, thanks so much!!! Love your blog too. 🙂
I need to listen to my body more when it needs rest days. I used to be really bad – I used to work out 7 days a week with barely any rest days ever. That honestly put me near exhaustion. I have cut back TREMENDOUSLY, now only working out 4-5 days a week, but sometimes my body still craves rest and I never give it.
I never have a problem listening to my body when it’s hungry! 🙂
So true! I am kinda a shy person, so I get nervous when I have to public speak or give a presentation or in large groups. I need to trust my body, breathe, and tell myself I can do it.
Since overcoming my ED, I have really tried to listen to my body and feed it what it wants. I know when I tired but not sleepy that I need a snack to give me energy. I am really trying to focus on my hunger cues and my overall emotional being to refuel my body when it is needed. It isn’t easy…but like the quote you posted, “the body knows best”!!!!! I have posted my personal journey on my blog…so check it out if you get a chance!!!
This is beautifully written, and just what I needed this morning. Even though I have come a long way over the past year, and feel much more capable of trusting my body, I still struggle from time to time. I need to remind myself that less can be more in the gym–that I don’t need to push hard every day in order to see results. You’ve inspired me to take the day off today. Thank you!
SO needed to read this today. I NEED to trust my body with running. To getting back to good, solid runs, not stressful, anxiety ridden ones. If I let that go a little, maybe I will have more success getting back into it. I had a relatively good run today, and part of that was trusting that I could do it.
You can say that again. And again. And again! Really! We all need to contiunually here this reminder.