I’ve been really unwell for the last few days. I very rarely get sick and it totally wiped me out. However it reminded me how well our body tells us what it needs in all situations.

Unfortunately it was a tummy bug which meant I didn’t feel like anything to eat and even water was a bit dodgy. Funnily enough however the good old “wives tale” of lemonade ice block truly works and is the only thing I felt like or my body could keep down for the first two days. (So at least I didn’t get dehydrated!)

When we are in a situation like this we have to listen to our body, we have no other choice. So I took myself off to bed and rested and slept as much as I could.

So why don’t we listen to our body when it is well? It is because we have the energy and ability to override it and often we have actually disconnected to our body’s natural instincts so we can no longer hear or feel what it is telling us. Imagine how well our body would work for us if we did exactly what it told us all of the time?

It is so important to eat when we are actually hungry, eat exactly what we want, stop when we are satisfied and go and do something else until we are physically hungry again. These are the 4 principles of the Nourishment Cycle.

But what do we need to do when we’re not hungry?

1. Recharge – rest, relax, get enough sleep, do things that give us joy

2. Energise – move our bodies. Find something you love and do it regularly, it doesn’t have to be every day and it doesn’t have to be aerobic. Just move. Your body will love it physically and emotionally.

3. Stimulation – We all need something that lights us up, to feel valued, that we are contributing. Boredom leads to lack of motivation and procrastination of often finds us in front of the pantry or the fridge!!

4. Higher Power – or inner connection. An opportunity every day to just stop and be, to connect with yourself. This could be prayer, meditation, art, music, fishing, walking in nature or something creative. Time to just turn the business of life and stress off.

You don’t have to find a lot of extra time for these things as often they can be combined. I walk every day in the beautiful park next to our house. It has lots of paths winding through beautiful fields, the bush and along the river. While walking I can recharge, energise and stimulate myself while connecting to my higher power. Magic.

So this month I encourage you to think about if you are meeting all your body’s needs in an appropriate way or do you keep yourself going by overeating, alcohol or even over- working? Eventually your body will tell you it has had enough!