3 Steps to Understand What Your Body Is Trying to Tell You

“I keep getting tightness in my chest, stomach aches, shoulder tension, but all my tests are normal. What is my body trying to tell me?”

That question from my client Jasmina reflects something many of us have felt: symptoms that feel real but remain unexplained by doctors, but is the body communicating in a language we’ve never been taught to understand.

Your body is a brilliant and unique thing, and learning to decode its signals is one of the most powerful skills you can develop for your health and wellbeing.

Step 1: Learn Your Body’s Unique Communication Style

What most people try: Generic advice from the internet or wellness influencers.

What actually works: Understanding how your body speaks, based on your history, nervous system, stress patterns, and genetic blueprint.

Here are common body signal patterns:

• Chest tightness: Often linked to emotional safety, suppressed expression or heart-centred grief
• Stomach issues: Linked to boundaries, gut intuition, decision-making and safety
• Shoulder tension: Holding stress, burdens, or responsibility
• Jaw/Head tension: Overthinking, control issues, unspoken emotions
• Lower back pain: Linked to financial pressure, security and stability

Your BDNF variants influence how clearly you notice these patterns. Some people feel early signals acutely. Others don’t register the message until the volume is turned up.

Jasmina noticed her chest tightened around difficult conversations or when she ignored her needs, and her symptoms showed an honest pattern to what was really going on.

Start here:

• Track when and where symptoms show up
• Notice what’s happening emotionally, environmentally or relationally
• Observe how symptoms shift in different locations, social circles or routines
• Ask: What am I not saying, changing, or facing?

Your symptoms are messengers, not enemies. Learning your body’s language is the key to healing.

Step 2: Know the Difference Between Acute Messages and Chronic Patterns

What most people do: Panic over every symptom or ignore it until it becomes unbearable. They miss the nuance in the signals.

What works better: Distinguish between short-term signals and long-term patterns. Learn what your body is warning about versus what it’s asking to rewire.

Acute messages are in-the-moment alerts:

• Sudden tension before a meeting
• Nausea before setting a boundary
• Energy drain after a difficult social encounter
• Breathlessness during confrontation or overwhelm

Chronic patterns are your body saying: “this lifestyle, pace or environment doesn’t work for me”

• Daily headaches or migraines
• Ongoing gut issues or reflux
• Chronic fatigue, burnout or brain fog
• Recurring pain that shifts location or resists diagnosis

BDNF helps your brain categorise and respond to both. Lower BDNF may mean you need more practice distinguishing what’s urgent from what’s systemic.

Jasmina realised her shoulder pain wasn’t about posture. It reflected long-term stress from hiding her truth and pushing through discomfort. Her body was waving a red flag, and had been for years.

Ask yourself:

• Is this a one-off response or a repeating signal?
• Is this a temporary situation or a sign of deeper misalignment?
• Do I feel better when I rest, or when I make a change?

Acute messages guide micro-adjustments. Chronic patterns call for bigger life shifts.

Step 3: Respond with Curiosity, Not Control

What most people do: Suppress symptoms. Push through. Blame themselves. Try to “fix it fast” or numb the discomfort.

What healing requires: Curiosity. Listening. Partnership. Co-regulation with your own body.

Your body isn’t your enemy. It’s your ally. It’s trying to steer you, not sabotage you.

Instead of asking “How do I make this stop?” try:

• What is this sensation trying to protect me from?
• What does my body need in this moment?
• Is this signal linked to stress, fear, suppression or overdoing?
• What would bring my nervous system a greater sense of safety?

Jasmina stopped popping painkillers for her chest tightness. She paused. She asked herself: What feels unsafe right now? What emotion or truth am I holding back? Her body answered, and softened.

BDNF variants affect how easily you create new neural responses. If change feels hard, it’s because your nervous system needs repetition, compassion and a sense of safety to rewire.

Ways to build body partnership:

• Do body scans and check-ins without judgment
• Thank your body daily, even for symptoms
• Try small supportive shifts (food, rest, boundaries, expression)
• Reframe symptoms as guidance rather than glitches

When you treat your body like a wise friend, it starts to speak more clearly.