Wednesday 30/06/2026
Photo: Katarina Wolnik Vera
Text: Teresa Fernández
We often think of the mind and body as two separate systems: on the one hand, what we feel emotionally; on the other, what happens to us physically. However, from a psychological perspective, this separation is not so clear. The body does not only respond to biological processes, but also to emotional experiences, accumulated stress, internal conflicts, and learned ways of relating to discomfort.
Somatization refers to the appearance or intensification of physical symptoms associated with psychological or emotional processes. This does not mean that the person is “making it up” or that the pain is not real. On the contrary: bodily suffering is real, but it can be influenced by emotional, relational, and contextual factors (Lipowski, 1988; Barsky & Borus, 1999).
When Emotional Distress Is Expressed Through the Body
The body can become a channel of expression when certain emotions have not been identified, processed, or communicated. Headaches, digestive discomfort, chest pressure, muscle tension, extreme fatigue, or a lump in the throat may appear during periods of stress, anxiety, emotional overload, or conflict.
In many cases, the person may not clearly identify a specific emotion, but they do notice that “something is happening” in the body. This occurs because emotions are not only thoughts: they also involve physiological changes. Fear can accelerate the heart, sadness can create a sense of heaviness, anxiety can alter breathing, and anger can tense the jaw or shoulders.
Some common signs of somatization may include:
- Persistent muscle pain or tension without a clear medical cause.
- Digestive discomfort linked to periods of stress or worry.
- Chest pressure or difficulty breathing during moments of anxiety.
- Intense fatigue after periods of emotional overload.
- Headaches, jaw tension, or neck pain when stress accumulates.
- Worsening of physical symptoms in situations of conflict, fear, or high demand.
Therefore, listening to the body does not mean interpreting every symptom as psychological, but rather asking ourselves what may also be happening emotionally at that moment.
The Body as an Alarm System
The body often detects before the mind when something is becoming too much. Sometimes we continue functioning, meeting responsibilities, and maintaining an image of control while the body begins to send signals of saturation.
In this sense, physical symptoms can act as an alarm system. They do not necessarily indicate danger, but they may point to something that needs attention: rest, boundaries, emotional expression, support, regulation, or changes in how we are living certain situations.
Research on interoception, that is, the ability to perceive the body’s internal signals, shows an important relationship between bodily awareness and emotional regulation (Craig, 2002; Mehling et al., 2012). When a person learns to recognize bodily signals with curiosity and without judgment, they can better understand their emotions and respond more accurately to their needs.
The Risk of Disconnecting From the Body
Many people have learned to ignore their bodily signals. This can happen as a result of living at a constant pace of demand, having had to “endure” for a long time, or growing up in environments where showing discomfort was not safe, valid, or allowed.
In these cases, the body may go unnoticed until the symptom becomes intense. The person may not register tiredness until they are exhausted, may not identify anxiety until a crisis appears, or may not recognize anger until it turns into tension, pain, or irritability.
This bodily disconnection is usually not voluntary. Many times, it has been an adaptive strategy: stopping oneself from feeling in order to keep going. However, in the long term, it can make it more difficult to identify emotional needs and may contribute to the accumulation of distress.
Listening to the Body Is Not the Same as Obsessing Over Symptoms
Healthy body listening does not consist of constantly monitoring every sensation or interpreting any discomfort as a serious warning sign. In fact, excessive and anxious attention to the body can increase distress and reinforce worry.
Listening to the body means developing an attitude of curiosity, care, and regulation. It is not only about asking “What illness do I have?”, but also “What is my body trying to tell me?”, “What emotion might be connected to this sensation?”, or “What do I need right now?”.
The key is to find a balance: paying attention to symptoms without becoming alarmed, seeking medical advice when necessary, and at the same time making space to understand the emotional dimension of the body.
Guidelines to Develop More Conscious Body Listening
From a psychological perspective, several strategies can help foster a healthier relationship with the body:
- Register bodily signals: Observe when symptoms appear, which situations intensify them, and what emotions may be present.
- Name the associated emotion: Ask yourself: “Does this feel more like anxiety, sadness, anger, fear, shame, or exhaustion?” Putting emotions into words helps organize internal experience.
- Differentiate pain from threat: Just because something feels uncomfortable does not always mean it is dangerous. Learning to observe the sensation without immediately entering alarm mode can reduce body-related anxiety.
- Practice body pauses: Breathing, stretching, walking slowly, or doing a body scan can help restore contact with the body from a calmer state.
- Review personal boundaries: Many symptoms appear when we carry too much, say yes when we want to say no, or ignore our own needs.
- Seek professional support: When physical symptoms are persistent, generate significant distress, or interfere with daily life, therapy can help understand the relationship between body, emotion, and personal history.
It is also important to remember that physical symptoms should always be taken seriously. Body listening does not replace medical assessment when pain is intense, symptoms are new, persistent, or concerning. The psychological perspective does not deny the physical dimension; rather, it broadens the understanding of distress.
Returning to the Body as a Form of Care
Somatization reminds us that the body and mind are deeply connected. Sometimes, the body expresses what emotionally has not yet been thought about, spoken, or accompanied. Therefore, learning to listen to it does not mean living alert to every symptom, but rather recovering a kinder relationship with our internal signals.
Listening to the body means asking ourselves what we need, what we are carrying, which emotions are not finding space, and which boundaries we may have stopped respecting. In many cases, the body does not speak to alarm us, but to invite us to pause, look inward, and care for ourselves more honestly.
Sometimes, the first step in understanding what we feel is not to think more, but to learn to listen more calmly to what the body has already been trying to say.
References:
- Barsky, A. J., & Borus, J. F. (1999). Functional somatic syndromes. Annals of Internal Medicine, 130(11), 910–921.
- Craig, A. D. (2002). How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3, 655–666.
- Lipowski, Z. J. (1988). Somatization: The concept and its clinical application. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145(11), 1358–1368.
- Mehling, W. E., Price, C., Daubenmier, J. J., Acree, M., Bartmess, E., & Stewart, A. (2012). The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness. PLOS ONE, 7(11), e48230.
- Price, C. J., & Hooven, C. (2018). Interoceptive awareness skills for emotion regulation. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 798.