“Just listen to your body.”
If you’ve ever wanted to throw a book across the room after reading that phrase, I get it.
It is the single most infuriating piece of advice given to smart women who are struggling with food. Because you’ve been trying to listen. You’ve been straining to hear that wise, intuitive voice everyone talks about.
But all you hear is noise. Chaos. The screaming demand for sugar. The dull, anxious hum of guilt. The inner critic telling you you’ve failed again.
So you conclude the problem is you. Your body is broken. Your intuition is missing.
Here’s the truth:
You can’t hear a whisper in the middle of a hurricane. And you can’t listen to your body from a state of fight-or-flight.
Your Nervous System is Having a Panic Attack
For years, you’ve been treating your body like an enemy. You’ve restricted it, starved it, criticized it, and pushed it. Add to that the chronic stress of a high-stakes career and just, you know, living in the modern world.
The result? Your nervous system is permanently on high alert. It’s in survival mode. It thinks it’s running from a tiger, 24/7.
In this state—the sympathetic “fight-or-flight” state—your body is not interested in subtle cues. It’s not gently whispering its needs for nourishment. It’s screaming for quick energy to survive the perceived threat. It’s demanding sugar, carbs, anything that will give it a fast hit of fuel.
Your hunger cues are scrambled. Your cravings are amplified. Your entire system is a mess of crossed wires and panic signals.
Trying to “listen to your body” in this state is impossible. The lines are down. The signal is pure static.
The First Step is Not Listening. It’s Creating Safety.
This is the piece that every single diet and most wellness programs miss entirely.
They assume you can already hear the signals. They skip straight to the food, the rules, the tracking.
They are trying to teach you a new language while a fire alarm is blaring in your head.
The work is not to listen harder. The work is to turn off the alarm.
The work is to regulate your nervous system first. To bring your body out of that chronic state of threat and into a state of safety (the parasympathetic “rest-and-digest” state).
Only when your body feels safe can it stop screaming. Only when it stops screaming can you begin to hear the whisper of its actual needs.
This isn’t a metaphor. It’s biology. You have to calm the system before you can communicate with it.
So if you’ve been beating yourself up for failing to “listen to your body,” you can stop now. You were given the wrong instructions. You were trying to do step five before you even knew step one existed.
If this feels like the missing piece of the puzzle, it is. This is the foundation of the work I do. If you’re curious to learn more about what it actually means to regulate your nervous system, you can find more info at www.cetfreedom.com. Or just send me a message. Let’s talk about it.
