Being in over your head over work problems, relationship issues, or whatever’s going on at home is, unfortunately, pretty common these days. Many of us have become so used to stress that we’ve come to accept it as part of our daily lives, without aiming to figure out the root cause or without looking to find a solution to better the situation. Being constantly engulfed in stressful conditions can keep our sympathetic nervous system turned on 24/7, leaving us unable to rest and restore.

If you’ve begun to feel numb from all the stress you’ve been under over long periods of time, your body could be giving you signs that it’s time to make a change.

Listening to the physical signals your body sends is just one way to wake yourself up, become more aware of what’s going on so you can dig in, find out where the stress is coming from and make a change that will benefit your body, mind, emotions, and lifestyle.

1. Stomach pains

The stomach is sometimes called your body’s second brain — when you’ve got that “gut feeling” that something is going wrong, people say to trust your instincts because even without reason or logic, you’re figuring out that you’re in a situation you need to release yourself from.

Body-wise, everything from constipation to diarrhea, nausea, or gas pains can certainly be signs of stress. Changing up your diet to include more fiber can have long-lasting effects to help tame your tummy and affect even other parts of the body.

Taking care of this area of the body can help you unleash toxins that don’t serve you well, and also put you at ease throughout the day.

2. Twitches

Muscle spasms can happen when you’re tensed up — irritating eyelid twitches can come and go, but when they expand to include your entire face or happen so often that they can’t be ignored, this effect of stress can easily become a source of anxiety for you, too.

Learning how to relax and turn on the body’s parasympathetic nervous system — our capacity to rest and digest — is key in taming your twitches. Practice deep inhalations and exhalations with your eyes closed; or try your hand at pressing your temples, or even applying mild pleasure to your eyelids intermittently.

3. Back pains

Whether it’s your neck and shoulders that are tensing up, or you’re feeling a constant dull ache in your lower back, pain in this area of the body is a sure sign that tension is building up and requires some release.

Our gadgets and work situations don’t help — they have us slumped in chairs or looking over phones and tablets, causing our backs to move away from their intended shape.

Release the stress in your back through short-term solutions such as massage, but also develop habits that can counter the ill effects of day-to-day life. Moving around and taking a 10-minute walk-break at the office can be a start, while introducing movement-based activities such as yoga or Pilates can help strengthen the muscles that support your back, allowing compressed areas to open up as well.