Podcast insight · Holistic health · Daily habits
Your Body Is Speaking. Are You Listening?
Six practical ways to listen to your body, notice the signals you’ve learned to live with, and build a calmer, healthier daily routine.
You wake up tired. You rush through breakfast. You answer messages while eating lunch. By evening, you feel exhausted but struggle to switch off. Eventually, you begin describing it as your personality.
“I’m just an anxious person.”
“I’ve always had a sensitive stomach.”
“This is what happens when you’re busy.”
When discomfort becomes familiar, it can quietly become the standard you organise your life around. Learning to listen to your body starts with one honest question.
What have I become used to that needs attention?
That question sits at the heart of Daniel Kobryner’s conversation with Dr. Anthony Salzarulo, a holistic health consultant and homeopath, on Redesign Your Life Today. Their discussion invites us to become more curious about our body signals and more deliberate about the conditions in which we live. This guide turns that conversation into six practical steps to help you listen to your body, starting with one observation today.
The pattern
Why it’s so easy to stop listening to your body
Most of us don’t decide to ignore our health. We adapt. A busy season becomes a busy year, tiredness becomes “normal”, and the small signals fade into background noise. Over time, the habit of pushing through replaces the habit of checking in.
That’s understandable, but familiarity is not the same as wellbeing. When you listen to your body with curiosity rather than judgement, you start to notice which signals have quietly become part of your routine.
Body signals people often learn to live with
Persistent tiredness
Needing to rest after things you used to manage comfortably.
Recurring digestive discomfort
A “sensitive stomach” that has become part of everyday life.
Ongoing anxiety
A constant hum of worry you now describe as your personality.
Poor sleep
Exhausted by evening yet struggling to switch off at night.
Covering the light vs choosing to listen to your body
Covering the light
- “It’s just how I am.”
- Waiting until everything is finished to rest
- Vague descriptions: “I feel off”
- Big overhauls that don’t last
- Trying whatever a headline promises
Listening
- “What have I become used to?”
- Small pauses built into the day
- Clear notes: what, when, how
- One small change, repeated
- Asking what the evidence shows
The difference isn’t willpower. It’s attention. Once you start to listen to your body in this way, the next practical step usually becomes obvious.
If any of these persist or change, that’s a reason to book a conversation with a qualified healthcare professional. Symptoms can have several contributing factors, and their meaning can’t reliably be worked out from a podcast, an internet search or one person’s experience.
The practice
6 ways to listen to your body and act on what it tells you
Each step below comes with a simple “try this” so you can turn awareness into action. You don’t need to do all six. Choose the one that feels most relevant and start there.
1. Notice the warning light
Dr. Salzarulo offers a memorable analogy: covering a car’s warning light with black tape lets you keep driving without seeing the signal, but the underlying problem still needs investigating.
The lesson is to pay attention when something changes. Persistent fatigue, recurring digestive discomfort or ongoing anxiety all deserve a conversation with a qualified healthcare professional. Symptom relief also matters. Investigating a cause and easing suffering belong together. When you listen to your body this way, the goal isn’t to work out what’s wrong on your own. It’s to notice clearly enough to ask for the right help.
Try this: turn “I feel tired” into a clear note for your GP
Before your next appointment, answer three questions. Specific observations help you communicate what you need.
Your note
“For the past month, I have needed to rest after activities I previously managed comfortably.”
2. Look at the conditions around the problem
Another image from the conversation is a garden. When a plant struggles, a thoughtful gardener examines its surroundings: water, light, soil and space. Human health is far more complex, but the image is a useful starting point for reflection.
What does your typical day ask of you? And what opportunities does it give you to recover? This is where holistic health thinking helps: looking at the whole picture, not just the symptom.
Water
Nourishment, regular meals and hydration
Light
Daylight, movement and genuine rest
Soil
Your environment, work and relationships
Space
Time to recover between demands
A reflective analogy, not a medical model.
Try this: map yesterday
Consider an entrepreneur who feels mentally drained every afternoon. Their routine includes late-night work, irregular meals and back-to-back calls. Those details give useful context for a healthcare conversation and reveal practical changes worth considering. Tap any part of this example day to see a gentler option.
Tap a block above to see one small swap.
Now write down your own routine from yesterday, from waking to bedtime, including meals, work, movement, breaks and screen time. Then ask: where could I make one part of this day easier on myself? Choose something small enough to repeat, such as a proper lunch break, a short walk or a clear finishing time.
3. Give your day a rhythm
One of Dr. Salzarulo’s most accessible suggestions is to bring more consistency to daily life, and sleep is a practical place to begin. The NHS notes that going to bed and getting up at similar times can help support sleep, and a calmer bedtime routine can help you prepare for rest.
Choose a realistic waking time. Then identify the evening habit that makes it hardest to sustain. Perhaps you open your laptop after dinner and lose track of time, or take your phone to bed and keep working through messages. A healthy daily routine is built around protecting that rhythm.
Try this: set a “Start winding down” reminder
- Close work for the day
- Lower the lights
- Choose a quieter activity, such as reading or calming music
- Leave screens out of bed
Rhythm is one of the easiest ways to listen to your body day to day: when your sleep and waking times are steadier, changes in energy are much easier to spot. If you miss a night, return to the routine the next evening. Consistency allows room for ordinary life.
4. Practise a pause before the pressure builds
The interview returns again and again to how we respond to stress throughout the day. It’s easy to save rest for the moment when everything is finished, but for many people that moment keeps moving.
Instead, make a brief pause part of something you already do. Before joining a call, sit comfortably, let your shoulders soften and breathe gently at a comfortable pace without forcing a deep breath. According to the NHS, breathing exercises for stress can help, especially when practised regularly. They are one supportive tool within a broader approach to wellbeing.
Breathe at whatever pace feels comfortable. Follow the circle only if it helps.
Try this: attach your pause to a familiar cue
Then ask: what needs my attention next? The aim is simply to give yourself a little space to choose your response.
5. Make one meal easier to repeat
Dr. Salzarulo encourages paying attention to food and making room for more whole foods. You can turn that into a manageable question: what could I add to one regular meal to make it more balanced and satisfying?
Perhaps breakfast needs a source of protein. Perhaps lunch could include vegetables or beans. Or perhaps you need a simple meal ready for evenings when energy is low. Convenience helps here: frozen vegetables, tinned beans and other practical staples make a nourishing meal easier to prepare.
Tap to build a more balanced plate.
Try this: one meal, one improvement
Choose one meal you eat often. Plan one improvement and buy what you need for the next few days. Let the change become familiar before adding another. Notice how you feel in the hours after that meal. That simple observation is another way to listen to your body.
6. Bring curiosity to health claims too
Looking at the whole person includes asking thoughtful questions about any proposed treatment. To listen to your body well, you also need to listen critically to what you’re told about it.
Dr. Salzarulo discusses homeopathy and describes his personal experiences. Those accounts should be kept separate from established clinical evidence. NHS inform states there is no good-quality evidence that homeopathy effectively treats any health condition, and it should never replace prescribed treatment or delay a medical assessment.
Ask these three questions before trying any approach
What evidence supports it for my situation?
What are the risks or possible interactions?
How will we assess whether it helps?
Being an active participant in your health includes asking for clear answers.
Daily habit
How to listen to your body in 2 minutes a day
You don’t need a wellness app or a long journal. A short daily check-in is enough to start noticing patterns in your body signals over a week or two. Move each slider to reflect how today feels, then read your summary.
Today’s read-out
Move the sliders to see a suggestion for one small step today.
A reflection tool only. Nothing you enter is saved or sent anywhere.
The value comes from repetition. If the same dial stays low for a couple of weeks, you have a clear, specific observation to share with your GP. That’s exactly what it means to listen to your body: noticing, recording and then acting, rather than guessing.
Your week
A 7-day plan to listen to your body
If you’d like structure, use this gentle week to practise each idea once. Small, repeatable actions build a healthy daily routine far more reliably than a dramatic overhaul.
- Day 1
Notice. Write down one signal you’ve been living with.
- Day 2
Describe. Answer: what changed, when, and how it affects you.
- Day 3
Map. Write out yesterday from waking to bedtime.
- Day 4
Rhythm. Set your “Start winding down” reminder.
- Day 5
Pause. Take one gentle breathing break before a call.
- Day 6
Nourish. Improve one meal you eat often.
- Day 7
Act. Book the appointment you’ve been putting off.
Commit
Your next step can be small
Choose one action from this article and make it specific. Pick one below, or use it as a template for your own.
My next step
Choose an option above.
Taking responsibility for your health doesn’t mean blaming yourself for illness. Health is shaped by many factors, including circumstances outside your control. It means identifying the support you need and the next step available to you. You deserve to take your own experience seriously.
If stress and the way you think about pressure feel like the bigger theme, Daniel’s 7 Weeks to Mental Mastery programme goes deeper into building calmer, more deliberate habits of mind.
Listen in
Watch the full conversation
What might change if you became more curious about the signals you’ve learned to live with? Watch the full episode of Redesign Your Life Today with Daniel Kobryner and Dr. Anthony Salzarulo for a wider conversation about daily habits, stress and taking a more active role in your wellbeing.
Questions
Listen to your body: frequently asked questions
What does it mean to listen to your body?
To listen to your body means paying curious, non-judgemental attention to signals such as tiredness, digestion, sleep and stress, noticing when they change, and responding with practical action or professional advice instead of pushing through.
Which body signals shouldn’t I ignore?
Anything new, persistent or worsening deserves attention, including ongoing fatigue, recurring digestive discomfort or continuing anxiety. Speak to your GP or call NHS 111. If symptoms are sudden or severe, call 999.
How can I describe my symptoms more clearly to a doctor?
Note what has changed, when it began and how it affects ordinary activities. “I’ve needed to rest after activities I used to manage for the past month” is far more useful than “I feel tired”.
Do breathing exercises for stress really help?
The NHS says breathing exercises can help with stress, particularly when practised regularly. They work best as one tool within a wider approach to wellbeing, alongside sleep, food, movement and support.
Can a healthy daily routine improve sleep?
Going to bed and getting up at similar times, plus a calmer wind-down routine, can help support sleep. Start with a realistic waking time and remove the one evening habit that makes it hardest to keep.
Is listening to your body the same as self-diagnosing?
No. When you listen to your body, you notice and record changes so you can describe them clearly. Working out what those changes mean is a job for a qualified healthcare professional.
How do you listen to your body when you’re always busy?
Attach a short check-in to something you already do, like closing your laptop or arriving home. Two minutes is enough to notice your energy, sleep, stress and digestion, and to choose one small next step.
Is homeopathy an effective treatment?
NHS inform states there is no good-quality evidence that homeopathy effectively treats any health condition. It should never replace prescribed treatment or delay a medical assessment.
Final thoughts
Start listening today
Your body has been speaking all along: in the afternoon slump, the restless nights and the stomach that tightens before a deadline. You don’t need to decode every signal on your own. You just need to stop covering the warning light.
Pick one step, make it specific and repeat it until it feels ordinary. That’s how you listen to your body, not once, but as a way of living. Over time, the signals you once taped over become useful information, and a healthy daily routine stops feeling like effort and starts feeling like you. For more conversations like this, explore the Redesign Your Life Today podcast or download the Life Redesigned eBook.
This article is for general information and reflects a podcast conversation. It isn’t a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.