Mae West Quote on Body Language and How To Better “Hear” What Your Body Is Telling You

“I speak two languages, Body and English.”

Mae West

Beyond the Quote (236/365)

Are you in tuned with what your body is telling you? Are you aware that your body has a language that needs to be learned in order to be understood? It’s no different than learning your ABC’s for the first time. You might hear the various sounds coming out of people’s mouths around you, but until you actually learn what the letters represent, how those letters form into words, how to pronounce those words, what those words actually mean, and how to combine them to express ideas… all you’ll hear is gibberish. And, unfortunately, gibberish is about all people hear when they listen to their body.

Your body communicates with you in countless ways—more ways than I could ever claim to understand. And it’s beyond the scope of this post to list every single form of communication. But, specifically, I do want to focus on some general observations on how the body communicates with you in regards to understanding emotions, connecting with others, and pointing things out about its own health. Let’s break it down.

Let’s start with emotions. Emotions serve many purposes. One purpose that can’t be overlooked is to catalyze specific actions. When you’re feeling anxiety, it’s your body telling you that you have undealtwith emotions (or chemical imbalances) that need to be dealt with. Possible actions might be writing, reading, meditating, or therapy.

When you’re feeling emotionally drained, that’s your body telling you it needs to rest. Or, that whatever you’re doing isn’t sustainable. Possible actions might be more sleep, more breaks, or a change in lifestyle routine.

When you’re feeling excited, that’s your body telling you that something, someone, or some idea is filling you up with an eagerness and energy. The logical followup would be figuring out how to get more of that (whatever it was) into your life.

When you’re feeling uneasy, that’s your body telling you that something doesn’t feel right. The logical followup would be figuring out how to avoid or confront whatever it is that’s giving you that feeling of unease so it will go away. And so on.

Next, let’s look at connecting with others. Again, our bodies account for an entire language of communication that, if we don’t understand, amounts only to gibberish when we’re conversing with others. Things like the direction of a person’s feet may indicate their interest in a conversation. If their feet are pointing towards the speaker, then they’re engaged. If their feet are pointing away from the speaker, then it may be inferred that they want to walk away.

A person’s arms may also be communicating subtle cues as well. If you’re arguing with another person or even debating in a friendly way, whether or not their arms are crossed may signal whether or not their mind is open or closed to your ideas. Open arms usually indicate open mind and crossed arms usually indicate closed mind.

And, of course, we can’t talk about body language without mentioning the eyes. The eyes are one of the most important indicators of focus and the priority of another person’s attention that there is. If the person you’re speaking to keeps looking over your shoulder or off into the distance, it means they’re probably not very engaged in the conversation or maybe want to speak to someone else. If they’re looking at their phone when you’re talking to them, it indicates that the priority is on their device and not with what you’re saying. And if a person is looking at you square in the eye, maybe only breaking contact occasionally, then it’s a solid indication that they’re focused and engaged with you and what you’re saying.

Finally, let’s talk about the body’s language for health. When you feed the body fuel that’s low-quality and highly-processed—your body will respond by making you feel like crap. When you feed your body high-quality, nutrient-dense, super foods—your body will respond by making you feel great. Common sense—yes. Common practice? Nope. It’s almost as though we eat while plugging our ears to our body’s pleas and cries as we say: “Lalalalalalala.”

How about when your body has a tweak, knot, or is experiencing soreness? Did you know that that is a way your body communicates with you, too? It’s your body’s way of warning you that something is imbalanced, getting neglected, or is on the verge of injury. It’s telling you to spend time in those areas and rest, stretch, ice, heat, roll, or relax accordingly.

And if you don’t? Of if you use and abuse your body in a way that’s beyond it’s limits—more serious injuries ensue. The greater the pain, the louder the body is screaming at you to spend time healing those areas. The trick is, if you get good at listening to your body when it “talks” to you then you won’t have to deal with the “screaming” or intense pain because it gets avoided. Just as it goes in relationships too, eh?

When I was prepping for my marathon fundraiser run the week before, I felt a minor “tweak” in my knee while I was running. I knew that my body was telling me that that was an area of weakness that needed attention. I spent time that week foam rolling the surrounding muscles in the legs, stretching, and resting that area in particular. I also wore a knee brace for the run to give it extra support. The result? No screaming from my body the day of. My knee held up great and I didn’t have any pain. I understood what my body was telling me when it was “talking” to me and I addressed it. No escalation required.

Get better at listening to your body when it “talks” to you and you, too, might avoid those long, heated, annoying “screaming” battles as well. And slowly but surely, like an infant who finally starts to notice the words it’s hearing from its parents, you, too, will start to understand a few “words” here and there from your body. And, with practice, you’ll start understanding multiple “words,” “sentences,” and even learn how to start having full blown conversations with your body. But, slow down there, tiger—one step at a time to start. Start by turning inward and listening closely. What’s your body telling you right now?

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