Your Body Knows What You Need

The body knows.

I was in the middle of a conversation last week when I noticed a feeling of butterflies in my stomach. My mind was still forming words, nodding along, but my body had already delivered its verdict: Something's off here.

It took another ten minutes before my thinking mind caught up. Oh. I don't actually feel comfortable with what this person is saying to me. 

My body knew first.

This happens more than I used to realise. The tightness in my chest before I understand I'm anxious. The softening in my belly when I'm near someone safe. The way my jaw clenches when my inner critic starts its familiar commentary.

There are two kinds of awareness we're working with - and most of us have been taught to trust only one of them.

There's cognitive awareness: "I know my inner critic is harsh. I’ve been told it's trying to protect me. I've read about this."

And then there's bodily awareness: "I can feel exactly where my inner critic lives in my body. Right now, as I think about it, there's a tightness across my throat and a heaviness in my chest."

The first kind of awareness is important. But the second kind? That's where transformation can actually happen.

Because our parts - those protective voices, the inner critic, the anxious one, the people-pleaser - they live in our bodies. Not as concepts. As sensations. As tensions and holdings and tender places we've learned not to feel.

And here's what I've discovered in my own IFS practice and in thirty years of Buddhist contemplation: Your body holds wisdom your mind hasn't caught up to yet.

When I drop into my body and ask "Where do I feel my inner critic?" I get immediate, specific information. When I ask "How do I feel toward this part?" from that embodied place, something shifts. Self-energy - that wise, compassionate presence within - isn't an idea. It's a felt sense. A quality of spaciousness and warmth that we recognise in our bodies.

But we've been taught to override what our bodies tell us.

To push through fatigue. To smile when we're uncomfortable. To ignore the whisper of "this doesn't feel right" in favour of what makes logical sense.

I'm watching this in my own life as I age. There's a kind permission emerging - to finally trust what my body has been trying to tell me all along. To let the wisdom that lives below thinking guide me.

What if you already have access to everything you need? Not someday, after more healing or learning or fixing. But right now, in the quiet knowing of your body and the steady presence of your inner wisdom.

A Practice: Meeting Yourself in Your Body

Right now, as you're reading this, pause for a moment.

Drop your awareness into your body. Not to change anything - just to notice.

Where do you feel tension? Where do you feel ease?

If your inner critic were to speak right now, where would you feel it in your body? Your throat? Your chest? Your stomach? Your shoulders?

Just notice. With curiosity. Without trying to fix it.

This noticing - this is the doorway to everything.

Let me know if you have any questions or reflections. I'd love to hear from you.

Learn more at Renewal with Suzanne