One of the biggest challenges when it comes to being more intuitive is understanding how to listen to your body. This just takes a little practice and patience, but the following tips can also be incredibly helpful.
1. Practice Mindfulness
The first way you can start listening to your body is with mindfulness. This allows you to acknowledge and appreciate how you feel at any given moment, without pressure or stress about what you think you should be experiencing.
Mindfulness takes practice just like meditation but is much easier to get a handle on. When you are mindful, you are in the moment. This means sitting quietly and enjoying the present moment, understanding what you feel, and really listening to what your body or mind is trying to tell you.
Before a meal when are deciding what you want to eat, just sit for a few minutes in silence without distractions, go through what sounds good to you right now, and take it from there.
2. Pay Attention to Cravings and Aversions
Both what you crave and what you no longer enjoy or find satisfaction in are equally important when it comes to intuitive eating. You are going to learn so much about yourself, what you actually like eating, and what you were eating because you thought you had to. You might find that you hate protein shakes, but love salads. Maybe you start eating a lot more fruit, but no longer want a snack before bed.
3. Sit Quietly and Contemplate
It is always a good idea to shut off the noise and just sit with your feelings for a bit. Even if you are not doing this for the purpose of mindfulness, and just to take a pause. Feel each part of your body, listen to what it wants, understand what you are craving, decide if you want some movement right now.
4. Write Everything Down
As you go through your intuitive journey, start writing things down as they come up. Write down your hunger and fullness when eating meals, write down changes you experience, workouts you try, really anything you can think of.
Write as much or as little as you want to, but really try to make this part of your daily routine.
5. Just Let Things Happen Naturally
We are always so in need of control, that we forget sometimes life just happens naturally. Your body knows what to do if you can learn to listen.
This might mean stopping a workout video 10 minutes before it’s over because you feel exhausted, or choosing a bowl of cereal over your usual eggs for breakfast because that’s what you craved when you woke up.
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