7 Signs You're Disconnected From Your Body

Introduction

When was the last time you really felt your body?

Not just acknowledged it exists. Not just pushed through its complaints. But actually dropped in — felt your feet on the ground, noticed your breath moving, sensed the subtle hum of being alive in your own skin.

If you're drawing a blank, you're not alone.

So many of us live from the neck up. We're in our heads constantly — planning, worrying, analysing, scrolling — while our bodies just... carry us around. Like loyal vehicles we've forgotten to check in with.

This disconnection often happens so gradually that we don't even notice it. It becomes our normal. We forget that there's another way to be — a way that feels more grounded, more present, more alive.

Body disconnection isn't a character flaw. It's usually a protective response — something your nervous system learned to do when being fully present in your body didn't feel safe.¹ At some point, checking out served you.

But what once protected you might now be keeping you stuck. Numb. Floating through life without really being in it.

Here are seven signs that you might be more disconnected from your body than you realise.

1. You Forget Basic Physical Needs

You look at the clock and realise you haven't eaten in eight hours — and you didn't even notice you were hungry. Or you've been holding your bladder for so long it's become uncomfortable, but you kept pushing through "just one more thing."

This isn't discipline. It's disconnection from interoception — your body's ability to sense its internal state.²

Hunger, thirst, tiredness, the need to move or rest — these are signals your body sends constantly. When you're disconnected, the volume on these signals gets turned way down. You override them so automatically that you don't even register they're there.

2. You Feel Numb or "Flatlined"

Someone asks how you're feeling, and genuinely, you don't know. You're not happy, not sad — just... nothing. Flat. Grey.

Emotional numbness is often a sign of chronic dissociation — a state where you've pulled back from full embodiment as a way to cope with overwhelm.³ It's not that you don't have feelings. It's that the connection between your body's emotional signals and your conscious awareness has been muted.

This numbness can extend to physical sensation too. You might feel like your body is wrapped in cotton wool, or like there's a pane of glass between you and your experience.

3. You Startle Easily or Feel Jumpy

This might seem contradictory — how can you be disconnected and hyper-reactive?

Here's the thing: disconnection doesn't mean your nervous system has switched off. Often, it means the opposite. You've disconnected because your system is on high alert.⁴

When you're startled by small things — a door closing, someone speaking to you unexpectedly — it's a sign that your body is bracing for danger, even when your conscious mind has checked out. The body is vigilant beneath the numbness.

4. You Experience Unexplained Physical Symptoms

Chronic tension that won't release. Digestive issues with no clear medical cause. Headaches, fatigue, mysterious aches and pains.

Your body is always communicating, whether or not you're listening. When the verbal channel is closed — when you've stopped tuning in to sensation and emotion — the body often gets louder.⁵

These symptoms aren't random. They're your body's way of trying to get your attention, of saying "something here needs to be felt."

5. You Don't Know What You Want

Not just "what do you want for dinner" (though that too). Bigger things. What do you want from your life? What would make you happy? What do you actually need?

When you're disconnected from your body, you lose access to your inner compass.⁶ Desire, preference, intuition — these aren't just mental phenomena. They're felt experiences. They arise from the body.

If you've spent years overriding your body's signals, ignoring your needs, putting everyone else first — the voice of your own wanting goes quiet. You stop knowing what you want because you stopped being in the body that feels the wanting.

6. You Feel Like You're Watching Life From the Outside

There's a particular quality to body disconnection that's hard to describe but instantly recognisable if you've felt it. It's like watching your life through a window. Being present but not quite there. Going through the motions without fully inhabiting them.

Psychologists call this depersonalisation or derealisation — the sense that you, or the world, isn't quite real.⁷ It exists on a spectrum, from mild fogginess to more intense experiences of unreality.

At its core, this is a dissociative response. Your nervous system, overwhelmed by something it couldn't process, created distance. You pulled back from full embodiment because being fully here felt like too much.

7. Stillness Feels Uncomfortable

You avoid quiet moments. You always need background noise, distraction, something to do. When you try to meditate or simply sit with yourself, anxiety rises. Stillness feels unbearable.

This is one of the most telling signs of body disconnection. When you've been living outside your body, coming back in can feel threatening.⁸ All the unfelt sensations, the stored emotions, the backlog of what's been ignored — they're waiting in the stillness.

So you stay busy. Stay distracted. Stay anywhere but here.

Why We Disconnect

Body disconnection isn't random, and it's not your fault.

We learn to leave our bodies when staying present becomes too painful, too overwhelming, or too unsafe. This might happen through:

Trauma: When something overwhelming happens, the nervous system can pull us out of our bodies as a protective measure.¹
Chronic stress: Prolonged periods of stress can lead to gradual disconnection as we override our body's signals to keep functioning.
Childhood experiences: If emotional expression wasn't safe, if needs weren't met, if we learned to ignore our bodies early — that pattern carries forward.⁹
Cultural conditioning: We live in a culture that values productivity over rest, thinking over feeling, pushing through over listening in. Disconnection is almost encouraged.

Whatever the cause, the disconnection made sense at the time. It was adaptive. It helped you survive.

But survival isn't thriving. And at some point, what protected you starts to limit you.

The Cost of Staying Disconnected

Living disconnected from your body isn't sustainable. Over time, it leads to:

Chronic health issues: The body's signals, ignored long enough, become symptoms.⁵
Emotional dysregulation: Without the body as an anchor, emotions either flood or flatline.
Difficulty with relationships: Intimacy requires presence. Connection requires being here.
Loss of self: When you can't feel your body, you lose access to your deepest knowing.
Burnout: Running on override, ignoring the body's need for rest — this road leads nowhere good.

Coming Home: The Path of Reconnection

Here's the good news: you can learn to reconnect.

It won't happen overnight. You disconnected for good reasons, and your nervous system needs to learn that it's safe to come back. But with patience and the right support, you can rebuild the bridge between your mind and your body.

This is the heart of somatic work.

Start Small

You don't need to feel everything all at once. Start with simple, safe sensations. The feeling of your feet on the floor. The temperature of the air on your skin. The weight of your hands in your lap.

Practice Interoceptive Awareness

Several times a day, pause and ask yourself: What am I feeling in my body right now? Not what you're thinking — what you're feeling. Where is there tension? Ease? Warmth? Coolness?¹⁰

Move Gently

Movement helps rebuild the body-mind connection. Not punishing exercise, but gentle, mindful movement. Walking, stretching, dancing, shaking. Let the movement be about feeling, not achieving.

Create Safety

Your body won't open up if it doesn't feel safe. Work on building resources — people, places, practices — that help your nervous system settle.⁸

Be Patient

Reconnection is a process, not an event. There will be times when you slip back into disconnection. That's okay. Every moment of presence, no matter how brief, is a step forward.

Why This Matters

Your body isn't just a vehicle for carrying your head around.

It's the home of your emotions, your intuition, your aliveness. It holds wisdom that your thinking mind can't access. It's where your full-body yes lives — and your full-body no.

When you're disconnected from your body, you're disconnected from yourself. From your knowing. From your power. From the rich, textured experience of being fully human.

Coming home to your body isn't always comfortable. There might be feelings waiting that you've been avoiding. Sensations you've numbed out. Truths you haven't wanted to face.

But there's also you waiting. The real you. The you that exists beneath the coping, beneath the checking out, beneath the survival strategies.

That you is worth coming home to.

What You Can Do Next

If these signs resonated, here are some gentle starting points:

Name it: Simply acknowledging that you've been disconnected is powerful. No judgement — just honesty.
Feel your feet: Right now, feel your feet on the ground. Really feel them. This is the simplest grounding practice, and you can do it anytime.
One body check-in per day: Set a reminder to pause and notice your body. What sensations are present? What does your body need?
Explore somatic support: A trained practitioner can help you navigate reconnection safely, especially if trauma is part of your story.

Ready to Come Home to Your Body?

At Somatic Body, I guide women through the journey of reconnection — gently, safely, at a pace that honours your nervous system's wisdom.

Through my SomaCycle™️ Method and 4-Body Healing System, we rebuild the bridge between your mind and body, so you can access your full aliveness and reclaim your full-body yes.

You've been away long enough. It's time to come home.

Learn more about working with me → Book An Embodiment Session

Written by Shannon Harrison — Somatic & Energetic Integration Specialist, foundress of Somatic Body™️

References

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