Only Listening To Reason Is Laughable
Listening to your body might be emotional at times, but never irrational.
Your mind and body are part of the same system. When one passes through something, the event influences the other.
Tai Chi is a martial art from Ancient China. Today, people practice their movement for relaxation rather than for fighting. Doing Tai Chi movements for many months calms even the most hostile minds.
Chanting "Om" while meditating reduces mental processes that affect your body. For example, your blood pressure rises when your mind is stressed. Om meditation keeps these levels stable or doesn't let them reach their usual top level. I have found that OM meditation makes me lose track of time and whatever stress I am experiencing. I sit on the floor and chant for twenty minutes. By the time I see the night lights of my city again, the humming has already brushed any tension away from my mind and body.
Meditating always soothes my mind, which for some reason, makes me rarely do it. Unconsciously, I may think that alleviating mental suffering shouldn't be as easy as moving a certain way. But it is.
People who practice these and other mind-body activities experience milder sickness. They might cough during a cold, but it'll be a soft cough and not one you can mistake for a Labrador's bark. The same study found these people have lower C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Scientists link high CRP levels with various conditions:
Cancer
Heart failure
Type 2 diabetes
Depression and cardiovascular disease in older adults
Thus, people who care for their bodies preserve their bodies and minds for longer.
Many people don't listen to their bodies because they think it's not rational. Yet, emotional and instinctual responses are rational.
You and I inherited many of our phobias from our ancestors. These fears make us more emotionally sensitive to specific events. For example, say your ancestor saw others die after getting bitten by arachnids. He warned his offspring about these animals, and they did the same with their kids. A genetic phobia developed from this message.
Your eccentric friends might laugh at you for freaking out after seeing a black widow. Bill, the group's alpha, might even pet it to prove you won't get hurt. But to act on it would be foolish even if it is emotional—nothing that keeps you alive is unreasonable.
In addition to keeping your mental and physical health, listen to and care for your body because there are many things only it can tell you. For example, you can't describe what love, faith, or time means to someone who has never experienced these sensations. But this doesn't mean they don't exist or are less real than algebra equations. The body must feel these emotions to realize they exist.
Listen to how you feel and let your instincts guide you more often. Your mind doesn't know what to do in situations you haven't lived. And often, it creates plausible arguments to keep you doing an activity that seems like the right thing to do, but that's reducing your health. Listening to your body might be emotional at times, but never irrational.