What is Your Body Telling You? Unlocking the Secrets of Physical & Emotional Health

Is your body trying to tell you something? Join me in this special episode, celebrating five transformative years of the Super Soul Model series, as I explore my journey of tuning into the subtle messages our bodies send us daily. 

We’ll dive into practical techniques like body scanning, mindful movement, and box breathing to help you understand and respond to the aches, anxious moments, and quiet signals guiding your well-being.

With relatable stories—including a powerful example of a client facing burnout from people-pleasing—we’ll illustrate the importance of truly listening to our bodies. Learn how honoring your body’s natural rhythms can build a foundation for a healthier, happier future.

Thank you for being part of this journey! Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share so we can keep bringing more insights and inspiration to our amazing community."

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Chapters

• 0:05 Listen to Your Body's Power
• 12:59 Listening to Your Body's Signals
• 25:03 Body Signals for Long-Term Health

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

In this episode, I'm going to share with you something that's often overlooked but incredibly powerful, and that being able to listen to the body and the signals it shares. The body's always talking, but are you listening? And in this episode, I'm going to share with you some tools in which you can really understand how it talks to you. With you, some tools in which you can really understand how it talks to you. Hello and welcome to this episode of the Super Soul Model series. I'm your host, james Granstrom, and in this episode, we have calls for celebration because the podcast is turning five years old. So it's an honour and a privilege to be able to be giving you this content for the last five years and to hopefully inspire many of you to live and transform your lives for the better. And in honor of that, I'm going to be sharing with you something that's really important where I first started on my journey and that is the subject that's often overlooked and that is listening to the body's signals. And when you become conscious and are able to listen to your body signals, your whole relationship with your health and your body begins to change. And this is what I noticed many, many years ago and as I've listened. Over the years, it's become clearer and easier to manage when there are any challenges that begin to present themselves. So how do you really listen to your body and what's it telling you? Why is it important and why does it even matter? That's what I want to clarify in this episode. Our bodies are always talking to us and they're always talking to us through, like aches and pains. They're talking to us through tension in the shoulders and perhaps you might even be feeling a sense of anxiety or even fatigue going on inside of the body. So what's that actually saying? Those signals that you're getting, those aches, those pains, that fatigue, that anxiety is feedback about what you're doing, and the problem is we often don't know what to do when those things start to arise in the body. And when you begin to listen, things begin to transform and change, because everything that you're getting is a signal, is a feedback, and usually when it's something that doesn't feel right, that's the signal that perhaps you need to do something about it.

Speaker 1: 2:26

The problem is, whilst we may have those tensions, we may have those aches and pains, we often disregard it, and when we do that, that's to the detriment of our well-being, if we ever hear the word gut feeling. And when you've listened to your gut, it kind of gets clearer the next time. And the same is when you're listening to your body signals. When you've listened to your gut, it kind of gets clearer the next time. And the same is when you're listening to your body signals, when you do something for your body, because you've been listening to it, because there's been tension or there's been aches and you've taken the necessary action, then the body signals become clearer. But when you disregard them very much like disregarding your gut feelings when they come about, whether it's about a situation, a person or whatever, when you disregard it, that sense seems to dull itself. But the body signals will never, ever dull on you. They will only get louder and scream louder at you through pain or through tension.

Speaker 1: 3:18

Taking the time to learn how to listen to your body will absolutely transform your relationship with your health, the happiness that you feel and the wellness that your body is able to exude. And when you're able to listen and understand and make conscious choices with the feedback from the signals that your body is giving you, then you're going to have greater health, you're going to have greater energy and you're going to enjoy greater well-being. So how do you start listening to your body? Well, first you have to learn how to become present, and what I mean by present means is that you need to pause and slow down and ask your body a couple of questions so that you can understand what it's trying to say to you.

Speaker 1: 4:04

When I first started, I had no idea this, but I recognized that my emotional well-being was way off because I was feeling anxious, I was feeling fatigued, I was feeling tired, but my physical body was okay so it seemed. But it was the emotions that were playing up with me. And when I recognized the emotions were talking to me, then I could do something about it. And in my case, what I learned to do was begin to slow down, begin to be and sit still with myself for longer and spend more quality time in nature so that I could actually feel the emotion that was actually running rampant inside of my body. So one of the things you've got to ask yourself to become present, to listen to your body's signals is how am I feeling physically? Do you have aches or pains? Do you have any tension? Are you fatigued? These are questions you need to ask yourself. And what do you notice about your posture? What do you notice about your energy? What do you notice about the breath? What do you notice about your energy? What do you notice about the breath? How are your energy levels? I mean, I remember when I first started, my energy levels were really low, and so I knew that I needed to address that.

Speaker 1: 5:13

Now you might think this is absolutely pointless sitting around asking yourself questions, but actually there's some genius to it, because as you begin to ask your body, what does it need? What's it trying to tell me what? The telltale signs that I'm feeling right now. Do I have enough energy? Do I have aches or pains that are going on in my leg or my my back or my chest or wherever? Any time that you are getting a signal that something is not absolutely 100? That's your body giving you a signal. Even a headache is giving you a signal that perhaps something that you're thinking is not correct in alignment right now, that perhaps you don't have enough water in your system right now, that perhaps you need to lie down and stop pushing and being resistant right now. These are the telltale signs that sitting down, taking a moment or a pause for one or two minutes can give you the vital solutions that will help you find that peace of mind and that equilibrium and balance again.

Speaker 1: 6:17

As you might think this exercise is pointless, just remember you're always spending time, and you might as well spend time on something that's important, such as learning about your body, understanding your body's needs. And Whilst you're spending time, you're also spending energy, and that might be energy that you don't have right now. So learning how to cultivate your energy will give you more energy, and that is why having a moment or two to pause can be absolutely vital in your relationship with your body and relationship with your emotional well-being too with your emotional well-being too. So what I've noticed more recently with me is that when my energy levels dip, what I tend to do is take small little power naps, and that's been absolutely amazing for me, because I realized that if I give myself a 10 or 20 minute power nap, I come back even stronger than before, whereas the old version of myself would just try and power through, and I noticed that was highly productive as a result of taking those power naps.

Speaker 1: 7:21

So when you are beginning to be present with yourself, to realize that you can just ask your question what does your body need, then you will be able to work in harmony with it. The other thing that I noticed is that when I felt lethargy and I felt tired, I've been asking myself the question do I need something to eat or actually do I need to move my body? And this is really interesting, because it's a fine line between recognizing that you actually need to move the body, versus you might need to eat or versus you might need to have something to drink. All of those things are important, but really deep down, you know that when something comes up, that if you offset it with the exact opposite of how you're feeling, you're going to feel much better and bring your body back into balance again. Meaning, when I felt lethargy, the best thing to do is to get up and have some discipline and go for a brisk walk or take a run or go to the gym for 20 minutes or something. I've noticed that that brings me back to equilibrium and my body begins to thrive and I begin to feel that high level of energy again.

Speaker 1: 8:26

Now the second way to begin to listen to your body is to learn to differentiate between physical and emotional signals. You can feel the weight of stress, you can feel the weight of nervousness. You can feel the weight of stress. You can feel the weight of nervousness. You can feel the weight of tension. When you are feeling like you're trying to manage something for the entire family, you can feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders because you're trying to manage and so you take on that emotional weight. Do you recognize that that is your body talking to you through the emotion? And when your muscles begin to get really tight in your shoulders, that's because you're holding stress in the shoulders. When you feel really, really good, you feel a lightness of being. That's because your body's full of light. So when you're happier, your body feels lighter, you feel friskier, you feel free, you feel enthusiasm, which is the exact opposite. So your body's talking to you and there's a direct correlation between how happy you are and how good and healthy your body is versus how stressed you are and how unhealthy or out of alignment your body is. So there's a huge difference that you have to become aware of in order to understand where your body's at, and it's a constant work in progress, and it's a constant work to find your own equilibrium and your balance.

Speaker 1: 9:45

So if you ever feel nervous, you can sometimes feel nervous in the heart, but often you can feel it nervous in the stomach. But on the other side of that, when you're getting butterflies, you're enthused by something or excited about something. Maybe it's going on a date, or maybe it's about a project that you're really excited about or a new job that you've got. You can feel excited and get those butterflies in your stomach. That is a nice signal. You either get the ying or the yang version of that, and the better you feel, the more the stomach will give you feedback to say, hey, what you're thinking and feeling right now is right on, and I'm giving you these eager butterflies that are showing you that what you're thinking and feeling right now is an eagerness, is an excitement. But when you're nervous, it will give you the exact opposite, which will be a whoosh of feeling. I feel nervous, I feel fear, I feel anxiety. So to be aware of those feelings, that they're not just something to observe and disregard, but they're there, a subtle feedback, will empower you greatly.

Speaker 1: 10:47

So next, let's look at body scanning. Now, body scanning is using your own awareness, from the tips of your toes to your head, to see how your body is feeling in any given moment, and it can take about two to three minutes to be able to do entirely, and it's something that I learned in a book some years ago with Louise Hay, and this simple technique is so powerful Mentally. What you're going to do is lay down in a very comfortable position and you can scan from the toes all the way to your head, as if there's a. You're drawing a line from your toes all the way to the top of your head to see how your body is feeling in any given moment. Are your shins okay? Are your ankles okay? Are your knees okay? Are your hips okay? Is your chest okay? Are your arms okay? Is your hips okay? Is your chest okay? Are your arms okay? Is your neck okay?

Speaker 1: 11:38

When you begin to scan that body, if there's any discrepancy, if there's anything out of alignment, you will know when you do this body scanning and that means that you can begin to listen to the signal that your body's trying to tell you and if something's out of alignment, when you're doing this body scan which is a really simple, easy thing that you can do, which is just thinking about it from your toes to your head you will know if something's not quite right. And when you ask this question what is any discomfort telling me? Then, when you really listen, the body will talk and you'll have some sort of solution about what you need to do. Sometimes our bodies hold so much stress Maybe it's in the hips, maybe it's in the shoulders, maybe it's even in the hands, or maybe it's in the legs. Wherever the tension or the stress is being held is basically giving you a signal. Often, when we have pains in the neck, sometimes the body is trying to say who is a pain in the neck to us, and when we're having back problems, it's like sometimes we're feeling that we're being unsupported in life, and when we have leg problems, we may have difficulty trying to move forwards in life, and so trying to become more agile and flexible and sometimes relax about certain things helps us alleviate this emotional challenge that we feel in our body.

Speaker 1: 12:59

I had one of my clients that I was working with recently. He got put out of action about a couple of months ago and he couldn't understand why he couldn't move very freely and he was basically out of action and in bed for a few days, and the day that I worked with him, we moved a little energy, and what we discovered was is that he was constantly trying to people please and, as a result, he was putting his own health and well-being on the line to try and satisfy and people please by going out with one of his friends to try and make them feel better, rather than listening to his own body's needs, which was to relax, and, as a result, his body went right out of action and he wasn't able to do anything or play any golf. And what I told him was is that his people pleasing and not listening to his own body's signals put him out of action. And this was a really powerful thing, and when I said you can be gentle with yourself and let go, that you're just doing the best you can. What was really interesting was that afternoon he started moving a little bit more freely and it took him a few weeks to get really back on his feet again, but he really learned his lesson, which was listen to your own body's signal. Don't try and people please, otherwise you will be out of action. Your body will play up.

Speaker 1: 14:21

And so sometimes, when we're in an accident and there's been a real challenge, it's because we've not been listening to our life or been listening to our body's signals, and I know that when I looked at my own experience, is that when I started listening to my body, I had way more energy. When I started listening to my body, I had way more energy. When I started listening to my body, I started remaining healthy and well for a long period of time and up to this day I noticed if there's any imbalance or something's out of alignment, it just can come back within a day or two just because of being able to listen to the body's signals. So when you're able to body scan and trying to ask the question what is the body trying to tell me, you might be able to get the feedback. Maybe I need to do some stretching, maybe I need to relax, maybe I need to do some more walking in nature. Maybe I could do a little bit more yoga. Maybe I need to do some breath work to cleanse some of this anxious energy inside of me. Maybe I need to learn how to breathe more deeply.

Speaker 1: 15:18

Now for me, what I've noticed in my own experience is that the more that I continue to stretch, the more flexible I become in my mind as well, and this is really, really helpful. So I always try to do stretch classes every week because it will help me stretch further than what I would do by myself and even though I do a little mini stretch every morning, going to a stretch class has been absolutely fantastic for my body and mind and I've noticed that I've been really happy and healthy and my body's been high level energy. This year, as a result of just adding longer periods of stretching into my week and combining that with great nutrition, I've noticed everything's been functioning really really well. So look into experience when you're asking that question, when you're scanning your body. What's my body trying to tell me? When you begin to address the challenge, your bodies will give you a signal and there may be there's something you can do about it, and sometimes just acknowledging that the challenge or the problem is there inside of your body is enough that awareness begins to reduce the pain. Sometimes we just need to become aware first before we can do the next thing, which is work on a solution. The next thing on the list to help you listen to your body signals is to learn mindful breathing.

Speaker 1: 16:37

Often when your breathing is erratic, it's shallow, it's rapid, and then you feel incongruent, you can feel nervous, you can feel stressed out, but when we learn how to slow the breath down, we regain and reset our nervous system and your body thrives as a result of resetting. So notice when you're happy what your breathing's like, when you feel equilibrium and you feel peaceful and you're calm. Notice what your breathing's like, because you really notice what your breathing's like when you're stressed out, which is like really rapid, it's shallow and you have all those emotions running around in your body and in your system. So one of the things to counter that is to slow your breathing down is to do box breathing and maybe that's breathe in for four, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four and then start the whole process again, four by four, by four, by four. That box breathing is so powerful. The other thing that I've noticed for me when my breathing's been off is I do a double inhale followed by a long exhale. This helps my body come back to equilibrium again, from feeling in a place of stress back to a place of calm again.

Speaker 1: 17:49

The next thing on the list to listen to your body signals is the power of movement. Often, when we're stressed, what we don't realize is is that that stress stays in the system and one of the best ways to alleviate that is movement. Now, that might be yoga, that might be running, that might be brisk walking, that might be any form of movement, but movement helps the body release stress. It's actually a scientific fact that movement helps us release stress and it's essential for the body, and I noticed that when my father died, he was moving way less at the end. The last six months of his life he wasn't moving as much, so he wasn't bringing in as much energy into the body. It was becoming more increasingly difficult for him to move and so, naturally, spirit, which is the breath, inspire, which comes from within, and expire, is to go out.

Speaker 1: 18:42

When we inspire, meaning bring in more breath, we create more breath and energy into the system. But if we're not moving the body, we're not getting as much air into the system as we could. So more movement creates greater energy, and all energy travels in waves, and the key to having more life force or qi as they call it in Chinese, or qi, is to use energy to create more energy. So when you move, you get more energy, and so if you want to have more life force, if you want more energy, then you must move your body. Pretty simple, but it's often we overlook these simple principles because they're so simple so we just negate the idea.

Speaker 1: 19:27

So the next time you're feeling a little lethargic or you're stressed, go into thinking about moving your body as quickly as possible, because then you're getting out of your head and back into the body again. This is something that I always share with my clients is that when you're stressed, get into the body and then, when you're in your body, you're not in your mind anymore, because that's where all stress is created initially, before it goes into the body, because stress will stay in the body until you move it. Until you move that stored energy that could be like a boulder in a river, and when we're able to move our bodies and move it freely, then what happens is those boulders or the energetic blocks begin to release. So movement can be very powerful in being able to listen to your body signal, because it can unlock any emotional tension that you might be holding on to. Furthermore, when you are moving with intention maybe it's yoga, maybe it's pilates, or perhaps it's even running I'm fully aware of when I'm running, what every bit of movement I'm doing for that run that I that I'm on. I absolutely love that high that I get when I'm running, because I kind of go out of my mind and just go straight into my body. So running with intention, or exercising or moving your body with intention, even walking with intention, is so powerful for you to alleviate any tension, so that your body helps to reset itself back to a balance.

Speaker 1: 20:51

And, last but not least, trusting your body's innate wisdom. Your body knows what it's doing. Your heart is beating without you having to think about it. Your blood is pumping without you having to think about it. You are breathing in and out every second or so, and you're not even conscious, or sometimes even aware that that's happening, but it's happening. The body is perhaps the best creation ever on this planet. That's happening, but it's happening. The body is perhaps the best creation ever on this planet, and it's this biological masterpiece created from your mother and father and from life itself. And so when we're able to listen to these simple principles of eat when you're hungry, drink when you're thirsty and sleep when you're tired, your body will thrive.

Speaker 1: 21:32

So long as you're trying to use nutrition that will actually satisfy and fulfill your body, it's far easier to be well when you're eating Mother Nature's foods, and it's far more difficult to be well when you are eating the wrong foods. You always kind of know what foods are good for you, because Mother Nature has sent them all. The question is how much color in your food are you ingesting on a day-to-day basis? For me, I'm trying to eat at a bare minimum, 12 fruits and veggies different fruits and veggies every single day, because I think that 12 is more than double the number that we're actually told by the food department agency, and I notice that my skin and my digestion and my levels of energy have played such a huge part in being able to ingest way more healthy, nutritious foods and eliminating toxic foods as well. For me, I don't drink alcohol and I don't eat meat, but for other people that's okay.

Speaker 1: 22:36

But what I have noticed is that everything in moderation is so important for you to be able to maintain a healthy balance inside your body system, and if you're feeling any aches and pains, maybe you need to address your diet. Maybe you're having far too much toxicity inside of your body. I noticed that when I began to eliminate more toxins in my body and start having a higher alkali diet, my body remained in a great state of wellness, which has allowed me to thrive and do high level, sports and basically do whatever I want when I want to do it. That is a level of freedom that I am ever, ever so presently grateful for, and if you just take the time to listen to the signals and feed your body the right food, you will thrive. So the next time you might feel some tension in your shoulders or you feel an ache or a pain, or maybe even a flutter inside of your stomach or inside of your heart, whatever you might feel pause and stop for a moment and ask yourself what am I thinking, what have I been thinking? And also ask yourself what have I been eating, what have I been ingesting? Because your body is always giving you those signals and when you listen, you build a greater relationship to say, maybe I should change that, a greater relationship to say, maybe I should change that.

Speaker 1: 24:01

I know that when people begin to eliminate toxicity from their body, they begin to lose weight as well. All toxicity creates weight, which first goes as physical weight and emotional weight. So when we're able to release toxicity from the body first, the body knows how to align itself, and it's the same in sports as well. We need to learn how to rest and recuperate rather than constantly be on the go. So if that's you, you've got to notice yourself Am I doing way too much and could I learn how to rest more? And if you find yourself not having too much energy, then maybe you need to be looking at the foods you're ingesting and maybe clean up your diet quite a lot. And then, if you notice that your mind isn't clear, maybe you need to eliminate some of the alcohol intake that you're having, because alcohol kind of confuses the mind and reduces a state of clarity and focus.

Speaker 1: 24:54

So all of these things you could consider doing if you want to improve your relationship with your health and your wellness and listening to your body's signals.

Speaker 1: 25:03

In simple, you just got to ask yourself the question what's my body telling me? And then when you do, you build this wonderful connection. And it's usually the feedback when we don't feel great, that the body's trying to talk to us. Because when the body is normal and you feel absolutely great, it means that what you're doing is right on track right now. And as you age, these signals become louder and scream louder at you if you don't pay attention and do the things right now. So all these things that you learn to do now and try and find equilibrium will be an investment for the next 10 years. I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. Please consider liking, subscribing and sharing, and if you'd like to support the show, it's very welcome, because it helps me bring you top quality content, like I've been doing for the last five years. So until the next episode, I wish you a wonderful weekend and green lights all the way.