Listen to your body

Your body speaks to you every moment of every day. Body communication with the outside world has been spoken about a lot. What I am talking about is your communication with your own body. Especially your stomach speaks to your brain. That is a hot topic in any health environment on and offline. 

It’s not exactly what I am talking about either, even though it’s well related. The first rule in good communication is to cultivate attentive listening. Any high-performance aspirations in any field, especially if you want to avoid injury, is by listening to your body first.  

Improve performance in small increments 

Increasing performance in any field is best in small increments over a long period. The recommended increase is 4% in intensity, speed, strength, or any other measure. 

Keep your next goal always a little bit above what you know you are already capable of. Stretch your limits by 4% over time while listening to your body’s messages. 

Stay safe, prevent injury, but keep advancing constantly. 

Fear is your friend

At times our fear stops us from progressing. Our fear is supposed to keep us safe. Our brain has protective mechanisms that sometimes block us before taking even minor risks. It’s essential to assess how real your fear is. Look as objectively as possible at your abilities and the risks involved. 

Look at your fear and respect it, but many times, you need to go through your fear to its other side to improve your performance. Going beyond your fear involves recognizing it and respecting it for what it is, your protective mechanism.

Stay the course

Take calculated risks to improve over time constantly. When I was studying swinging trapeze with Zoe, I remember that the body would move during a back balance swing forward, which was frightening. Zoe used to say: “it moves, but it does not necessarily mean you are falling. Trust your body and the movement. It can move, but you are not falling, stay where you are, keep your form.”

That was a big life lesson for me. Sometimes things move, and we are not sure what is going on. 

Listening to your body’s reactions, emotions, and fears, accepting, respecting them, and knowing that this doesn’t mean you’re falling. It’s just mild discomfort, beyond which your performance will most probably improve. 

Have you been in this situation? Please share in the comments below.