BODY AWARENESS: A LOOKING GLASS FOR YOUR SUPPORT SYSTEM

I often scream to the rooftops how powerful yoga can be when it comes to increasing body awareness. Body awareness is a great tool to have in your toolkit when living with MS. Body awareness helps you to recognize how your body responds to stress, how your symptoms manifest within your body and the severity of the symptoms you experience. Tuning into your body’s subtle signals can help you gain a deeper understanding of your needs and develop a mindful approach to managing symptoms.

When I thought about it a little deeper, I realized I haven't shared the impact body awareness can have when it comes to interacting with your support system. One of the most common things I have observed for those of us living with MS is the difficulty we have explaining what we are experiencing in our bodies. It can be even more challenging when symptoms are invisible to the naked eye. This can make it extremely difficult for our support systems to understand our experience, therefore making it harder for them to know how to support us. Sometimes this results in feeling misunderstood, unheard or unsupported. When your body awareness is heightened, it helps you better explain your experience thus increasing the level of support that is accessible to you. 

We don’t always consider how helpless our support systems feel when they watch us experience MS and not being able to fix or solve it for us. Understanding your experience of living with MS can help your support system to feel more connected to you and potentially less helpless in the long run. Body awareness can help bridge the gap between what they want to do and what they can do. 

Developing body awareness won't be a magic wand for your support system to solve or cure MS for you. Think of it as a key for your support system to open the door into your body’s experience with MS. It could be the perfect opportunity for them to learn how to show up for you, how to hold space and what resources to provide. 

If you’re interested in exploring this more, I shared a recent carousel, Unlock the Power of Body Awareness and a Body Awareness Practice reel that guides you through a simple body scan practice on Instagram. Both can be great starting points as you tune into your body’s signals and share your experience with your support system.