Listening to your body can help you better understand your emotions, stress, and responses.
80% of the messages from our nervous system travel up from the body to the brain. 20% travel down from the brain to the body[1]
Perceiving these messages within ourselves, and allowing ourselves to experience them is essential to tapping into our full capacities as human beings.
Societally, we have trained ourselves to ignore the messages from the body and focus only on our conscious thoughts. This limits the inputs of sensation, emotion, image, memory and meaning that are necessary for full data decision making processes. The result is that our words, thoughts and behaviours are typically overruled by our unconscious responses. The responses are most frequently physiological reactions to perception of danger, real or imagined. Conversely, when we perceive safety and are attracted to it, this also affects our decision making.
You have probably heard people say “listen to your heart” or “follow your intuition”. You may have felt compelled to take a decision that “feels right”. HeartMath research on stress and the heart, showed that the heart’s electrical field is 60 times greater than the brain’s electrical field. Dr. Childre discovered that heart patterns of communication involve “human, energetic, electromagnetic, neurochemical, biophysical, and hormonal information” that are essential to health. To remember this, Thomas Cramer’s quote: “what the heart loves, the will chooses and the mind justifies” can revolutionize how we understand ourselves and others.
We are affected by perceptions of both danger – fear – and safety – love. The body senses before the mind is aware. You may also have felt this as a “gut” reaction. The gut reaction comes from vagal fibres moving from the brain stem both up and down the body with a large percentage of them in the intestinal wall. Another body area with a lot of vagal fibres is the face and neck. In order to relate to others we need the nerve endings in the facial muscles, eyes, ears and throat to coordinate expressively. Most of the perception of safety or danger in mammals comes from looking at the head and face, listening to the tone of the voice and responding to widening or narrowing of the eyes.
So what does this mean and why do I care?
Personally, I did not notice any of these body messages for most of my life. Without being aware of it, I was held hostage to my reactions of fear and love. Danger and safety. This not only impacted my relationships with my family, colleagues and students, it affected my health. I developed a host of costly physical issues that likely could have been averted, or greatly reduced had I known how to listen to my body.
My own journey to somatic awareness (listening to your body) is an ongoing daily process. Additionally, from my work with coaching clients, training of managers and just being alive, I have realized that this separation of body from thought is a common problem for most people. This inner disconnect causes us to perceive the world through the lens of our own safety and danger body reactions, and then to project it onto others. Projecting our own understandings on others causes a lot of pain, unhappiness and misunderstanding. On the flip side, paying attention to the messages we receive in the body not only improves thinking, but helps us to be healthier and to connect more effectively with others.
So how can you start your own process of “body listening”?
Slow down.
Slow the body, slow the breath, slow the mind. The slowing process integrates and heals. But this is difficult for most people to do. Because we are so over-wired to react, even saying “slow down” can cause anxiety in people’s nervous systems. In the body’s most primitive responses, action feels like staying alive. Stillness feels like moving towards death. The paradox is that when we are still during sleep, our body is healing. When we are still and safe in the arms of a loved one, hugging a child or cuddling an animal, our body is producing well-being hormones. When we slow down to think comprehensively about something, we have a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. So to learn to slow down means training the nervous system to remember more and more glimmers of safety until we can feel slowing down as a natural response rather than as anxiety.
Practically this can look like closing your eyes and tuning into your body for a few seconds. It can feel like taking in a beautiful nature scene and allowing it to fill us up. It can be a breath that resets our bodies and minds at the same time. It can be a moment of appreciation and gratitude. People often refer to these processes as mindfulness practice. I think a better term would be perceptiveness practice. As we perceive ourselves and our environments in moments of stillness, we increase our ability to stay with a sensation or emotion until it completes its own stress cycle. This promotes acceptance and attunement. We get stronger intuition, better ideas, more fully formed action plans. But it doesn’t happen in a hurry. It happens in stillness.
When I explain this to people they often say “I don’t have time for stillness”. “I don’t have time to tune in to my emotions.” They say “What if my emotions take over and I’m just a hot mess?” According to Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, once you know what to do, the amount of time required to process an emotion when you simply allow yourself to experience it, is – get this – 90 seconds. That’s it! 90 seconds to allow a full emotional stress cycle to complete and release. So do you have time to repair all the broken relationships and health problems that come from lack of stillness? Or would you rather spend 90 seconds once or twice a day and not have those unnecessarily disruptive issues to begin with?
My own inner stillness opens me up to awareness of others. As I learn to recognize my own signs of safety and danger, I begin to notice the signs of safety and danger that other people’s bodies are communicating. This is essential to reading both my inner reality and theirs instead of projecting my perceptions onto them. As I notice my own nervous system responding to the other person, I can apply the necessary stillness practice to stay present and hold that space for them to be present. This is a deeply satisfying experience. It feels like both a heart and a soul connection. And it becomes more and more a state of being, allowing us to experience what is and make appropriate decisions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the body has a lot of messages that it is communicating to us via the nervous system 24/7. As we start to pay attention to them through moments of stillness, we experience more happiness, health and ability to relate effectively with others.
If you would like to learn how to do this, watch “my morning routine” video or give yourself the gift of a 30 minute zoom call with me to practice one of the techniques!
FAQs (frequently asked questions) about listening to your body:
What does it mean to listen to your body?
Listening to your body means becoming more aware of physical sensations, emotions, breathing patterns, tension, and other signals that can provide information about how you are experiencing a situation. Instead of immediately reacting or dismissing these signals, you pause and become curious about what your body may be communicating.
What is somatic awareness and why is it important?
Somatic awareness is the ability to notice and understand sensations and responses occurring in your body. It can help you recognize patterns of stress, fear, safety, and emotional reactions before they automatically influence your behavior. Developing this awareness can support better self-understanding, emotional regulation, decision-making, and relationships.
Can your body sense danger before your conscious mind does?
Your body can respond to perceived safety or danger before you consciously understand why you are reacting. Changes in breathing, muscle tension, heart rate, facial expression, or gut sensations can occur as part of the nervous system’s response. Learning to notice these signals can help you pause and examine what is happening rather than automatically reacting.
How can I start listening to my body?
Start by slowing down for a few moments and noticing what is happening physically. You might close your eyes, take a few conscious breaths, notice areas of tension or relaxation, and pay attention to the emotions accompanying those sensations. The goal is not to immediately fix or explain what you feel, but to become more perceptive of your own experience.
Why is slowing down important for body awareness?
Slowing down gives you an opportunity to notice sensations and emotions that can easily be overlooked when you are constantly busy or reacting to external demands. Even brief moments of stillness can create space to recognize what is happening in your nervous system before you decide how to respond.
How can listening to your body improve decision-making?
Your physical sensations and emotional responses can provide information that conscious reasoning alone may overlook. Paying attention to these signals does not mean making every decision based solely on feelings. Instead, body awareness can provide another source of information that you can consider alongside facts, experience, logic, and other relevant factors.
What is the connection between the nervous system and body awareness?
The nervous system constantly receives and communicates information throughout the body. This means that physical sensations can influence how we perceive situations and respond to them. Becoming more aware of these responses can help us recognize when we are experiencing signals associated with stress or safety and create space for a more intentional response.
Can body awareness help with stress and anxiety?
Body awareness can help you recognize early physical and emotional signs of stress, such as tension, changes in breathing, restlessness, or a sense of being overwhelmed. Pausing to notice these sensations and using calming practices such as conscious breathing can help create space between the initial reaction and your response.
For another practical approach to calming anxiety, see Anxiety Is Not an Emotion.
How does stillness help with emotional regulation?
Stillness allows you to stay present with a sensation or emotion instead of immediately distracting yourself, suppressing it, or reacting to it. With practice, these pauses can make it easier to recognize what you are experiencing and respond more intentionally. The article emphasizes that developing this capacity happens gradually rather than through forcing yourself to become calm instantly.
How does listening to your body improve relationships?
Greater body awareness can help you recognize your own reactions when interacting with other people. This creates an opportunity to distinguish between what another person is actually communicating and what you may be projecting onto them based on your own fear, assumptions, or previous experiences. Greater awareness can therefore support more present and effective interactions.
How can leaders use somatic awareness at work?
Leaders can use somatic awareness to notice their own stress responses before difficult conversations, meetings, or decisions. Pausing to recognize tension, fear, defensiveness, or other reactions can help leaders regulate themselves before responding. This can make it easier to remain present, listen effectively, and communicate with greater clarity.
For more on developing emotionally regulated leadership, see How Leaders Build Emotional Safety in the Workplace.
How long does it take to practice listening to your body?
It does not require a long meditation session. You can begin with just a few seconds of intentional awareness several times a day. Pause, notice your breathing and physical sensations, and identify what you are feeling without immediately judging or changing it. With consistent practice, these brief moments can become a natural part of how you respond to yourself and your environment.
About the Author
Marie Gervais, PhD, CEO, Shift Management Inc. specializes training managers to lead, and coaching for emotionally regulated performance. She has a background in integrating and managing the diverse workforce and in creating culturally responsive curriculum courses and programs for industry. Marie’s book, “The Spirit of Work: Timeless Wisdom, Current Realities” to understand the deeper processes behind workplace issues and find inroads into creating healthy and vibrant organizations is available on Amazon and other online book stores.
If you want to gain new insights and release what is not serving you, and turn wishful thinking into a meaningful, well compensated career, book your career strategy call now!