When Bob first came to me, he wasn't sleeping. Panic kept him up most of the night. He was taking sedatives to get down and amphetamines to stay sharp through the day, and the cocktail his doctor gave him had stopped working. He was on a mission, money and doing right by the planet both, and he worked like the mission couldn't spare him. He was burning out and moving too fast to see it.
In my work, paying attention to the mind-body connection means including what a person can feel in their body as they explore a thought, a worry, or a decision. A tightening or a change in breath may give us something more to notice before responding.
I know how easy it is to keep pushing past discomfort when there is work to do. When my own gut pain got worse and I stopped sleeping, I kept trying to carry on. Eventually I asked for help. Part of that work was learning to notice my limits and take them seriously.
What Bob found, when he stopped and dropped his attention into what he was feeling, was that the feeling wasn't new. It had been with him since he was a teenager. He was seventeen, his team had won the state championship, and he brought it to his father. His father said, "That's child's play." As we talked, that memory helped us explore how much being worthy of his father still mattered to him, alongside the pressures he was facing now.
A sensation can be a starting point for a conversation. We can notice it, ask what it brings up, and consider it alongside the facts of the situation. It may call for a different response, rest, or practical help. It doesn't tell us the whole story on its own.