Body Wisdom: Reconnecting With Your Body and Rebuilding Trust
In our fast-paced lives, it’s easy to feel disconnected from ourselves. Many of us live more in our minds than in our bodies, moving through the day on autopilot, multitasking, rushing, and responding rather than truly being present. This post, inspired by personal experiences and clinical work, is an invitation to slow down and begin reconnecting with the wisdom of your body.
One morning recently, I found myself rushing between tasks, technically engaged but not truly present. While walking through the park with my dog, I scrolled on my phone, mentally ticking through my to-do list. I ran into a friend and fellow yogi, and after the usual puppy pleasantries, I checked the time and blurted, “I’m trying to make the 9:30 yoga class.”
“But you’re here now,” she replied.
Her words landed gently, but honestly, they didn’t land enough. Despite the invitation to be present, I stayed in my head, governed by the ticking of my watch. I turned and rushed off to class.
Why So Many of Us Feel Disconnected From Our Bodies
So why do so many of us feel disconnected from our bodies?
We move at a rapid pace, live inside our thoughts, and often feel more connected to our devices than to ourselves or the people around us. Even when we’re given opportunities to slow down, our nervous systems may not know how to receive them. Presence can feel unfamiliar or even unsafe when we’ve spent years prioritizing productivity, control, or external validation.
This disconnection doesn’t happen overnight. It’s often the result of repeated moments where listening to the body felt inconvenient, discouraged, or outright punished.
Yoga, Presence, and the Question of Intention
When I arrived at yoga class, I scanned the room. A sea of bodies — each unique, each moving through space in its own way. I found myself wondering why each person was there.
Were they seeking reconnection? Yoga, after all, means “to yoke” or “to bind” — to connect you to yourself. Or were some using movement as a means to change their bodies? Burning calories. Sculpting. Shrinking. Fixing.
How many were linking one breath to one movement? How many were allowing their “monkey minds” to wander? How many were truly in their bodies, rather than performing movements on top of them?
These questions followed me throughout the day.
When Body Trust Begins to Break
Later, I listened to an episode of Glennon Doyle’s We Can Do Hard Things podcast exploring the wisdom of the body. I also revisited excerpts from Body Trust by Hilary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant.
The titles alone gave me pause: How to Follow the Wisdom of Your Body. Reclaiming Body Trust: A Path to Healing and Liberation.
Wisdom. Body. Trust. Healing. Liberation.
When did these words become so necessary?
As I walked through the same park again that evening, I made a conscious effort to slow down. I felt the ground beneath my feet. The warmth of the sun on my skin. The air moving around me. I stayed present with my dog, who — much like the body — exists entirely in the here and now, responding to what is, not what was or might be.
It made me wonder: when do people begin to distrust their bodies? What causes that fracture?
Later, in a session with a fifteen-year-old client struggling with the desire to lose weight and conform to the “standards of my generation, she explained, “...everyone on TV is skinny, and everyone wants to dress and look a certain way. Shopping for clothes in a larger size, in the women’s plus-size section, sucks. And, to be honest, the clothes are ugly, and they’re more expensive!” It was no wonder her eating disorder (ED) manifested as a loop of intrusive thoughts, keeping her preoccupied and urging her to eat less and lose weight. Wired to “stay in the tribe,” she had internalized the message that to fit in she needed to shrink. Really?
We paused for a moment and then delved deeper. I asked her, “When did you first notice a shift? When did you start feeling bad about living in a body? What happened? When did ED come into the picture, insisting that your body was the problem and weight loss was the solution?”
Without missing a beat, she recalled a specific moment: “ED wants me to lose weight to be smaller and fit into today’s standards. And well, I remember a time when my doctor made me feel so uncomfortable. It was at my well-child check-up right after COVID started. I wasn't going anywhere, not moving as much. I was thirteen years old, and she showed me a chart indicating that my weight had gone up. Then, she handed me a small piece of paper that said ‘childhood obesity’ and well, yeah, it made me feel terrible.”
There it was, tangible, palpable, and real - the struggle held between us, despite our different lived experiences in our unique bodies.
Is this what we want for ourselves, for each other? This poignant body story, along with countless others, is a tale of interwoven moments that deeply impact certain individuals. Sensitive and smart, they come to perceive their own bodies as the problem, with weight loss as the solution. And so, it is my professional passion and pursuit to help people make sense of their experiences, reconnect with themselves and their bodies, and employ self-discovery strategies to address body image and weight concerns. We cross-train with tools such as Intuitive Eating, Yoga, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Internal Family Systems, and the most powerful tool of all - the wisdom you bring and share from your lived experience.
Exploring Your Body Story
Together, we explore questions like:
What is your body story?
What does it mean to live in your body?
What is your relationship to your human vessel (spacesuit, if you will) that you were born into and will carry throughout your life?
What is the cultural discourse surrounding your body? Is it beauty?
What is the medical discourse surrounding your body? Is it health?
What messages do you hear and internalize?
Is your body the problem that needs fixing, shrinking, shaping, or sculpting?
What would it be like to view your body as the source and solution, rather than the problem?
What exactly is embodiment?
These questions are not meant to be answered quickly. They’re meant to be lived with. As you take time to reflect, consider this working definition of embodiment from the “We Can Do Hard Things” podcast: Embodiment is accurate and accompanied by attunement in any given moment.
What does this mean? Is it the ability to tune in, listen, feel, respond, and be with the signals and sensations emanating from your body? Does learning to trust these signals make you feel more connected to yourself and others and, therefore, more whole? Then, I recalled a quote from the “Body Trust” book: “We are easier to control if we are fragmented,” and it brought me back to a yoga class I had attended years ago but never forgotten. The message was to remember. That remembering doesn’t mean resetting, rewinding, reevaluating, or regretting. It means to re-member who you are. To become whole again, merge the wisdom of your body with the knowledge of your mind. Can we start there and initiate a curious, collaborative conversation?
Embracing Body Trust as a Path to Healing
At CV Wellbeing, we believe healing happens through reconnection, not restriction. We support individuals in rebuilding body trust, healing their relationship with food, and cultivating a more embodied, compassionate way of living. Our approach is non-diet, weight-inclusive, and grounded in evidence-based care. If you’re feeling disconnected from your body or stuck in cycles of body image distress or disordered eating, you don’t have to navigate it alone.
