Regular Reflection—Taking Notice of Your Self-Signals
You are receiving regular communications… from yourself. Many of the messages are ignored, like so many unread emails in your inbox, but they are all delivered. The messages come from your brain, your body, your energy, and your spirit. Everyone notices the big ones, such as injuries, heartache, or fatigue, but there are so many more that may go completely unnoticed. The nuances of your body, mind, and spirit are there for you, and you only need to pay attention and become aware of them.
What are the cues to clue in on
What is your body, mind, and spirit telling you right now? In any given moment, you are getting a wealth of information that is key to your productivity, your health, and your mood. But in today’s overwhelming world, all that information can get lost in the white noise of daily existence. So what are the cues? What are the elements of yourself that you should key into and take regular notice of? Here are a few of the important ones:
- Hunger. This one seems obvious, but so many people eat, not because they’re hungry but because it’s time to eat, or they’re bored or stressed. Paying attention to your hunger cues can help you maintain energy, stay clear-headed, and provide the fuel you need.
- Fatigue. Like hunger, most people ignore how tired they are. They’re either tired all the time and never catching up, or they sleep on a schedule that isn’t conducive to getting sufficient, high-quality sleep.
- Pain. Pain can present itself in a variety of ways. Some might be related to injuries, others to overexertion, and others to body function, such as the digestive process. Pain is never arbitrary. It is there to tell you that something isn’t right and that you should examine your condition and activities to ensure you stay healthy and physically functioning.
- Emotional state. If you think back on your emotional state of yesterday, you might say “fine,” or “good.” But there were likely periods when you were stressed, anxious, irritable, sad, or frustrated, and they never reached the conscious level. Regularly checking in on your specific emotions can help you understand where your big emotional swings come from. They can help you maintain healthy relationships and productive work collaborations. And they can help you avoid the big, damaging swings in emotions that the more nuanced feelings can build up to.
- Focus. We all have days when we can’t seem to stay focused. Like many abilities, focus is not only present or absent; it’s a continuum. Where you fall on that continuum is a critical cue related to your nutrition, sleep patterns, and emotional state. Paying attention to your ability to focus can lead to insights into your lifestyle that help you improve your life in various ways.
- Social Energy. Sometimes you just want to be by yourself. Each of us, extroverts included, has a finite amount of energy to devote to interacting with people. You need time to yourself to reflect, recharge, and breathe. Time alone is what you need to process your experiences and grow as a person.
Be Specific
Paying attention to the cues you receive is an important step, but it doesn’t stop there. To interpret those cues, you also have to dive deeper and be aware of their nuances. For example, there are many reasons people eat, and, as counterintuitive as it might seem, it’s rarely because their stomach is empty. Hunger can take many forms. The most obvious one is hunger cues coming from an empty belly. But there is also hunger that comes from your senses—a craving for a particular taste, such as salty chips, for example. You can also smell something, or even see something, and it can set off your “hunger.” Finally, emotional cues are highly prevalent in the context of hunger. A variety of emotions can kick in your desire for food: boredom, stress, heartache, for example. Other body cues have similar nuances, and it’s important to reflect on the cues you are receiving and explore where they’re coming from and what they mean.
Be organized
Like any good habit, paying attention to your cues will only be effective if you have a process in place. Ideally, this process will include moments when you scan the sources of your cues, assess the information, and document the experience. Here are some ideas to help you stay organized for a sustainable approach to assimilating cues into your life:
- Identify your relevant cues. Make a list of the cues that are important to you and that you’d like to focus on
- Schedule check-ins. Regularly scan the information from these cues.
- Keep a journal: Track recurring symptoms, potential triggers (foods, events, behaviors), duration, and intensity to identify patterns.
Without an organized process, learning from your cues is just a good idea that you may or may not follow through with.
Acting on the information
Cues are “actionable information” that you can use to better your health, increase your mental clarity, improve your emotional landscape, and enhance your productivity. Once you have a good sense of your cues and have developed an awareness of what they’re telling you, the next step is to create a plan to act. This will involve exploring appropriate actions when your cues indicate a need for change. You can develop actions based on cue trends before they happen, so you can anticipate and act quickly when they occur.
Cues are your body, mind, and spirit’s way of engaging with your conscious self. Developing open communication through these cues will help you live your life to its fullest.
Artwork by PinkCat
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