Are you at ease in your body? It is believed that the more at ease you are in your body–that is, the more you treat it with respect and care–the more at ease you’ll be in your life. The state of your body and your connection to movement and peace often closely reflect the state of your life.

How can you ensure a healthy relationship to your body? Paying attention to the language of your symptoms, honoring a relationship to movement, loving your body and honoring your spirit are a few ways to connect with your body. Here are other pointers:

  • Your body reflects what is happening in your life, and you body tends to get sick more easily when you are not present in it.
  • A commonly held perspective in integrative medicine is that the body gets sick to get your attention, and your symptoms provide a type of language about what is going on with your spirit.
  • Healthy people usually have a loving relationship with their bodies and often feel inspired.
  • Life is movement, so when you’re feeling in pain or in some way disconnected from your body and spirit, one of the most effective integration tools is through movement.
  • Movement releases and helps energize the body, creating a new sense of aliveness in the body and mind.
  • The body, mind, and emotions are interrelated, and deeply negative emotional states can cause enormous stress in the body–contributing to disease.
  • The body is a living, breathing organism in which every cell is aware of every other cell—constantly conveying information through numerous communication pathways.

It can be healing to engage in bodywork and meditation, particularly to practice “listening” to your body.