Love Commandment 4: Listen to Your Body | VLCD

In Melissa’s fourth installment of 10 New You Commandments to Love Your Body, today she discusses why it is important to listen to your physical self and how to respond to what it is telling you: [article below]

Love Commandment 4: Listen to Your Body

A great many of us attempt to do it all and be it all, for everybody, in all facets of our lives, all of the time!  I am guilty of this myself – and while it is wonderful that we are ambitious at work, have active social lives and are there to support our friends and families it can take its toll on our poor bodies!

So today I am going to outline HOW to listen to your body, WHY this is important and WHAT you can do to LOVE YOUR BODY TODAY, especially when on a VLCD / TFR Diet.

Hello Body… How are You?

It is easy to neglect and not pay attention to our bodies when we have so much going on in our minds, until a major physical issue rears its ugly head and reminds us that we have been mistreating ourselves.

HOWEVER – it is best to notice the smaller signs BEFORE this happens, so I am going to give you one simple trick that I do that will take only 5 minutes every day to get you to become more aware of your body:

FEEL FOR FIVE

Find a quiet space in which you will not be disturbed, sit or lie down and just close your eyes.  Start by focusing on the very top of your head.  How does it feel?  Do you have a headache?  Are you tense?  If so, try to relax just that part of your body.
Now move on to your eyes.  Are they tired, scratchy, sore?  Try to rest them as much as possible.  Now your ears, face, neck and shoulders.  Repeat this moving down your body, focusing on how each individual part feels currently and trying to relax each as you continue.

When you have completed this, mentally note down which areas aren’t feeling 100%, and we can then work on changing this!

Read Your Messages

Now that you are more aware of your physical self and how your body is feeling, it is easier to determine what it is trying to tell you.

Personally, I can tell when I am suffering from stress when my shoulders and neck knot up, which can also lead to some painful headaches and jaw clenching.  When this happens I know I need to take more ‘me time’ and create a strategy to get rid of some of the things on my plate.

The biggest message my body has ever given me was “Melissa! You are so overweight that you are making me ill!” – and it said this to me repeatedly through being breathless doing minor activities, back ache from supporting the extra weight, knee and joint pain and extreme fatigue.  I am so happy that I responded to this message and lost 6 stone with The New You Plan, and all of these symptoms have disappeared 😀

Think about the issues your body is telling you – could they relate to sleep deprivation, stress, dehydration, poor posture or lack of exercise?  If the cause of the issue is obvious you can start to work on a solution, but it is always advisable to visit your GP to investigate anything chronic or that could be more serious.

Respond

It is important to act on these physical messages so that you can not only catch any problems early, but so you can focus on feeling great each day and start to LOVE YOUR BODY NOW!

I have started to get massages regularly to address the tension in my body and to help me to relax.  I spoke to my masseuse, Fidelma, at The Room in Belfast about the importance of listening to your body:

“It is important to listen to your body as it will be telling you what it needs. For example if you are feeling thirsty then your body is 70% dehydrated. Sometimes when we think we are hungry we are actually thirsty. Our bodies have an incredible capacity to heal themselves but sometimes our bodies need help from us. It is up to us to take some time out to listen to what our bodies need and if we are experiencing acute pain we have to look at what is causing that pain and deal with that instead of just treating the symptoms. These symptoms can include muscle tension & pain and can be caused by lifestyle factors such as poor posture, high stress levels or not taking appropriate time out to give our bodies & minds the rest they need.”

Today’s Task

I would like you to make a list of what you can do TODAY to help alleviate any issues – and remember: sometimes the SMALLEST changes can have a BIG impact!

The solution doesn’t have to be costly treatments or time consuming activities – perhaps just getting to bed earlier, removing some events from your calendar, incorporating a walk into your day or just ensuring you are drinking enough water could really help you feel better inside and OUT.

I would love to hear if you have tried the “Feel for Five” exercise, and what your body decided to tell you – please share below 🙂

Lots of Love,

Melissa