What Your Body Knows Before You Do
Several months ago, I found myself stuck in a critical area of my business. I was wrestling with how to market my counseling practice. The experts tell you to go viral. Catch attention as people scroll. Offer something they can implement now. That’s what builds followers, views, and clients.
Each time I sat down to create that kind of short, catchy content, I felt a tightness in my chest I couldn’t explain. I procrastinated. I missed deadlines. This was a stark contrast from my usual excitement for my work and I noticed it.
There was nothing wrong with the content itself. It was clear. Strategic. Helpful. And yet my body felt braced, pressured, disconnected.
When I imagined something different, a year-long resource focused on deeper transformation, that tightness eased. My breathing deepened. My jaw relaxed. My thoughts felt more organized. I wasn’t more emotional; I was more settled.
This approach felt more like me. More aligned with the values of our team. More reflective of what actually happens inside our counseling office.
That physical shift didn’t tell me what to do. But it did give me important information.
In the past few posts of Growing From Within, we’ve explored how transformation begins with slowing down and choosing curiosity over shame. Today, we’re adding another layer: learning to notice what our bodies often register before our minds fully catch up.
The Body as an Early Warning System
Stress, anxiety, burnout, and avoidance rarely begin as fully formed thoughts. More often, they show up physically first.
A tight chest during meetings.
Shallow breathing at the end of the day.
Chronic fatigue that doesn’t resolve with rest.
A constant sense of urgency.
These are not character flaws or signs of weakness. They are physiological responses. The nervous system reacts to strain long before we consciously name what’s happening. This isn’t mysticism or New Age spirituality. It’s biology.
Signals, Not Instructions
I want to be clear. Bodily sensations are NOT instructions telling us what to do.
A tight chest does NOT mean quit your job.
Fatigue does NOT mean something is wrong with you.
Avoidance does NOT mean you lack discipline.
These sensations are signals. They offer data about what your system is experiencing. When we treat them as commands, we often panic or shut down. When we treat them as information, we gain clarity.
What Happens When We Ignore the Signals
When early physical cues go unnoticed or dismissed, they don’t disappear. They grow.
Ignoring exhaustion becomes burnout.
Unacknowledged anxiety becomes avoidance.
Chronic tension becomes resentment.
What might have required a small adjustment, rest, support, a boundary, eventually demands a much larger intervention. Collapse is rarely sudden; it’s usually the result of many small choices over time.
Noticing doesn’t require overhauling your life. Often, it simply invites a pause:
Something here needs attention.
This is where hope lives. That pause might lead to saying no sooner, adjusting expectations, taking real rest instead of pushing through, or asking for help before depletion sets in. Small course corrections, made early, protect us from larger breakdowns later.
A Biblical Framework
Scripture gives language to this kind of awareness. In Psalm 32, David writes:
“When I kept silent, my bones wasted away… day and night your hand was heavy on me.”
David doesn’t describe anxiety in abstract terms. He describes what it felt like in his body. He noticed those sensations and brought them honestly before the Lord.
Jesus modeled this same attentiveness. We see Him regularly withdrawing to quiet places, not because He was overwhelmed, but because He honored limits. He noticed when it was time to rest, pray, and recalibrate.
Listening to the body is not about elevating feelings above wisdom. It’s about honoring the way God designed us: as integrated beings with a mind, body, and soul meant to work together.
As we continue this series, we’ll keep returning to this idea: growth doesn’t begin with force or urgency. It begins with attention. And often, the body is the first place that attention is invited.
