How Body Awareness Decides When to Push or Rest
We live in a world where each person has an unique capability and capacity. Someone scores higher grades than you, someone earns more than you, someone is fitter than you, and on and on… We tend to compare ourselves to other people whom we view from a distance. As a result, we become insecure about our efforts and try to go beyond our body limits. It isn’t necessarily bad to push beyond our limits, instead, it should be encouraged. But you can only push when you first pull back. It is like taking one step back to put two steps forward. We don’t know what is good for our bodies unless and until we have body awareness. This body awareness helps decide when you should push and go beyond your limits and when you should rest and refuel.
The Role of Body Awareness in Decision-making
What would happen if you never felt what your body was going through? What if you went numb to all the pain your body was suffering from? You wouldn’t be able to take proper care if you never knew what care your body needs. You wouldn’t get any signals from your body and, thus, would never be able to make decisions that will be the best for your body.
In the same way, if you don’t have body awareness you will make decisions that will eventually damage your body as well as mind. Whereas, being aware of your bodily process, what your body needs and what it doesn’t, will help you cater to it better. It will guide you to make decisions that are right for your health. Thus, body awareness plays a significant role in your decision-making process.
Recognize Physical Cues for Rest and Recovery
Whenever your body is exerted and exhausted it tells you this through a few physical cues. Do not worry, because it is quite easy to recognize the physical cues your body is giving you. But only if you pay attention and try to understand, you may recognize them. It is just like that subject you have or had in school which was easy but you only understood it properly if you paid attention! Similarly, your body will get swamped just like the subject became overwhelming to cope with at the end. Thus, to avoid this start paying more attention to the physical cues and signs of when to rest. This recognition and awareness will guide you to recovery.
The Importance of Rest and Recovery in Physical Health
We, as humans, generally tend to take things for granted till we have them. And once they are wrecked or worse, gone, we realize their importance. But less can be done when the damage is done, right? That is why, it is so important to give the body the rest it needs to recover. After all, even non-living things like mobile phones and laptops need to recharge, so don’t you think, that we need to refuel ourselves too? Giving your body the rest it requires, is essential for it to function smoothly. The optimum amount of rest is beneficial for maintaining your overall physical health.
According to The Times Of India (2024), approximately 122 medical students died by suicide in the last few years due to multifaceted reasons such as work pressure, stress, burnout, etc.[1] This is a single piece of news, there are so many cases that go unreported. These cases are a reminder of the seriousness of rest in the recovery of physical health.
A. Physical Health Indicators: When Your Body Says “Rest”
Your body doesn’t make it that difficult for you to figure out what it needs. There are some physical health indicators given by your body for you to understand what it needs. It starts showing those signs slowly, thus, they may go unnoticed at the beginning. But having more body awareness you can recognize the signs better when your body tells you to “Rest”. Some of the common physical health indicators are low energy levels and fatigue, stress, brain fog, being easily exhausted, aches in different parts of the body, etc. These indicators will only easily come into your view if you have a habit of body awareness. Knowing your body’s needs will show you your way toward these indicators.
B. Stress Management: The Connection Between Body Awareness and Rest
Stress can cut down on our efficiency significantly. Stress takes up most of your mind and leaves little place for you to think about anything productive. Thus, even if you try to push yourself, when you need rest, the overtaking stress will slow you down. It is essential to be a person with body awareness, as you can manage your stress effectively. Stress affects your various bodily systems like respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrinal, neurological, gastrointestinal, reproductive, muscular, etc.[2]
Body awareness helps recognize and respond to these various issues of the body that occur due to stress. It indicates the body should have some rest. Having the necessary amount of rest can lead to a reduction of stress and effective stress management.
C. Burnout Prevention: How Body Awareness Can Help
Burnout may said to be occur when you feel drained, unable to cope with things, sleep disturbances, being sad or angry, or being irritable, also being prone to sickness frequently. Burnout is a telltale sign of your body desperately needing rest! However, you can easily misunderstand the signs of burnout. But if you are aware of your body you will be able to tell when your body is entering a burnout phase. An identification of burnout through body awareness can help you employ strategies that will prevent it. It will act as an indicator to tell you that you need to take a halt and practice self-care and rest.
Optimize Workouts with Body Awareness
We know there are different and customized workouts for different parts of our body. Then why not have different workouts that are optimized according to body needs? But for understanding those body needs it is firstly essential for having body awareness. Body awareness will make you understand exactly what workouts make your body feel better. Whereas, it will help understand what workouts will lead to hurtful accidents. Knowing these things about your own body will aid in injury prevention and workout optimization.
Strategies for Better Decision-making with Body Awareness
Let’s look at some strategies that will make you a better decision-maker while being a person with body awareness:
A. Mind-body Connection: The Key to Better Decisions
Mind and body are like those two best friends who do everything together and influence each other. Mind and body play a role in each other’s processes and affect each other. They share a connection that is crucial for the proper functioning of you. One cannot work alone, without another. Thus, when decisions are to be made about the body, the mind plays a role. Whereas, when decisions are made by the mind, the body plays a role. Thus, you should understand how the mind-body connection works. And awareness of their functioning will help you make better decisions that are the best for both the best friends – mind and body. According to Deepa Mahesh, a leadership coach and TedX speaker, “Body awareness is not necessarily a meditative task. It is a minute-to-minute, authentic and intimate love affair.” [3]
B. Fitness Guidance: How Body Awareness Can Help with Workout Optimization
Imagine you go to a doctor because you have a fever. But when you try to tell the doctor that you need medications for fever, he doesn’t listen to you. Instead, he gives you pills to reduce backache. Now although pills for backache may reduce your backache, if you have any, but won’t help the main issue, which is fever! Same way, if you are not body aware you may keep doing exercises that are not helping with actual issues. But body awareness will help you optimize workouts according to your bodily needs. It may show you physical cues that tell you to not work out today because you need rest. Integrating body awareness with workout optimization can help you with fitness guidance customized for you.
C. Self-care and Personal Well-being: The Role of Body Awareness
Rest v/s Activity – who will win?
The answer is none! That is because there should always be a balance between the two. You should be able to balance both rest and activity healthily. Over-resting will lead to you not putting effort at all, whereas, exertion will lead to burnout and excessive depletion of energy. Body awareness leads you to recognize the physical cues that tell you who should you choose – rest or activity.
The key to self-care and personal well-being isn’t being highly sensitive about yourself or being harsh on yourself. Rather, it’s about having awareness about when and what your body needs. One spoonful of rest and one spoonful of activity is the recipe for self-care and personal well-being!
Conclusion
Body awareness is like a guide that tells you whether your body is craving rest or fueled to push forward one more step. Sometimes, we even tend to become lousy in the name of “rest” whereas, at times we totally overwork ourselves. But body awareness helps maintain the rest balance by telling you to rest only when it needs to, and grind when you can. I hope you liked today’s post. To get instant updates on the latest articles like this, join our Telegram channel.
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