About a year ago, when I started to study body-mind-emotions connections, there were a few of these “big realization moments” that strongly shaped my understanding on wellbeing today. One of such realization is that over the years we have “outsourced” our wellbeing to professionals. We rely more and more on whatever type of tests, research and analysis than what we actually feel ourselves. How could ever, another person, know better than I do, what I feel and experience myself within my own body? In fact, as I have the best possible insight into my own wellbeing, I’m the only one truly responsible for taking care of my own health. What is more, I’m the only one who’s going to live with my body all the years ahead. Professionals are clearly still needed, and by emphasizing the one’s own responsibility I simply mean I’m the ultimately responsible person for my own wellbeing and no one else.

The other, and the probably the most amazing realization has been to learn how intelligent our body is. What is even more, our body actually clearly communicates with us, if we just pay attention and listen to its messages. The body’s messages can be tiny and quiet ones, e.g. itching of a skin for some minutes or more noticeable ones e.g. a headache that just appeared without any clear reason.

So, your everyday buddy whether you wanted or not, is your body. Like in every relationship, responses your get from your body are reflections back from yourself. If you appreciate and treat your body well, it responds well. If you ignore or even mistreat your body, it will show you symptoms of pain or even diseases at some point of time. What does it mean to treat your body well? I used to think wellbeing was mostly about sleeping and relaxing enough, exercising and eating healthy. Well, today I understand my emotions play much bigger role in my physical wellbeing than I ever imagined. Further, the fact how I feel right now is influencing directly on how well my immune system is going to work the next few hours. There are studies showing that if you experience negative emotions for some minutes, correspondingly your immune system is going to be relatively weaker for a few hours. Or, if you experience positive emotions, your immune system will work stronger for the next few hours. So, clearing out negative emotions is definitely a healthy choice.
 
What does wellbeing mean to you today? Do your respect your body and listen to its messages? The more you listen to your own body, the more your body talks to you.