Your Body Usually Whispers Before It Screams
Listen to the Whisper — Pay Attention to Yourself
We spend an awful lot of time trying to fix ourselves. Maybe we should spend a little more time paying attention.
I’ve been thinking about the whisper.
Not in a mystical way. I mean that little sense that something is off before we can quite explain why. Maybe we’re more tired than usual, sleeping differently, snapping at people, losing interest in things that normally help us feel better, or simply saying “I’m fine” when we know perfectly well we aren’t.
Most of us are remarkably good at ignoring those things.
We work through lunch, push through fatigue, sit too long, sleep too little and promise ourselves we’ll deal with whatever is bothering us when life calms down. Life, of course, rarely gets the memo. So we adapt, and sometimes we adapt so well to feeling lousy that feeling lousy becomes normal.
I’ve spent a lot of years around health care and preventive medicine, and one thing I’ve learned is that by the time the body starts yelling, it has often been whispering for quite a while.
That doesn’t mean every ache is a diagnosis or every bad night’s sleep is a medical emergency. Bodies are noisy. They change. They complain. They react to stress, food, age, medications, lack of sleep and whatever else we’ve thrown at them lately.
But there is a difference between obsessing over every sensation and paying attention when something keeps changing. That difference matters.
We seem to have reached a strange point in wellness where we trust devices more than we trust ourselves. We’ll spend hundreds of dollars on a watch or a ring to tell us we didn’t sleep well while walking around saying, “I’m exhausted.” Then the device confirms it and suddenly it becomes official.
I’m not against measuring things. Data can be useful, especially when it helps us see patterns we might otherwise miss. But I don’t want to outsource every conversation I have with my own body to an algorithm strapped to my wrist.
Sometimes “I don’t feel like myself” is information. It isn’t a diagnosis and it isn’t proof that something terrible is wrong. It is simply a reason to get curious.
And curiosity is where health care often ought to begin.
When did this start? What changed? Is it getting better, worse or staying the same? Is there something obvious going on with sleep, food, stress, movement, medication, pain, mood or illness? Is this something I’ve already noticed three or four times and talked myself out of mentioning because it seemed too small?
Those aren’t glamorous questions, which is probably why nobody is building an empire around them.
The wellness industry would much rather sell us something. If you’re tired, there’s a supplement. If you can’t sleep, there’s another one. If you’re stressed, somebody has a powder for that too. Before long there are twelve bottles on the kitchen counter and we’re still tired.
Sometimes there is a role for supplements. Sometimes there is a role for testing, medication, dietary changes or a more thorough medical workup. But I think we’ve gotten very good at jumping to the intervention before we’ve even stopped to ask what has actually changed.
That question can take you in directions no supplement label ever will.
Maybe you’re not sleeping because you’re drinking too much caffeine late in the day. Maybe you’re exhausted because you’ve been trying to do the work of three people. Maybe your usual walk suddenly feels much harder and that deserves a medical look. Maybe your mood has changed. Maybe you’ve been waking at 3 a.m. every night for six months and calling it “just getting older.”
Sometimes it is getting older. Sometimes it isn’t.
That is why listening to your body is not the same thing as diagnosing yourself. If you have chest pain, severe shortness of breath, sudden neurologic symptoms or something that feels urgent, this is not the moment to sit quietly and contemplate your inner wisdom. Sometimes the correct response to the whisper is, “I need medical care.”
The point is not to become hypervigilant. The point is to stop dismissing yourself automatically.
I think a lot of us have been taught to do that. We learned to push through, not complain, finish what we started, take care of everyone else first and keep moving. Those qualities can be useful, but they can also become habits we carry too far. There is no prize for ignoring yourself longest.
Health shouldn’t become another full-time job either. I don’t want anyone spending all day tracking every bite, heartbeat, step, symptom and biological fluctuation until living itself becomes a medical project.
I want something simpler: notice when you’re not yourself. Pay attention when something changes. Give recurring symptoms enough respect to investigate them instead of explaining them away because you’re busy, embarrassed, afraid of looking foolish or hoping they’ll disappear.
Sometimes the answer will be simple. Sometimes you’ll need lab work. Sometimes you’ll need a doctor. Sometimes you’ll need more sleep, better food, more movement or less stress. Sometimes the answer will be something you did not expect.
And sometimes your body has been trying to tell you something so ordinary that we barely recognize it as health advice at all: you cannot keep living the way you are living and expect to feel well.
I wrote a song recently called Listen to the Whisper. It came out of another part of my life, but the idea keeps following me around. The whisper isn’t always about relationships. Sometimes it is physical, sometimes emotional, and sometimes it is simply that persistent sense that something has changed and deserves your attention.
We are very good at talking ourselves out of those things. We tell ourselves we’re being dramatic, lazy, anxious, old, difficult or overly sensitive. Maybe sometimes we are. But maybe we should stop assuming that first.
Before you buy another supplement, start another diet, download another app or decide you need to reinvent your entire life, ask yourself something much simpler:
What have I already noticed?
Then listen long enough to find out whether it has anything more to say.
I hope you enjoy my song, Listen to the Whisper. You can play it here and download it from your favorite streaming platform. 🎶 Lyrics by Joyce Strong, Firelight Records, music by Suno.
Listen to the Whisper, Lyrics by Joyce Strong, Firelight Records
Listen to the Whisper
Verse 1
There’s a ripple on the water
Before the river starts to rise
There’s a shadow in the distance
Before the storm comes into sight
There’s a tremble in the silence
So soft I almost let it go
Something stirring deep within me
Telling me what I already know
Chorus
Listen to the whisper
The one beneath the noise
The one that never left me
When I couldn't hear my voice
I don't have to name the feeling
I don't even have to know why
I just have to listen to the whisper
That speaks to me from deep inside
Verse 2
There are hands that come with roses
There are chains that look like gold
There are doors that open easy
Then quietly start to close
There are favors wrapped in ribbons
There are debts I never made
And a thousand little reasons
To give something of myself away
Chorus
Listen to the whisper
The one beneath the noise
The one that never left me
When I couldn't hear my voice
I don't have to name the feeling
I don't even have to know why
I just have to listen to the whisper
That speaks to me from deep inside
Verse 3
I heard the whisper rise inside me
Saying, trust me, you know what this means
Something here was going wrong
Nothing here is what it seems
I didn't like where this was leading
I knew there'd be a price to pay
And the whisper kept on warning me
Time to leave, walk away
Bridge
The whisper keeps on whispering
Find your courage, speak the truth
No one gets to force their will on me
I always have the right to choose
There's a place deep inside me
There's a truth that's mine alone
I can hear it in the stillness
I can feel it in my bones
Final Chorus
Listen to the whisper
Let it rise above the noise
I was never meant to lose it
I was only taught to doubt my voice
I don't have to ask permission
I don't have to tell them why
Listen to the whisper
And never leave myself behind
Outro
Listen to the whisper
It’s the voice that always knew
Listen to the whisper
It tells me what is true