Your body is constantly speaking to you through sensations, signals, and symptoms — but most of us have forgotten how to listen. This guide shows you how to recognise those messages and use them to create a personalised, responsive self-care practice.
How to Understand Symptoms as Your Body’s Way of Communicating
Why This Matters
The first and greatest self-care skill you can learn is how to listen to the wisdom of your own body.
Your body knows what it needs and is constantly communicating with you — if you know how to listen.
What I call body wisdom is a primal survival system — one that wild creatures still use instinctively, yet many of us have forgotten in modern life.
When you reconnect with this natural awareness, you gain:
- Personal guidance and insight.
- Confidence in your self-care choices.
- A sense of partnership instead of frustration.
🌿You and your body are a team — you need each other.
Step 1 – Understanding Body Wisdom
Body wisdom is your ability to develop a deeper connection through active listening.
Your body constantly sends feedback through sensations, feelings, and especially symptoms.
Becoming aware of this feedback allows you to communicate and respond in real time.
Step 2 – Rethink What Symptoms Mean
Old view: symptoms are problems that need fixing.
New view: symptoms are messages — your body’s way of saying, “I need your help.”
When I was in my twenties and struggling with my health, I often felt betrayed by my body. I’d think, “Why can’t it just tell me what’s wrong?”
Now I know — it was telling me, through symptoms.
Your body’s goal is to keep you alive. When something is out of balance, its systems send you alerts designed to get your attention.
🌿Example – Dehydration in Action
If you don’t drink enough water, your body starts signalling for help.
Early warning signs:
- Thirst
- Dry mouth
- Tiredness
- Dark urine
- Less frequent urination
Ignore these, and the signals grow louder: dizziness, headaches, fatigue.
Each symptom is a message:
“Please give me more fluids so I can function well.”
When you respond — and symptoms ease — your body says:
“Thank you, that’s exactly what I needed.”
🌿Next time you feel thirsty or tired, pause and ask:
“What might my body be trying to tell me?”
Step 3 – Listening as a Skill
Before I trained as a medical herbalist, I never listened to my body.
I saw fatigue and pain as failure, not feedback.
Now I see them as requests for help.
If we were all taught to interpret our symptoms as communication, our health journeys would look very different.
It’s never too late to start listening.
Step 4 – Notice How Loud Your Body Speaks
Your body uses volume to show urgency:
- Whisper → mild symptom (dry mouth, stiffness, tiredness)
- Talk → moderate symptom (fatigue, mild pain)
- Shout → loud symptom (headache, sharp pain, exhaustion)
🌿Pain is a “red alert.” It’s your body shouting, “Something needs to change now.”
Step 5 – Start a Two-Way Conversation
You already respond to many signals automatically:
- Hungry → eat
- Cold → add a layer
- Full → stop eating
Now, extend that same awareness to subtler symptoms.
🧘 Try This: Mini Awareness Practice
- Notice a symptom.
- Ask: What was happening just before it appeared?
- Respond: Move, stretch, breathe, drink, or rest.
- Observe: Does it ease, worsen, or stay the same?
Example: when I sit writing for too long, I ache. That’s my body saying, “Move me.”
I stretch every 25 minutes; the ache fades — message received.
Step 6 – Track Your Symptoms
Think of it like the childhood “hot or cold” game:
- Helpful change → symptom eases (warmer)
- Unhelpful change → symptom persists (colder)
Tracking helps you discover what truly supports you.
You can learn more inside the Free Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit.
Step 7 – Supporting Your Body Without Silencing It
Painkillers and medications are often essential tools that make life manageable. They quiet symptoms so you can function, rest, and recover — an important part of healing.
What’s helpful is to stay gently curious about what’s happening underneath:
“What might my body still need, even while I’m managing this symptom?”
Think of relief as a window of support — a time when your body has less stress and more capacity to heal.
Whether symptoms are temporary or ongoing:
- Relief allows rest.
- Awareness maintains connection.
- Together they support long-term wellbeing.
🌿Using medication wisely and compassionately is self-care. Listening simply helps you work with your body, not against it.
Step 8 – Notice Subtlety and Responsiveness
Every body speaks differently. Some are loud and responsive; others are quieter.
The small, easily dismissed sensations — the “just me” moments — are often amber lights asking for early attention.
They’re also the first to change when your self-care is working.
Start small:
- When do symptoms appear or fade?
- What patterns do you see?
- Which actions help most?
🧘 Step 9 – Make It a Daily Dialogue
Check in with your body often:
- What do I feel right now?
- What is my body asking for?
- How does it respond when I listen?
With practice, this becomes second nature — a quiet, steady partnership guiding your wellbeing.
💡 Key Takeaways
- Symptoms are communication, not enemies.
- Listening is self-care. Awareness is the first step to healing.
- Tracking teaches your body’s language.
- Relief and awareness can coexist.
- Your body wants to feel good too. It just needs your help.
🌿 Reflection Prompt
How might your relationship with your body change if you treated every symptom as a message rather than a problem?
Start practising the art of listening — your body will thank you.
Awareness is powerful — but it becomes transformation when you track and apply it. The toolkit helps you put your insights into practice
Free Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit
Turn inspiration into lasting results — with a simple system that helps self-care finally work with your body, not against it.
If you’ve been reading along and thinking, “I’d love to try this myself one day…” — you don’t have to wait, or wonder where to start.
The Free Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit gives you the gentle structure to make your first challenge easy, personal, and effective.
It’s the same step-by-step approach I use when following the challenges alongside you — so you’ll feel supported every step of the way.
Inside, you’ll find:
🌿 A gentle Before Assessment to pinpoint what your body truly needs — so you can stop guessing and start seeing real results
🌿 Step-by-step guidance (plus short video walkthroughs) to choose the right self-care challenge for your needs — and actually complete it.
🌿 Printable planners, reflections, and trackers to help you stay consistent
🌿 Access to our private community (coming soon!) — for gentle accountability and encouragement
You’ll also receive:
💌 Weekly self-care reminders, new challenges, and encouragement in the Make Self-Care Simple newsletter
🪴 Access to our free private community — where women share progress, celebrate wins, and remind each other we’re not alone
🪻 Align & Uplift Pathway — reconnect with calm, joy, and emotional balance
Make Self Care Simple shares general self-care education for inspiration only. I’m not providing medical advice — always check what’s right for you with a qualified health professional.
©2025 Make Self Care Simple
