My Secret To Making Fast Decisions
Why tuning into your body is a radical act of leadership.
I remember the first time a yoga teacher told me to “listen to my body.”
We were doing paschimottanasana, the seated forward bend where you stretch your legs out in front of you and fold forward, reaching your hands toward your feet. She walked around the class: some students were folded completely in half, their noses touching their thighs, while others looked more like a sideways J, backs rounded and fingers desperately grasping their knees. I was somewhere in the middle, having hit my edge, when she gently placed a hand on my back and said, “Listen to your body. It will tell you when you’re going too far.”
At the time I thought she was being ridiculous. This was the early 2000s, before words like “embodiment” and “somatic” became popular. What exactly was I supposed to be listening for? Audible groans from my hamstrings?
What happens when we actually listen?
It wasn’t until years later, as I went through my own yoga teacher training, that the connections between the physical body, emotions, and thoughts became clearer. I learned how trauma can live in the tissues, how our breath can regulate our nervous system, and how the stories we carry often show up as tension in our shoulders, knots in our stomachs, or chronic fatigue. The yoga mat became a place where I could practice listening to my body. And not just my body’s limits, but the wisdom and gentle direction my body was giving me.
Here's why this skill matters: once I started REALLY listening to my body I realized how often I’d been ignoring clear signals: I’d get a tight feeling in my chest when I said yes to something I didn’t want. Or I’d feel a surge of energy (I call it the lightbulb or aha! moment) when I made a decision that was totally aligned with my values, even if it didn’t “make sense” externally. The more I tuned in to the physical signals, the clearer my next steps became
But were weren’t taught to listen
I had to go through nearly 600 hours of yoga teacher training, thousands of hours of teaching yoga, and countless thousands of hours of practicing on my mat to get to a place where I’m reasonably comfortable listening to my body.
Most people don’t do this.
In fact, most of us were taught the opposite about our bodies. We were conditioned to treat our bodies like machines for getting things done, staying productive, and keeping up appearances. We were taught to ignore our body’s signals in the pursuit of production. Think about the language we use about pushing our bodies past their limits: Mind over matter. No pain, no gain. You can sleep when you’re dead. It’s all about extracting every last drop from our physical bodies.
Add in patriarchy and white supremacy, and there’s even more disconnection, especially for women, people of color, trans and non-binary folks, disabled people, and anyone whose body has been historically marginalized or controlled. These systems don’t just ignore certain bodies; they actively police them. So OF COURSE many of us learned to distrust the signals from within. Of course we’ve disconnected, numbed, ignored, or even harmed our own bodies.
Listening to your body in a world that constantly tries to silence it is not easy, but it’s revolutionary.
Listening to my body is my secret leadership skill
When I work with coaching clients on learning to listen to their bodies, I bring all of this experience with me: my training as a yoga teacher, my understanding of the systems we’re navigating, and my own lived experience in a body that has been judged, praised, pushed, ignored, and held tenderly. I know the relationship we have with our bodies is complicated and personal.
But I’ve also seen how, when we reclaim that relationship and build trust with our own bodies, it changes so much. Because in a culture that treats our bodies like machines designed for production, choosing to listen to your body is a quiet rebellion. It’s how you begin to make choices from your values, instead of from fear, guilt, or performance. You spend less time second-guessing your decisions. You set goals that actually light you up. And you take action in ways that stick, because that motivation comes from WITHIN you, not from external pressure.
Let’s practice together
If any of this resonated, I invite you to join Your Next Move, my live group coaching program that starts this Wednesday, April 2 at 1:00 pm ET. Together we’ll explore how to get clear on your goals, decision-making, and next steps by tuning into what your body already knows!
This is the last call for registration - the doors close Tuesday at midnight! The entire program is $299 for the four calls, but I am extending a 20% discount to Rebel Leaders subscribers - just use the code RebelLeaders at checkout.
If you’ve been waiting for your sign to join, this is it. Click here to register: https://rebelleaders.namastream.com/buy/product/83628
