A Disconnected Body

We are generally unaware of how disconnected we are from ourselves and our bodies.

There is a give-and-take process between our health and our experiences. Our health impacts our experience of the world, and our experiences affect our health. We are disconnected from our bodies when we are unaware of this relationship. This process is as unique as yours.

Why is this important?

You can “get away” with many things in life until suddenly you can’t. There are many examples of this, such as a nagging injury, improper technique in an activity, or even just a bad habit that hasn’t pulled you under quite yet. We often find ways to work around our problems, even succeed (for a while) despite them. In my life, I have trained on injuries I didn’t know I had (Achilles tendonitis, IT-Band Syndrome, broken foot) and done well in school while tying two hands behind my back with horrible sleep hygiene and non-stop anxiety. Almost always, I would reach a wall where I was forced to look inward and listen to my body so that I could care for it better. At this point, I would have to face the reality that something was out of balance, and I needed to address it before moving forward. Most of the time, I wouldn’t know what I was actually doing wrong apart from not feeling like I should.

Hence….

I was disconnected from my body!

There was a time when I couldn’t draw the connection between my sleep hygiene, declining academic performance, declining athletic performance, and a general feeling of disconnect from my family and friends. It didn’t feel like I was always present, more like I was some fly on the wall. What bothered me the most was that these problems seemed to start all at once without warning.

• Why was I tired all the time?
• Why was I getting out of breath so quickly while exercising?
• Why was it so hard to focus in school and get through reading a chapter?  
• Why is my face so gaunt? 
• Why am I so irritable with my family and friends?
• Why don’t I feel like doing anything?

Of course, this definitely did not come out of anywhere. What was really happening was the cracks were now starting to show from poor lifestyle decisions. My body could no longer keep up with what I was asking: physically (climbing, running, kickboxing) and mentally (school, work). If my body was a car, we had made it as far as possible with the gas light on. Now we were empty. So I did the hard thing, I sat with my thoughts and reconnected with my body.

What was I doing to my health, which affected my experience?

When you listen to your body, it tells you things. In my case, it was a variety of little things that all added up to inadequate sleep. I was drinking too much caffeine and consuming it too late in the day, spending too much time in front of screens before bed (blue light kills), not clearing my mind of the day’s anxieties, thus allowing them to keep me up, scrolling mindlessly on my phone in bed, not closing the blinds and most of all… NOT HAVING A ROUTINE. I didn’t have a system to keep myself accountable and consistent. After I took the time to listen to the body, I was able to find the changes I needed to make. I had reconnected with my body.

It’s all connected.

My sleep problems taught me that health and experience are connected. Nothing about your health won’t manifest in your experience, and no experience is without its influence on your health. I had to assess my lifestyle to understand their relationship when I realized how far out of touch I was with my best self. I want you to take some time to analyze your decisions, lifestyle, and experiences. You may find an opportunity to reconnect with your body and ignite a better you.