A few years ago, I watched my kids as toddlers start to distinguish between the bodily felt sense of ‘I’m hungry, and I’m sleepy’. It made me smile to see my daughter fast asleep with a sandwich literally hanging out of her mouth.
When she said she was hungry, I would ask her gently to check her body to see if she was hungry or sleepy. This was part of her natural development, she was learning to check in with her body and know what she needed.
When we have grown up with ongoing stress and lack of felt safety, where we have had to override our bodies’ innate ‘yes’ or ‘no’, it can be difficult to know if we are hungry or tired, or if we want to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
As an adult, your body sends you signals, and it is not too late to learn the subtle language of your beautiful body. Sometimes a ‘no’ will come through a cold or other sickness. Sometimes it will come through going numb.
For me, a ‘no’ can show up as feeling confused or frustrated or a subtle pressure in my chest.
How does a ‘no’ show up for you in your emotional and physical body?