Dear Human 💕,

I can see you’re frustrated. You can’t focus, you can’t decide, you can’t seem to do anything . . . and you don’t know why.

Meow. Your body is telling you why and you’re not listening.

Your body is the boss. Your brain just thinks it is. If your body isn’t okay, your brain can’t do its job. And it gets worse, as your feelings run wild too. That’s why hangry is real. Hungry and angry. When your body is hungry, you get irritated over nothing.

When I’m hungry, I cannot focus on the birds. I eat the emergency kibble piece or meow for food.

When I’m tired, I can’t do anything. I take a long nap wherever I happen to be.

When my tail goes all puffy, I find a safe spot and hide until I calm down.

When you’re feeling off,  take a few minutes to check-in with your body. Sit still and notice what your body is telling you.

• Thirsty, hungry, tired or do you need to pee?

Drink water. Eat something. Take a nap. Go to your litterbox.

• Heart racing? Jaw clenched? Zoomies?

Calm yourself down. Take a few deep breaths. Soothe yourself and calm down with your senses. A guided meditation can also help. Try just 5 minutes. And if you need to let of some steam first: scream, punch a pillow, or move.

• Heavy? Foggy? Numb? Like you’re underwater?

This isn’t the same as tired-from-no-sleep. Sleep won’t fix it. You need a jump-start, and I know that might feel impossible at times. So start with the tiniest thing that feels possible. Get up. Stretch. Splash some cold water on your face. Put on a song that makes you want to move. Step outside.

Don’t argue with your body, just answer it and give it what it needs. Everything else gets easier after.

Yours,
Cat 🐾

P.S. A popular tool to listen to your body is a body scan. It’s been part of mindfulness training for decades, going back to Jon Kabat-Zinn’s MBSR program (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) in the 1970s. Two free guided body scans that walk you through it step by step:

• 10-minute body scan from Mindful.org (with text version too)
• 32-minute body scan in the original MBSR style