Listening to your body is an important self-care technique. It is crucial for those of us with Long COVID, but recent events remind us that self-care is important for everyone, especially the millions of voters and nonvoters who supported Vice President Kamala Harris for President. It is heartening to see many of my social media connections sharing this message of self-care while dealing with their grief and disappointment. Listening to my body has risen to the number one thing I need to do for self-care as my own grief and disappointment exacerbates my Long COVID symptoms.
Over the years, through trial and error, I learned that listening to your body is actually a multi-step self-care technique. I have long been tuned in to the messages my body sends and am usually aware of when things are slightly off or completely out of whack. Listening to the messages your body sends is important, but it is only the first step and not enough in itself. Unfortunately, I have too often not followed through on the next steps and so turned listening to my body from a self-care technique into fuel for self-shame.
The second step to listening to your body as a self-care technique is to parse how much of your body’s message is from something physical and how much from something emotional. From my laparoscopic surgery in mid-October, I have several incision sites that are still healing. Pain is a normal part of that healing process. However, as OTC medicines managed the pain just fine in the weeks after surgery, I realized the sharp pains at my incision sites in the day after the election were more a reaction to my emotional state than a reflection of the physical condition of my incisions.
Step three is responding appropriately to what your body is telling you. I have really screwed up this one in the past. The pace and intensity of work with my last employer gave me near daily migraines and left me exhausted. While being completely aware of the migraines, exhaustion, and their cause, I chose to power through. I used prescription and OTC medicines, topical lotions, and lots and lots of Starbucks oatmilk chai lattes to power through the migraines and get my work done. After a year and a half and gaining 45 pounds, I knew I couldn’t do that to my body anymore and finally transitioned to being fully self-employed.
After this month’s election, I did much better at responding appropriately to my body’s signals. While the signal was pain, I chose to maintain the level of Tylenol and NSAIDs I took that week and instead focused on listening to healing music, talking with friends and family, and writing. It worked. I actually marked a moment while talking with a friend where the pain switched off.
Whatever you are currently dealing with, whether it is Long COVID, post-election malaise, work stress, or something else, I wish you well in your self-care journey and hope my story encourages you.
Feature image credit: listening by WBcreative from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)
Carolyn Ristau 
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