Listen to Your Body.

"Your body is honest. When you're in physical pain, you cry. But the heart is a liar. It stays quiet, even when it's hurting." (It's okay not to be okay)

Drinking your third cup of coffee for the day, sitting in front of your computer for 5 hours, and trying to fit in all tasks in one schedule so that you'll keep your day job to live and pay for the expenses. But in reality, are you living life? What I'm saying is, it's not wrong to hustle however you must consider your body as one of your priorities too.

On the flip side, we ignore what's going on inside of us by being a couch potato. Not exercising. A sedentary or inactive lifestyle. During our leisure time, we are often sitting: watching TV, or playing video games. By being inactive, it increases health risks like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

During quarantine, I'm very tempted to stay in bed all day, not doing anything at all. I've felt like the days are passing so quickly while I'm kind of stuck in this lowness. It's most probably because of what's going on right now. But I also think that it's mainly about how I lost myself in the midst of it all. I've been sleeping late. I eat too much. I know I'm not taking care of myself physically and mentally. Ultimately, it has affected my mood and the way I see myself.

In these times of uncertainty, we have to do our part but the rest is out of our control. And that has always been the way in life. No matter what we're going through. Focusing on what you can control and leave what you can't. One thing we have control is the control of our self: what we do, how we think and behave.

Sometimes, we tend to focus more on our things like shoes, clothes, or bags but never on the most valuable vessel we have- which is the body itself. When we first purchased our new smartphone or laptop, we are careful about how we use these gadgets. We buy protective cases for it and see to it that the screens are crystal clear. When we get fresh kicks for our birthday, we keep it clean and tidy after every use. We sprinkle so much love and attention to our belongings. But in all honesty, When was the last time you paid attention to what your body needs? How am I feeling? Am I low in energy? Are there any tensions in my body? With all the non-stop activity going on around our school, work, household chores, family drama, bills, break ups, twitter wars, Netflix binge-watching, and many more, it's easy to neglect what our body asks.

At a very young age, we're taught that how we look is more important than how we feel. It all started when we were kids and told to finish the food on our plates even though we're already full. At the age of 16, we were exposed to the world of dieting and slim models. Every ad we see along the highways reminds us of unrealistic expectations of body image and beauty standards. With all this mixed messaging, it's no surprise that somewhere along the way, we stopped listening to our bodies and started listening to, well, everything and everyone around us. We learned to value approval from others than self-acceptance. We learned to follow what people tell us than trusting our intuition. We then tune out our needs and make a list of dos and don'ts, leading to, trusting what our families, peers, or the media tell us rather than listening and attending to our bodies.

Here are ways on how to listen to your body:

1. Intuitive eating

As Aaron Flores, a registered dietitian nutritionist, described, Intuitive eating is about trusting your inner body wisdom to make choices around food that feel good in your body, without judgment and without influence from diet culture. We are all born with the skill to eat, to stop when we are full, to eat when we are hungry, and to eat satisfying foods. As we grow up that can change for a variety of reasons. Many of us lose that freedom and intuitive eating is learning to reclaim it. When we filter out the noise and influence that diet culture presents to us as false truths, we can then truly listen to what our body wants and needs from food.

I did calorie counting a few months before and I thought I'm doing the best thing for my body since I track how many calories I eat in a day. I thought I was helping myself. However, this leads to thoughts like “I’m so bad because I ate XXXX." I felt guilty for wanting to eat another bite. I hated myself for eating what I want to eat. I realized that at the end of the day, calorie counting isn't just for me and so I switched to intuitive eating.

Tips: Avoid dieting and calorie counting. Eat slower to tune in more of satiety signals. Take time with it by being more present with flavors and taking breaks in between.

2. Cravings

How often have you considered a tempting treat only to berate yourself as “weak” or “bad” for craving it? Don't be too hard on yourself. Sometimes we're craving something and that's that, it's fine. I feel you there. Sometimes you need your chocolate. I think it's about time that we should absolutely enjoy the foods that we eat, feeling less guilty about it. But we need to take into account, on how we should have a better understanding of our bodies. For instance, you're suddenly craving that bag of chips, which seems bad but actually, maybe because you're simply hungry and you need enough protein, fat or, fiber. So these kinds of signals serve us what our body essentially needs.

3. Movement

When you make time to move your body, you learn how it feels and radiates energy. You will learn the difference between pushing yourself to exercise and when to dial it down a notch. I have got a taste of this in summer, a lot of people tried to exercise and get fit. I was pressured to achieve abs since a lot of people are so into it. But there are days where I don't really feel good working out and so I let myself have a rest day if I feel like I want to. I let myself be. If there are days where I'm not motivated, I try to do a 25-minute stretching or considering doing a light exercise.

4. Mental check-in

This is good if you're feeling a bit anxious, sad, tired. It's as simple as asking How am I feeling? What causes my emotions to feel this way? What's on my mind? What's bothering me? Stress is often overlooked and considered to be the norm nowadays. Most people are conditioned to think that stress is part of life but actually it’s not normal to be chronically stressed. But if we try to do a mental check-in, things will get clearer and better in knowing what steps to do to improve.

Dear self,

What do you need most today?

This is the question you must ask yourself every morning after you wake up. Listening to your body means slowing down and asking questions. The information you receive will help you come up with "what feels right, right now.

Eat when you're hungry.

Rest when you're tired.

Move when you're feeling stuck.

Step back when you're overwhelmed.

Listen to your body's whispers,

so you don't have to hear it scream.