Paying Attention to Your Body’s Signals for Optimal Health

Your body is a marvelous creation! It speaks to you when it’s doing great, and it also speaks to you when things aren’t so wonderful. But that’s the beauty of it – your body gives a ton of signals to let you know it’s in need of something so you can do what’s necessary to achieve optimal health.

Use these strategies to tune in to what your body is telling you:

1. Assess how you feel each morning. The early morning hours are usually ideal for you to listen for your body’s signals. At that time of day, it’s usually very quiet, so you can pay closer attention to the physical signals. Each morning, determine whether you feel different from the morning before.

• Determine if you experience any new aches when getting out of bed.
• Figure out if you wake up feeling lousy, even after a sound night’s sleep.
• See if you wake up with any ailments that you didn’t go to sleep with.

2. Compare the effects of different food choices. As you go through the motions day by day, it’s sometimes tough to maintain proper nutrition. Especially if you’re always on the go, you may end up making some poor food choices. As you do that, however, it’s important to see what kind of impact your food choices have on your body.

• Do you find that you’re more energetic when you have the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables?
• How effective are you in the gym after you’ve spent a day eating junk food?
• Does your mind function better at work when you eat vitamin-rich foods?

3. Get regular checkups. Even if you haven’t seen or felt anything to worry about, it’s important to get regular checkups at the doctor just to make sure everything is intact. It’s sometimes possible, for example, for your cholesterol or blood pressure to be high and you have no idea.

• If you’re about to embark upon a stressful month at work, now would be a great time to get a checkup.
• Put a routine in place for doing checkups and stick to it.

4. Know your body’s physical capabilities. Although you may consider yourself healthy and in good shape overall, there’s just so much the body can manage. Whether it’s exercise or mental work at the office, it’s important to know your limits so you don’t end up burned out and physically exhausted.

• It’s okay to work out until your muscles feel worn, but you’ll know if you’ve overdone it if the recovery time is longer than you expect.
• The same goes for mental exhaustion. You’ll feel like you’re coping through the long, stressful hours at work until you realize you’re motionless in bed when you should be up getting ready for work!

Paying attention to your body’s signals is a crucial part of maintaining good health. Remember that you rely heavily on your body to take you through the ins and outs of daily life, so you’re better off protecting it! Listen to your body’s signals and act accordingly!