How to Listen to the Stories Your Body Remembers
There are moments when your body reacts before your mind even knows why. Maybe it’s a tightening in your chest, a sudden heaviness behind your eyes, or a knot in your stomach that feels suspiciously like dread.
And maybe nothing “big” is happening. Nothing obvious, anyway. But your body knows something.
Our bodies remember what our minds try so hard to forget. Not because they want to hurt us, but because they’re trying to protect us. And if we learn how to listen, we can begin to understand the stories living beneath the surface.
This topic is incredibly personal to me, as it took many years for me to start listening to what my body was telling me. And when I did, it changed everything.
The Messages We Miss
Your body speaks in sensations long before it ever speaks in thoughts:
A throat that tightens.
A jaw that locks.
A stomach that drops.
Shoulders that climb toward your ears.
A sudden urge to leave the room.
Most of us don’t notice these things. We’ve been trained not to. We were taught to push through, stay busy, be “fine,” keep the peace. Over time, we learn to override the alarms our bodies sound—sometimes so well that we don’t hear them at all.
But those sensations? They’re often memories in disguise. They’re evidence of previous moments when you learned something wasn’t safe, or when you had to hold yourself together, or when you swallowed what you really wanted to say. Your body whispers long before it screams.
Where These Stories Come From
Body memory isn’t some mystical idea; it’s something you already understand intuitively. Your body remembers:
the moment you didn’t speak up
the time you weren’t believed
the joy you didn’t allow yourself to fully feel
the relationship that drained you
the fear you never named
the strength you didn’t know you had
These memories don’t always come back as images or words. Sometimes they come back as sensations—a flutter, a tightness, a sudden stillness. And it’s important to realize that when you feel these things, it doesn’t make you weak. It makes you human. Your body is simply carrying a story your mind wasn’t ready to hold at the time.
Why This Matters: The Body Keeps the Score
There’s a reason this topic resonates for so many of us. Long before this idea became popular, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s groundbreaking book The Body Keeps the Score explained what survivors have always known deep down: Our bodies store unprocessed experiences, and they speak through sensations long before our minds make meaning of them.
When I first read this book, I was deeply immersed in my writing about my past trauma, and it helped me so much. I’m willing to be you’ve lived this, too, even if you didn’t have the words for it:
The sudden anxiety in a certain kind of room
The way your breath shortens when someone raises their voice
The exhaustion that shows up “for no reason”
The tears that come out of nowhere
The sense that something is off, even when you can’t name it
These aren’t random. They’re signals.
When experiences overwhelm us—or when we weren’t given support to process them at the time—the body quietly holds onto the unfinished story. This doesn’t mean you’re broken; it means your body has been protecting you all along. And when you learn to listen, you begin to understand what it’s been trying to tell you.
But, of course, that’s easier said than done!
How to Begin Listening
Listening to your body isn’t complicated, but it does require slowing down. And that’s something most of us are terrible at.
Here’s a gentle way to begin:
1. Notice the sensation. Ask: What am I feeling in my body right now? Not the emotion, the physical sensation. Is your body tight? Warm? Heavy? Buzzing? Numb?
2. Be curious, not judgmental. Instead of “Why am I like this?” try: Is this familiar? When have I felt this before?
3. Ask the sensation what it wants you to know. This might sound strange, but try it: If this feeling had words, what would it say?
4. Create a pause. Give the sensation space. Don’t rush to fix it or push it away.
5. Write it down. Writing helps translate the body’s language into meaning. It takes the invisible and makes it visible.
Here’s a simple journal prompt you can use: “What is my body trying to tell me today?”
Let whatever comes, come.
What Happens When We Listen
When you start paying attention, something shifts. The sensations soften, the patterns begin to make sense, and you stop feeling “broken” and start feeling understood.
Listening to your body is really listening to the younger versions of you who were just trying to survive something. And when you offer them compassion instead of judgment, healing begins.
You might notice that you begin to:
set boundaries more easily
react less and respond more
understand your triggers instead of fearing them
feel more grounded, present, and whole
Sometimes, your body even reveals forgotten moments of joy or courage, not just pain. Because your body doesn’t just store the hard things; it remembers the beautiful things, too.
The Difference Between Listening and Reliving
Listening doesn’t mean diving into every old wound, forcing anything, or retraumatizing yourself. It simply means acknowledging what’s already there—gently, slowly, on your terms.
You’re allowed to go at your own pace. It’s important to take breaks when you need them. The whole purpose of this exercise is to start to help your body feel safe. Because when that happens, life can open up in ways you may have never thought possible.
Your Body Is a Storyteller
Sometimes,it can feel like your body is betraying you, or reacting in ways you can’t fathom. But your body isn’t “too sensitive.” It’s simply a storyteller, and it’s carried you through more than you may realize right now.
Your amazing, strong body has held the parts of your history you weren’t ready to carry consciously. And now, when it speaks, it’s inviting you to listen.
If you’ve been feeling something you can’t explain—a heaviness, a tightness, a flutter of fear, a sense of longing—maybe it’s not a symptom. Maybe it’s a story.
And maybe it’s time to listen.
