Body Signals: How Physical Sensations Warn Us About Hidden Stress
Our bodies are constantly speaking to us—even before we find the words to describe what we’re experiencing. While we often focus on language, our most vital information comes through physical sensations, impulses, and emotions that arise in our bodies. These aren’t just feelings; they’re survival signals that have kept humans alive for millennia. When danger approaches, our bodies react instantly—ducking, running, fighting, or calling for help. These signals are designed to be strong, uncomfortable, and impossible to ignore because our lives depend on them. But our bodies also send us quieter, more subtle warnings when danger is approaching… slowly. These gentler signals are just as crucial as the loud ones, yet they’re often easier to dismiss or override.
As infants, we depend on others to keep us safe and meet our needs. Everything is a matter of life or death because of our helplessness and reliance on others for our very survival. Our infantile responses are to cry, scream, thrash, flail, check-out, or collapse. As we get older, we start using words to communicate our feelings and needs. We name big emotions like “sad,” “angry,” “scared” and “happy.” As we mature and life gets more social, we assign words for jealousy, pride, embarrassment/shame, and emotions that arise from interacting and comparing ourselves with others. The more complex our lives are, the more subtle and multifaceted our relationship with ourselves and the world around us becomes. In the process, we often overlook the bodily sensations that accompany these emotional experiences. They can get little attention as we pursue our busy lives, and they are left to operate behind the scenes.
Uncomfortable feelings and reactions, such as sadness or fear, tend to be denied and buried, especially when they are seen as a sign of weakness or giving in. We also learn to suppress some emotions due to social pressure: “Big boys don’t cry,” “Don’t be a wimp,” “Girls don’t get angry.” We learn to ignore, deny, or misread our own signals. Yes, there is a time and a place for the expression of these emotions, but denying their existence altogether is problematic.
Despite our efforts to turn our attention away from the signals that fire inside, this unacknowledged energy in the body is still active. Biological and physiological changes are happening, whether we ignore them or not. They show up in non-verbal ways: eyes that are downcast, shoulders dropped, feet tapping. Even when we don’t observe behavioral changes on the outside, distress still causes effects on the inside. Our heart and respiratory rates change, and blood vessels and pupils dilate or constrict depending on whether we’re stressed or relaxed. Emotions can change blood flow to the gut too, causing the sensation of “butterflies,” but also impacting digestive function and leading to diarrhea or constipation.
Overall, emotions are a whole-body experience. Noticing bodily sensations is called interoception. Given the bias to honor what we’re doing and to disregard what we’re feeling, our bodily sensations often get pushed aside. This is especially true when basic needs like hunger, thirst, and fatigue interfere with our social, academic, or professional priorities.
There is no way around it—stress that goes unaddressed does not disappear. It builds up in our bodies over time, eventually taking a physical toll. Health consequences can include high blood pressure, poor cholesterol levels, and increased risk of heart disease and infections.
For all these reasons, developing body awareness is vital. Many of us struggle to name our emotions or notice subtle physical sensations that carry essential information. Learning to recognize when something feels off inside ourselves is powerful—it allows us to reconnect physically, mentally, and psychologically. This self-awareness gives us access to our inner experience and enables meaningful self-reflection.
Helping someone you care about discover what their body is telling them about their deepest experiences and feelings is a transformative gift—whether you are a parent, friend, partner, or therapist.
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