How many times during the day do you catch yourself swallowing your yawn or postponing your trip to the bathroom because you’re in a meeting? Not to mention going hungry all day because you just can’t step away from your desk. These may sound oh so familiar to so many of us.

Yet, in the spirit of being a team player and a productive member of our company, we do it—and do it often. We trade in our most pressing urges for a new badge of honor, called “busy”. What we don’t realize is that the regular suppression of our natural urges may lead to health imbalances. And when that happens, our health as well as our productivity will suffer.

Natural physical urges are our body’s response to something it wants to get rid of. Our bodies are smart—if we listen, it will tell us what we need and don’t need. When we resist an urge, we’re forcing our body to act opposite to what is best for us. Here are the 14 natural urges from ancient ayurvedic text that we must learn to embrace.

14 natural urges we should not ignore

1. Passing gas

Regular and prolonged suppression of flatus may cause excessive abdominal pain, fatigue, weaken the digestive system, worsen our vision, create tendency towards constipation and even prostate problems.

2. Bowel movement

In addition to the above symptoms, resisting elimination long term may cause cramping in the calf muscles, headaches, feeling of heaviness of the heart, allergies, common cold and cutting pain while passing stool (anal fissure).

3. Urination

In addition to the previous symptoms, body aches, kidney and urinary stones, and pain in the lower abdomen or genital area could be the signs of long-term suppression of urination.

4. Burping

Lack of taste in the mouth, whole body tremors, feeling congested in the heart and chest area, bloating, coughing and hiccups could be tied to ignoring our need to burp.

5. Sneezing

Swallowing our need to sneeze over and over may bring about severe headaches, weakness in all of our sense organs, stiff neck and might even contribute to facial paralysis.

6. Thirst

We should only drink when we are physically thirsty. Too much drinking can be just as bad as suppressing our need to drink. It doesn’t matter if the substance is non-alcoholic. Resisting this urge could lead to feeling weak, lack of strength, emaciation and fatigue. It may even interfere with our ability to hear well, make sound decisions, lead to dizziness and might even contribute to heart issues.

7. Hunger

Same caution as in 6. Don’t overeat. And don’t eat for the sake of eating. If you get hungry at night, drink a cup of warm milk instead of reaching for your midnight stash of Ben & Jerry’s. Ignoring your hunger may cause body aches, lack of taste, weakness, excess thinness, abdominal pain or (s)lower mental performance.

8. Sleep

We already talked about why you should sleep and how to get more zzz’s to avoid symptoms like confusion, (s)low mental and physical performance, lethargy and yawning.

9. Cough

Ignoring your cough will just make it get stronger and could potentially lead to hiccups, lack of taste, asthma and difficulty breathing as well as heart issues.

10. Breathing heavily when exerting yourself

Embrace heavy respiration when exercising hard to avoid confusion and inability to make sound decisions or potential heart problems.

11. Yawning

Everything we talked about under sneezing? They apply here too.

12. Crying

You’ve heard the saying “boys don’t cry”. Well, we’ve been wrong all along! Resisting the urge to cry may lead to common cold, pain in the eyes and heart area, headaches, stiff neck, lack of taste and confusion.

13. Vomiting

Ignoring this urge repeatedly over a long period of time could contribute to skin diseases, including shingles, eye diseases, itching, feeling weak and pale, fever, asthma, cough, swelling, and facial discoloration and spots.

14. This will surprise you!

Next time you’re stuck in back-to-back meetings swallowing your yawn or ignoring the growling of your stomach, take a break. Remember it’s for your health—and productivity.

Image by Mikhail Nilov, Pexels

Disclaimer: this article is not meant as a medical diagnosis, advice or opinion. It’s merely the presentation of information found in classical ayurvedic text for our modern readers.