How do you listen to your body?

i’ve realised that my body will send me messages and i will ignore them. “I want to…” “I don’t want to…” “I’m hungry” “I’m full” “I’m tired”

i know there is a function for the ability to do this, but i’m afraid i’ve lost the ability to pay attention and honor my body! do you have any tips on how to do this?

also, on a more macro level, i told my boyfriend that i want to be better at listening to my body – and he said that i should be careful, because listening to my body is effectively what an animal does. i know society / civilization is founded on humans being different than animals – but it seems we focus so much on knowing when not to be an animal – but very little
on when it is good to be animal.

thoughts?