Get Stronger After 40

“Listening to Your Body” Doesn’t Mean Letting It Off the Hook

“Listen to your body” started as good advice.

For a long time, many of us were encouraged to override every signal our bodies sent. Our culture urged us to push harder, wear exhaustion like a badge of honor, and walk it off when it hurt. We were told that soreness was weakness leaving the body. If you weren't suffering, apparently you weren't really trying.

So “listen to your body” arrived as a useful correction. But, like so many aphorisms, it got stretched into something else. Gradually, “listen to your body” started getting used to justify every moment of reluctance: Not right now because I just don’t feel like it.

Listening to your body isn't the same as obeying every feeling that passes through it. Your body sends signals all day long, but they don’t all carry the same meaning. Hunger can mean you need food—or it can mean you're bored. Fatigue can mean you need recovery—or it can mean you've spent six hours sitting at a computer and your body would actually feel better if you moved it.

This is because your body sends signals and it also sends preferences—and those aren't the same thing. Signals ask for attention while preferences simply tell you what sounds appealing in the moment. When preferences get interpreted as signals, it becomes very easy to give equal weight to “I'm injured” and “I'd rather not do this now.” “I genuinely need recovery” and “I'm not in the mood” can both become reasons to stop, postpone, or opt out.

Listening to your body still matters. Ignoring pain, illness, or genuine exhaustion isn't how you build real strength. But neither is assuming every feeling that passes through deserves a vote.

When your body expresses a preference that doesn't support your health goals, you don't have to argue with it or pretend it isn't there. You can simply acknowledge it and keep going.

I hear you. You'd rather stay under the blanket.

I get it. You don't feel motivated today.

I understand. You wish this sounded easier.​
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Then do the workout anyway. Or go for the walk. Or make the lunch that supports the stronger person you're becoming. Because preferences can be a part of the conversation, but you’re the one who makes the final decision.

For a low-bar way to push past your preference to sit on couch and scroll though social media, try my free 8-minute Wonderfulness Workout video. It's the easy start your body needs.

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