Body Listening

05/11/2025

Someone suffering from neuropathy asked me if it is safe to walk for 10km? Here is my answer:

My experience, personally and professionally, says anything too much can trigger a stress response in the body. But what is too much for you? So, this is a question that only you will be able to answer. However, when the body is inflamed and there is irritation, while movement-contraction and release are essential for healing, doing too much, too fast or for too long of it can also continue the stress pattern in the body. I personally can walk for miles but I have plenty of stops, move my hips in circular movement/ rotations to help adjust and align the pelvic girdle, knees, ankles, shoulders throughout the walks. It is best to build capacity slowly. Walk for 5 minutes today, 7,8,10 tomorrow, notice how you feel in 48 hours and carry on until you are comfortable walking longer distances. If you don’t do any walking at all I would personally refrain from walking 10km. Everything is like a daily practice if you want to build capacity and tolerance. Most importantly enjoy the walk, pay attention to your surroundings. It is all part of the fun.

27/10/2025

Being calm and being still is quite a practice. There is a process to work through triggers and find safety in the body again to be able to regulate . Being calm all the time isn’t necessarily being regulated. The body does what it can cope with at different times. When we rest we may notice more and that isn’t always easy. Hence, movement ironically maybe quite restful at times. We can’t control circumstances around us sometimes. But, we can become aware of our breath and move with our breath: practicing breathing out slowly and allowing the breath in to come in in its own time would be the first step to pay attention to.

26/10/2025

Where to start when you are feeling tense and in discomfort?

Start with the movement of your breath. Giving yourself an internal massage as you breathe in and out.

Notice where your breath is moving to and fro. Watch the space between breath in and breath out.

A quiet healing space before the breath out turns into a breath in again and the breath in turns into a breath out without pausing or forcing it, just noticing a space of nothingness, no thoughts, no worries, no pain.

25/10/2025

Have you found the space between breath out and breath in, not as a pause but as the space where breath out turns into breath in?

I find focusing and noticing this spaces can take me into a ‘sweet spot’ of nothingness, no stressors, no thoughts, no worries, just staying present in the body and breath.

This is a good meditative practice that may help you to resource into calm before having to deal with whatever else is going on.

Maybe use an affirmation that you are grateful to your body and nervous system to protect you but that it can let go of anything that is no longer serving you?

Anyway, treat it as a compassionate enquiry without trying to fix but finding the peace within. Please, check with your doctor if you are allowed to do this as I don’t know you and can’t diagnose or prescribe anything without you double checking first.

Thank you. Best wishes, V

25/10/2025

The nervous system reacts to too much, too fast or for too long variable/stressors if it doesn’t have enough time to regulate and the tension gets trapped in the body.

Tension=heat=inflammation=dis ease.

It is important to find body safety again. But, we need to meet the body where the body is at before it can release tension.

Do you know what they say about vaccines for a bite, for example? You need a bit of the poison that is going to kill you to heal you. So, the body can be exposed to the danger in a controlled way and have enough time and capacity to heal.

Which makes me think we need a bit of the very on thing we are scared of to heal us? It is strange, right? But, is a safer and controlled way to be exposed to the danger. Something that is going to push our body to its limits or, at lease, to its safe boundaries but in a non-violent way to be able to possibly ‘reset’ the body.

This is why I think we cannot be run down when being expose to danger. It over stresses our nervous system and it may require a total reset. Like the heart when is having a heart attack and needs a defibrillator. The shock effect makes it react to live or die.

Fear, on the other hand, keeps us hostage. So, how do we reestablish safety in the body again once is feeling unsafe?

The autonomic nervous system usually does a pretty good job alone. But, that is not to say we can’t use our mind over matter to help us regulate again.

Here are some interesting ways of helping the body feel safe:

1. breathing techniques
2. Contraction and release
3. Combine movement, rest and breath
4. Eat non inflammatory foods
5. Hot or cold bath followed by rest or movement
6. Belief and trust
7. Relational support
8. Professional informed touch
9. Positive orientation
10. Resolve fear & attachment styles

When the body is stuck in fight or flight, it will need to unwind before it can shift into the parasympathetic nervous system to rest and heal.

Anyway, have you tried having a non-violent Myofascial release treatment with an informed therapist to help improve circulation and the lymphatic system for nervous system regulation?

If you are local to Oxfordshire and would like to book a treatment, please contact me via messenger or message me on 07775 908878. Alternatively, you may prefer to email:
info@bodylistening.co.uk

Many thanks,
Best wishes,
Vanessa

18/10/2025

Living and learning. Check out this beautiful video. When we can see it and understand what it does we can make informed choices for best performance and better living.

18/10/2025

Fascia awareness and education for health

14/10/2025

27/12/2024

https://drarielleschwartz.com/fascia-and-the-vagus-nerve-dr-arielle-schwartz/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR380sCEfciRZnS5UFnF5GYEDm0hJm89VsRXO2M2bUwE-khcpVY4ECbyNF0_aem_GJTW7d-xBuDzNFYQ29WBKw

Fascia plays a key role in your resilience. You nourish fascia and the vagus nerve with sensory awareness, conscious breathing, and movement.

19/11/2024

Physiological changes when we are in a healing mode

06/09/2024

The link between poor communication between body and brain lays in the ground matter of fascia and the peripheral nervous system. The levels of HA a GLYCOAMINOGLICAN IS ALTERED AND FASCIA CHANGES TEXTURE JUST LIKE HONEY FROM RUNNY TO SET. When under stress, the body reacts by contracting to the bone leading to vaso-constriction and also changing the viscosity of fascia from a gel like substance into some sort of crystal like texture. The problem with that is as simple as COMMUNICATION GETS STUCK IN THE BODY and the body begins to malfunction as the endocrine system and the nervous system no longer gel! The body develops DIS-EASE. HOW CAN WE MAINTAIN A HEALTHY FASCIA FOR OPTIMAL HEALTH?

Are you interested? Well, I don’t blame you if you aren’t! Doctors used to throw fascia away when studying anatomy:) yet fascia is such an important ‘organ’ in multiple bodily processes.

Would you like to feel better without the intervention of extra-bodily drugs?

05/09/2024

Fascia is such a ‘Fascinating’ connective tissue! It is a bit like the human mycelium! It is the network of the body and requires precision, intention and time to deliver good communication.