Your body is sending you messages and it’s time you start believing it.
Most of us know this to be true from a physical perspective when it comes to safety, hunger and sleep cues, or illness and injury. Your body clearly communicates when something is wrong and often what you need. If you attune more to your bodily cues, you’ll gather a lot of really helpful information.
But check this out:
Your body is giving you messages about the people in your life as well.
When I was younger, I attended a large family reunion. I met an older guy there who I immediately got an awful feeling about and didn’t want to be around. Years later, my dad mentioned the guy and all the predatory stuff he had engaged in. I did not know anything at that time except my body did not feel at ease in his presence.
How did I call it when I was so young?
The best way I can describe it is this: My gut knew something that my brain couldn’t explain yet.
I have hundreds of examples of this and I bet you do, too.
As a teenager, there were peers whom I just couldn’t stand to be around but I couldn’t explain why. I didn’t trust them for no obvious reason. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve watched these people from afar and my initial hesitation has proven right. They’ve left a trail of jobs, spouses and friendships in their wake.
Have you ever met a new person and felt confused after you walked away? Like something was up with them but you couldn’t quite put your finger on it?
In adulthood, I’ve known a few people, both personally and professionally, where I can only describe that I felt like I needed to take a shower after I talked with them. Weird but true! I felt like their manipulative strategies physically got on me.
Do you ever spend time with a family member and notice how tense your shoulders are when you leave? Maybe you catch yourself grinding your teeth? Or you get a headache?
What’s up with that? Sometimes I just feel like I get slimed by someone’s weird boundaries, alternate view of reality or expectations of me. Some of y’all know exactly what I’m talking about, even though it’s hard to put into words.
Have you ever spent time with somebody and upon leaving felt like you could immediately take a nap? They completely drained your battery because your alarm bells were going off the whole time!
Even in reading this, do you intrinsically know what I’m saying is true? Or is your BS reader going off? That’s your discernment.
Want further evidence? This interesting study from 1997 showed that people’s intuition shows up in bodily form (in this case, palm sweating) before their brain catches on to certain patterns and scams.
Your body will tip you off to situations and people with whom you don’t need to engage. But this sense (discernment) only gets stronger if you cultivate it. This is the secret: the more you listen to it and honor it, the louder it gets.
The converse of this is also true. (And I really love this!) When you are around people who you can genuinely trust to love you and have your best interests at heart, your body will relax in their presence. Your mental clamor will slow down. You will be holistically at ease.
Your body is your best friend. Trust your best friend. It is a great source for intuitive wisdom to keep you safe– relationally and otherwise. You may not be right 100% of the time, but I’d rather trust it and be wrong occasionally, than not trust it and wish I had.
So what should we do with this info? Start checking in with your body more. When you have a business meeting, see how you feel physically after. What is your body trying to tell you? When you have dinner with old friends who know and love you, check in to enjoy the feeling of well-being you experience when you’re with them.
Your body will show you who is safe, who unconditionally loves you, and who is talking out of both sides of their mouth. The more you listen, the stronger the communication with your body will get.
