Everything Begins in the Body

And why reconnecting with the signals sent by the body is key to healthy ageing.

The last guests of our yoga for MS retreat have now left. A key part of the week’s program was to develop interoceptive skills, ie our ability to sense our body’s signals.

Why Embodiment Is Crucial

If you are familiar with MS, you are aware that fatigue and brain fog are very common - and quite debilitating - symptoms even if ‘invisible´.
Researchers are now exploring the idea that fatigue and brain fog are not just caused by damaged nerves or inflammation alone. A newer idea is that the brain has trouble correctly reading and managing signals coming from inside the body (like sensing energy levels, body temperature, heartbeat, stress, pain, and how much effort something requires etc).

Because it cannot ‘read’ signals efficiently, the brain may estimate that ordinary mental or physical activity is more demanding than it really is. The problem is that if the brain predicts that a task will be taxing, it can generate the feeling of fatigue before the body is truly exhausted.

Why? Because the brain tries to protect us from overload!!! In other words, fatigue may be the brain’s way of pushing us to rest. How does the brain do that? By reducing motivation, slowing our thinking speed, increasing the sense of effort, and making movement feel heavier. That’s why tasks you used to do easily begin to require more conscious control. This is why brain fog often feels like ‘thinking through mud.’ The brain is effectively telling you ‘this requires a lot of energy’.

On top of that, the brain often becomes stuck in a state where it constantly checks whether the body is running out of energy. That extra monitoring itself may use up mental resources and contribute to the feeling of exhaustion and brain fog.

With ageing, the same brain systems involved in interoception and energy regulation also become less efficient over time. It takes more time for our brain to filter signals, but also to recover from effort. There might also be overlap between fatigue, ageing, long COVID, chronic fatigue syndrome… the brain either receiving distorted information about the body or failing to interpret it correctly, and thus responding by limiting activity to protect itself.

This newer understanding is changing treatment approaches. Instead of only trying to stimulate the brain or fight inflammation, researchers are studying ways to calm and retrain the brain-body system.

This is why developing interoceptive skills has become a key part of all my retreats, and also why I am now teaching a weekly zoom class called Reconnect with Your Body.

Can You Sense Your Body?

What about you? Can you tell, right now, if your jaw is tight or if your shoulders are relaxed? Can you feel your breath moving in your body? When something ‘feels off’ (like you suddenly feel tension in your neck), do you pause to sense it or do you immediately try to fix it or explain it? How often do you push through fatigue without ever really checking in, just to meet your deadline?

You might think that these questions are a waste of time. But if you’re not aware of what’s happening in your bod, how can you notice stress building up? How can you recognise tension before it becomes pain?

During the retreat, I kept telling the participants, listen to the body’s signals because they represent crucial data. Without reliable data, how could your brain do its work properly?

The body is constantly sending data through sensation, breath, tightness, ease, temperature, subtle shifts… why don’t you listen to it? Reconnecting with our body allows us to regulate more effectively and also to respond, rather than react.

Embodiment in Movement and Stillness

Movement is often the most accessible entry point into embodiment because it gives you something tangible to feel. You can sense how weight is distributed through the body, how your breathing pattern changes with effort, what happens when you stretch etc.

Being embodied in stillness is slightly different. There is nothing to distract you, and at first, it can feel uncomfortable. When you stop moving, tension usually becomes more obvious. We become restless, and the mind starts interfering. But if you stay aware of the sensations, they become clearer. And remember, it means better quality data for your brain, less brain fog, less fatigue.

If you feel like exploring this further, I invite you to join my new class on Fridays, 7.30 am UK time. It is a pre-recorded class, which means that you can listen to it whenever it suits you (the recording is available for a week). For more info, check HERE. You might also consider joining one of my upcoming retreats…

Much love
Veronique

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