After I was clearly on the road to recovery post-cancer, I decided to visit a nutritionist. She wasn’t just any nutritionist; I chose her because she could run tests and set a benchmark for my health—something concrete I could improve upon. During our session, I shared my story about being diagnosed with breast cancer after I’d ignored a lump the size of a child’s fist for who knows how long. I’ll never forget her reaction. She paused, looked at me, and said, “Wow! How disconnected from your body must you have been to forget about a lump that size?”
That comment struck me like a slap in the face. She was right. I had been completely disconnected from my body. I lived in my head—everything was logic, work, and routines. Get up, get dressed, feed the kids, look after my husband, go to work, pay the bills… rinse and repeat. I was on autopilot, and it was clear I had been ignoring my body’s signals for a long time. Looking back, the signs had been there, flashing like neon lights, but I didn’t see them—or rather, I chose not to.
Now, post-cancer, I had the chance to do better, and I was not going to waste it. Tracking became a crucial tool for me, not just as data for the sake of data, but as a visual reminder to tune in to my body—really listen this time. It wasn’t about obsessively measuring everything; it was about using that information to rebuild a connection I had lost. This body is our vehicle through life; if we learn to listen, the signals are there. The power of tracking is in the lessons it teaches us about those signals, guiding us to take better care of ourselves and live more consciously.
Why Track Your Well-Being?
Sadhguru’s Inner Engineering emphasizes the importance of awareness—being present and conscious of your body, mind, and energy. But here’s the thing: when you’re stuck in the daily grind, it’s easy to miss your body’s subtle signals. I ignored mine, and it nearly cost me everything. Tracking is a way to reawaken that awareness. It helps you pay attention to what’s happening under the surface—your mood, habits, sleep—and gives you the tools to see the patterns you might otherwise miss.
Tracking gives you a moment to pause, reflect, and say, “What’s going on here?” It’s not about micromanaging your life but about using data to reconnect with yourself—so you don’t end up on autopilot like I did. Once you understand the rhythms of your body and mind, tracking becomes less necessary, but initially, it can be a game-changer.
Practical Ideas for Data-Driven Self-Awareness
1. Mood Tracking: Listening to Your Inner State
When I was disconnected from my body, I barely noticed my emotions unless they hit me like a brick. Mood tracking is a way to get in touch with the fluctuations in your emotional state and start noticing the subtle shifts before they escalate. By logging your mood each day, you’ll start to see what’s impacting your well-being, whether it’s a bad night’s sleep, a stressful workday, or skipping your yoga practice.
As you track, patterns will start to emerge. You’ll notice that when you meditate, your mood improves. Or when you skip breakfast, you get irritable by lunchtime. Mood tracking helps you become aware of these patterns, so over time, you can simply feel what’s going on without needing the logbook. It’s a tool to help you learn how to listen.
How to Start:
- Track your mood at different times of the day. It can be as simple as giving your mood a score from 1 to 10 and jotting down a few notes.
- After a few weeks, look at the data and see if any trends stand out. What activities improve your mood? What drains you?
- Eventually, you’ll no longer need to log the data because you’ll know what’s helping and hindering your emotional well-being based on how you feel.
2. Habit Tracking: Becoming Aware of Your Daily Actions
One thing Sadhguru teaches is the importance of bringing consciousness into everything we do. When we live unconsciously, we end up in patterns that may not serve us well—just like I ended up ignoring the signs from my body. Habit tracking brings those unconscious actions into the light. By tracking habits like daily yoga, mindful eating, or time spent outdoors, you become aware of what you’re doing and how it’s affecting you.
At first, it’s about accountability. You’re tracking to ensure you’re keeping up with habits supporting your health. But over time, as you learn to feel the impact of those habits, the tracking fades into the background. You’ll know if you’ve skipped your evening meditation because you’ll feel it—not because your app tells you.
How to Start:
- Choose 2-3 habits that align with your well-being goals (meditation, drinking more water, going for a walk).
- Track them daily. Did you do them? How did they make you feel?
- After a few weeks, you’ll notice which habits have the most impact. The tracking will become less necessary once you’re in tune with your body.
3. Sleep Analysis: Learning to Honor Your Body’s Need for Rest
Sleep was one of the first areas I realized I had to take seriously after my cancer diagnosis. Sleep is when our body heals, but many don’t respect it—burning the candle at both ends and then wondering why we’re exhausted. Tracking your sleep can help you see how much rest you’re getting and what’s affecting your sleep quality.
If you’re consistently waking up tired, it could be that your late-night Netflix habit or caffeine intake is throwing off your natural rhythm. Over time, tracking your sleep helps you understand what your body needs to function well. And eventually, you’ll start to feel those cues without requiring a device to tell you.
How to Start:
- Use a sleep tracker or journal to log how many hours you sleep, your quality of rest, and how you feel the next day.
- Notice the patterns—do you feel more refreshed after an early bedtime? Does your energy dip if you stay up late?
- Once you’re aware of how your body responds, you’ll naturally start to honour your need for rest without the need for constant tracking.
Bridging Data and Inner Awareness
The power of tracking isn’t in the data itself; it’s in the awareness that comes from it. I noticed how they all connected once I began tracking my mood, habits, and sleep. I learned to listen to my body in ways I hadn’t before. The more you practice, the more intuitive it becomes. Eventually, you won’t need to track every detail because you’ll feel when something’s off, just like I now know when I’m veering off course. Tracking is a tool to reconnect with yourself—but it’s not a crutch.
Sadhguru’s teachings remind us that true well-being comes from within. Once we develop the inner awareness to listen to our bodies, tracking is no longer required. But when life gets chaotic or when we feel out of sync, tracking is a tool we can return to for a recalibration—a way to check in and realign.
When to Track and When to Let Go
Tracking is like training wheels. It helps us recognise our actions, moods, and energy levels. But the goal is to eventually ride the bike without them. Once you identify the correlations between what you track and how you feel, you’ll know when your body needs rest, movement, or nourishment without requiring the data to confirm it.
But that doesn’t mean you never come back to it. If life gets out of balance, tracking can be a helpful way to realign and get back on track.
Final Thoughts
For me, tracking was a way to rebuild my connection with my body after cancer woke me up to how disconnected I had been. It was a tool for self-awareness, not just numbers on a screen. Whether you’re tracking mood, habits, or sleep, the purpose is to learn how to listen to your body and mind. Once you’ve deepened that awareness, you won’t need the data anymore—because you’ll already know what your body is telling you.
But here’s where I’d love to hear from you. I used to feel that if I stopped tracking, I’d failed at it—another task I hadn’t kept up with. How do you feel about letting go of tracking once you’ve learned the signals from your body? Does the idea of letting go feel liberating, or does it feel like losing control? Have you experienced that shift where you no longer need a tracker but can intuitively feel what your body needs?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences! Let’s start a conversation about finding the balance between tracking and trust and becoming more deeply connected with ourselves.
The Balanced Equation 