Your body is your best friend when it comes to your health. If you listen and watch your body, it will let you know when it is working well or when it has a problem that needs to be addressed. Paying attention to what it tells you is the secret to achieving optimal health.

Use these methods to listen to what your body is telling you:

1. First thing each morning, consider how you are feeling. Early morning is usually ideal for you to listen for your body’s signals. If you get up early in the morning it is usually quiet, and you can check out your physical signals. If you feel different from the morning before, you should examine what has changed and whether or not you need to follow up on those signals.
* Determine if you have any new pains when you first get out of your bed.
* If you wake up feeling ill or in pain, even after a sound night’s sleep, take it as a warning from your body and follow up on it.

2. Compare the effects on how you feel after different food choices. As you go through your normal routine day by day, it is sometimes a challenge to maintain proper nutrition. If you’re always in a hurry, on the go, you may end up making some poor food choices. If you do that consistently it is especially important to see the impact of your food choices on your body.
* Do you find that you’re more energetic when you have the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables?
* How effective are you in the gym if you’ve spent a day eating junk food?
* Does your mind function better at work when you eat vitamin-rich foods?

3. Get regular medical checkups. Even if you haven’t seen or felt anything that worried you, it’s important to get regular checkups from the doctor just to make sure everything is working properly. It is possible, for example, for your cholesterol or blood pressure to be too high and you to miss seeing or fail to recognize the symptoms.
* If you’re about to embark on a stressful period at work or school, that is a great time to get a checkup first, so that a problem doesn’t crop up and get in the way of your success.
* Set up a routine for yourself of having regular checkups, and stick to it.

4. Know what your body is capable of physically. Even if you are healthy and in good shape overall, there is still a limit to what your body can manage. Whether with exercise or mental work, it is important to know your limits so that you don’t end up burned out and exhausted.
* It’s okay to work out until your muscles feel it, but if the recovery time is longer than you expected you’ll know that you’ve overdone it. Adjust your workout accordingly.

* The same thing is true with mental exhaustion. You may feel like you’re coping with the long, stressful hours at work or study, until you realize that you are desperate to stay in bed when you should be up getting ready. Give yourself enough downtime.

Listening to your body’s signals is a very important part of maintaining good health. Remember that you need for your body to take you through the challenges of daily life, so you’re better off proactively protecting it! Listen to your body’s signals and react accordingly.