Your Body Knew Before You Did

Stress doesn't always arrive suddenly. More often, your body notices the pressure long before your mind catches up.

People often ask me how I became so interested in the connection between the body and stress. The truth is, my body introduced me to it long before I ever worked in wellbeing.

Years ago, every Monday morning I would wake up with a stomach ache. It wasn't every now and then. It was every Monday without fail. It became so predictable that I would mention it to my friends, who laughed because they thought I was joking. I wasn't.

For a long time I couldn't make sense of it. Mondays themselves weren't especially difficult, and I wasn't lying awake dreading the week ahead. Then one day I realised something. My body wasn't reacting to Monday at all. It was reacting to Wednesday, the day I had to go to work. Somehow, before I had consciously acknowledged how unhappy I was, my body already knew.

When I eventually left that job, the stomach aches disappeared almost overnight. I've never forgotten that experience because it taught me something I have continued to see throughout nearly twenty years of working with people.

The body often notices what the mind is still trying to negotiate.

Since then, I've lost count of the number of people who have described physical symptoms long before they've described the pressures in their lives.
They'll tell me about the headaches, the poor sleep, the tight shoulders or the constant exhaustion. Only later, almost in passing, they'll mention the ageing parent they're caring for, the workplace that has become increasingly difficult, the child they're advocating for, or the relationship that has quietly become a source of stress.

I've often found myself thinking that their body had been trying to join the conversation for quite some time.

One of the things I find most interesting is that the body doesn't usually shout first. More often it repeats itself. A jaw that is always clenched. Shoulders that seem permanently raised.
A stomach that becomes unsettled every Sunday evening. Sleep that never quite feels refreshing. Individually, each of those things can seem insignificant.
Together, they often tell a story.

That doesn't mean every ache or pain is caused by stress, and it would be wrong to make that assumption. Bodies are wonderfully complex. But I do think we've become remarkably good at explaining away the small signals our bodies give us. We tell ourselves we're just tired, getting older or simply busy, and sometimes that's true. At other times, our body is asking us to pay attention to something our mind hasn't fully acknowledged yet.

Perhaps that's why I encourage people to notice simple things. Not because noticing solves every problem, but because awareness gives us choices. It's difficult to respond to something we've never recognised.

Looking back, I'm grateful for those Monday mornings, although I certainly wasn't at the time. They taught me to trust that the body has its own way of communicating. It may not use words, but it has an extraordinary ability to let us know when something in our lives deserves our attention.

Take a moment

Before you move on with your day, pause for a few seconds.

Notice your shoulders.

Notice your breathing.

Notice your jaw.

Not because you need to change anything immediately, but because noticing is often where change begins.

Your body may have been trying to tell you something for longer than you realise.

Observations by Dee Marshall

Founder of I Am Well | Integrative Wellbeing Practitioner

Nearly twenty years of listening, noticing and helping people understand themselves with greater compassion.