Body awareness is something that all of us had from the moment we were born. Since we were babies, we have been understanding our body, the relationship with our mind and body parts and the boundaries of our body. You may not remember how much energy and time you put into developing body awareness when you were a child, but it’s something that many of us do take for granted.
Body awareness is something we should continue to develop as an adult. In my own life, I’ve made body awareness and my physical health far more of a priority. Body awareness helps me accept myself, develop patience as I strive towards my goals, helps me nourish my body and encourages me to take care of myself when I feel stressed.
You may be wondering why body awareness is important. How can being more aware of your body be beneficial to you? Below are reasons why body awareness is important.
You can effectively respond to your body’s needs.Do you find yourself getting overwhelmed frequently or stressed? Do you battle with anxiety on a constant basis? Do you tend to not get enough sleep or work through your lunch and find yourself very hungry at the end of the day?
These are signs that your body awareness may be off. Being in tune with your body allows you to take care of yourself when you need to. In the past, I’d often keep myself awake way past midnight, watching shows, browsing social media, reading or doing something that can wait till the following day. I’d struggle to let myself go to bed even though my body craved that rest. As a result, I didn’t get enough sleep and would start my day poorly.
Being in touch with my body helped me realize that breaking the habit of staying up unnecessarily late everyday was necessary to my health. Breaking that habit was tough at first, but it was worth it since I go to work most days feeling energized and peaceful. And part of the happiness of my day comes from the fact that I got enough sleep.
A similar experience happened when I accepted that I was not getting the right nutrition in my body. I’ve always ate pretty healthy but there was still vitamins I was lacking. As I found ways to get the right amount of nutrition, so much improved for me. My skin cleared up, hair grew faster, my mood improved and I felt good.
Stress, anxiety and other frustrations can be managed by being aware of your body.When you feel hungry, take a break and eat. Keep healthy snacks around so you have something to munch on. Modify your schedule so you can get extra rest each day. Exercise when you need to release some tension or at the very least, take a brisk walk around your area.
Figure out what makes you feel good and keep doing that. Make taking care of yourself a habit. Prioritize attending to your basic needs. You will be surprised at how your body and mind responds to you making an active effort to be more bodily aware.
Body awareness helps build self-confidence and trust in yourself. Personally, I’ve always had insecurities around what I could do physically. Before even giving myself a chance, I’d assume I’m bad at something and struggle to find the confidence to give something a solid effort.
A few years ago, I decided to forcibly put myself in uncomfortable situations where I had the motivation to push myself. I signed up for a fun run, City2Surf, based in Sydney, Australia that spanned 14 kilometres or 8.7 miles. At the time, I had no experience with running and running consistently for several minutes straight felt like a challenge. But I signed up for City2Surf and gave myself about four months to train.
During this training I learned so much about my body. Part of what I learned, was how to trust myself. Every time I kept believing that I can’t do something, I kept proving myself wrong. Each milestone was a reminder that my body is capable of more than anything I believe it’s capable of.
Body awareness helps build a foundation for confidence and trust in yourself. As you reach your goals or explore what your body can do, you start to build trust within yourself.
Body awareness helps you accept yourself. Many of us have struggled with feelings of insecurities around our bodies. Insecurities usually begin as we are children and can stick with us for years and in some cases, the rest of our lives.
By becoming aware of your body, you learn to accept yourself exactly as you are. You realize that you don’t need to change anything about yourself, you are perfect the way you are. Those feelings of envy or jealousy towards others because of the way they look, fade away.
Body awareness works by helping you observe and understand your body in other ways than what society deems as attractive or good. Instead of placing so much mental energy into comparing your body to another or constantly judging yourself, you can focus on appreciating and loving your body.
Accepting yourself is something I wish all of us could do from the first day of our lives, but the process of self-acceptance can take time. Body awareness helps you accept yourself from a place of kindness and peacefulness.
You discover the interconnection between your mind and body. One of the best things about body awareness is understanding my emotions more. I feel like I’ve been more in touch with myself emotionally which has done wonders for managing my anger, sadness or even my excitement about something.
When you are more aware of your body, you are more in tune with the little things that signal that something makes you nervous, excited or upset.
What you do with that information can help you manage your emotions and know when you need to find an outlet for your emotions or what might make you feel better. For instance, when I feel suddenly sad, I have an awareness that I need to find a quiet place and allow myself to feel those emotions and cry.
If I feel anxiety about something, I work on taking deep, slow breaths and do other things that allow me to calm my nerves such as drinking tea or taking a walk outside.
If I feel frustration at a friend or my partner, I find healthier ways to communicate my emotions or learn when to take a step back and realize the emotions are related to something else entirely.
You also have a better understanding of how your mind reacts to certain things such as certain people, experiences, even the food you eat. Having bodily awareness allows you to take a closer look at what situations tend to make you feel differently.
Body awareness helps with your general health. Being aware of your body can be the thing that helps you manage your weight, incorporate exercise into your life or eat healthy and nutritious foods.
Because of the connection between your mind and body you might notice little things that are causing you to feel fatigued throughout the day, sleepy after lunchtime, addictions that are hurting you or desires that cause you to lose focus.
Body awareness has helped push me to exercise most days of the week, not only because of the health benefits, but because I feel energized and happier throughout the day. I even sleep better after a workout.
I make decisions to eat well most of the week. Yes, I love to indulge on an occasional almond chai latte, dessert, brunch or tasty dinner but instead of making this indulgence into a daily habit, I limit it to a couple of times during the weekend and occasionally during the week. As a result, most of my meals are nutritious and healthy which makes me feel great and gives me comfort that I’m taking care of my body.
Even negative patterns can be reversed when you focus on bodily awareness. Instead of giving into an addiction, you might reach out to a friend or someone in your support network who can help you get through this. You’ll have a variety of coping measures at hand once you get those tell-tale signs that you might want to give into a desire or addiction.
Now you know the benefits of body awareness but how can you improve it? The great news is that there’s a variety of techniques to help improve bodily awareness. Try a few techniques and see what works for you. I’d recommend committing to each technique before giving up.
Meditation. Make time each day to meditate, even for twenty minutes. Meditation may be tricky when you are first starting out, but try giving it a solid effort for at least a month. The benefits of meditation are so tremendous that this alone can help you find bodily awareness.
Yoga. Personally, I find meditation alone difficult, but yoga allows me to meditate and move my body simultaneously. Yoga is gentle on the body and allows you to move your body in different ways. Even if you feel uncomfortable with exercise, yoga is something you can do right away as it’s less taxing on the body and relaxing.
Taking a walk outdoors. Another lightweight and gentle activity is taking a walk outdoors. My bodily awareness began when I started taking walks everyday. I began taking 30-minute walks, which eventually led to long hikes. Connecting with nature can allow you to connect with your body and mind.
Exercise and stretching. Any type of exercise can help with increasing your bodily awareness such as weight lifting, cardio classes, running, martial arts, dancing and the list is almost endless. Find an exercise that you enjoy and you’ll quickly be amazed at the strength, flexibility and endurance you can develop when you commit to something for even a few weeks.
Express yourself creatively. Bodily awareness can be tapped into with all types of hobbies. Acting and improv comedy often taps into giant bodily movements and dramatic facial expressions. You can paint, build things with your hand or play a musical instrument. Even handwriting can help you tap into your bodily awareness.
Bodily awareness is something we can keep in touch with everyday and continue to improve on throughout our lives. Pay attention to your body and see what you can learn about yourself today.