When you are busy, tired and under a lot of stress, do you listen to what your body may be telling you?

For many years (in my teens and twenties) I was an active athlete and really enjoyed the sport (hurdling).

From time to time I would pickup injuries, mainly leg muscle strains or minor muscle tears.

These would heal given rest, good sports physios and the vitality of youth.

But there were weaknessesleft behind: scar tissue and general wear and tear, for example.

Years later I still like to run but at a much more gentle pace. Even so, I do get injured, especially in my left or right calf.

In the past I would ignore minor calf twinges and get away with it.

These days, I run the risk of a major tear/strain and being out of running for a month or more.

Fortunately, I usually get advance warning that something is amiss. When I burn the candle at both ends (e.g. through overwork), I often find that my eyes are very tired. There’s a general weariness surrounding both eye sockets that won’t go away.

If I then go out for a run to try and shake out the cobwebs, I seem to run a 50/50 risk of pulling a calf muscle. Duh!

It’s almost as if my body (via eye tiredness) is signaling that R-E-S-T would be the best remedy, not jogging. Especially for a runner like me, who gets carried away with feeling good&and starts to raise the pace, usually to burn off an OAP power walker haha!

Today, for once, I listened to the innate somatic wisdom of the body and ended my run at the warm-up stage, even though a spring-like, sunny Saturday was beckoning me to go for a gallop.

Yep, my eyes were weary beforehand. And yep, I felt minor tugging in my right calf.

So, reluctantly, I walked back to my house and sat out in the garden for a while with our dog.

Maybe I should follow her lead more often!

PS If you’re interested in somatic ideas and paying attention to your body wisdom, here’s an interesting site to explore. It’s called Seishindo and the teacher is Charlie Badenhop. He lives a few train stops from me and I’ve been to some of his Saturday classes, though not recently.