Tips for Mentally Healthy Activity: Practice Listening to Your Body
Mentally healthy physical activity starts with paying attention to your body’s cues. A cue is a signal your body gives you to tell you what it needs. Common cues include:
-Yawning because you are tired or bored.
-Your tummy rumbling because you are hungry.
-Feeling antsy because you need to move!
If you’re ignoring your body’s cues, you won't know what your body needs when you show up at the gym or for a run. This applies to basic cues like hunger and fatigue, as well as to movement or activity specific cues like how your knees or hips feel during a squat or while running. Paying attention to what’s going on inside your own body is a crucial step towards mentally healthy exercise. If you don’t notice when fatigue, hunger, and discomfort show up you may be setting yourself up for mental and physical problems, like overtraining, undereating, or injury.
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The solution to this is to practice noticing these cues without judgment. They’re not good or bad things, they’re just information. An easy way to do this is to narrate what you’re noticing in your own body: “I’m noticing my tummy rumbling,” or “I can’t focus on my readings right now” or “I feel really tired, and going for a run feels like a real push.”
Once you can name what’s going on, you might have some clarity on what would feel good. This may be taking a break to walk around, getting a snack, or getting your runners on and taking a jog. Labelling your body’s cues accurately and non-judgmentally is a skill, as it uses our capacity to direct our awareness without getting distracted by the thoughts and feelings that may show up. This skill needs to be exercised and trained, just like any muscle in your body. The more you do it, the stronger and more useful that muscle will become.
Sources:
- https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/combine-mindfulness-with-exercise-for-mental-health-boost-in-2024-study/
- This article could easily be translated to exercise instead of eating: https://www.mindful.org/6-ways-practice-mindful-eating/
Past Wellness Wednesday Articles & Videos:
Movement is Medicine...Except When It’s Not - Sport and Recreation Services - Western University
Staying Active During Exam Season - Sport and Recreation Services - Western University
Last Updated: March 5, 2025
