5 Ways to Improve Your Mind-Body Connection
Have you ever thought about how your mind affects your body and vise versa? Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the mind-body connection. The concept that “our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can positively or negatively affect our biological functioning. In other words, our minds can affect how healthy our bodies are!” (Patricia Hart). For example, think about the relationship between your brain and body and when you get stressed. Your thoughts cause you to start to get anxious so your body enters fight or flight mode, hormones are released that cause heart rate and breathing to increase, blood pressure to rise, muscles to tense, headaches, and other physical responses. If those reactions happen in your body simply from being stressed, imagine how all your other thoughts could be positively or negatively impacting your health.
Thoughts can cause physical reactions, so what about the other way around? Could your body health also be changing the way you think? In college, one of the topics I frequently researched was the influence of exercise on health versus the use of medication. So often when people are struggling with mental and physical ailments, the first reaction is to take drugs to “fix it”. In many cases, I believe it’s like when you rip weeds out of your garden, you may have pulled out the part you can see but the roots are still there. We want the symptoms to go away versus digging deeper to solve the problem. “300 years ago, virtually every system of medicine throughout the world treated the mind and body as a whole. But during the 17th century, the Western world started to see the mind and body as two distinct entities. In this view, the body was kind of like a machine, complete with replaceable, independent parts, with no connection whatsoever to the mind” (Hart). As a fast-paced society, we want quick fixes but it’s important to slow down and look internally to see what may be happening inside you.
“In mind-body medicine, the mind and body are not seen as separately functioning entities, but as one functioning unit. The mind and emotions are viewed as influencing the body, as the body, in turn, influences the mind and emotions” -Selhub
I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression for as long as I can remember but I’m happiest when I’m exercising regularly, taking care of my body, and being intentional about how I’m directing my thoughts. Many mornings I wake up feeling anxious, I have ZERO motivation to get up and exercise. But I’ve made it a non-negotiable that the first thing I do when I roll out of bed is go for a run and I’ve noticed HUGE improvements in my overall moods. Exercise and positive thoughts and feelings cause the brain to release endorphins (the “happy chemical” AND a natural pain killer) and gamma globulin (which strengthens the immune system). The body feeling good improves thoughts (and vise versa) and creates a positive cycle of self-growth.
So here’s how you can work on improving your mind-body connection:
Movement. Aerobic exercise actually impacts the functioning of the brain and is key to improving mental health.
Meditation. Taking time to focus on mindful breathing and your thoughts a great way to start bringing more awareness of the connection between mind and body. Another great meditative technique to foster mind-body connection is Progressive Relaxation (tightening and relaxing muscle groups).
Journaling. Writing about your thoughts and feelings is always a great way to practice physically bringing what’s on your mind to paper.
Body posture and expressions. Like I talked about in this post, the way you express yourself in your physical posture/expression can influence your mind.
Biofeedback (a type of therapy that measures key body functions through the use of sensors). This can be very helpful for learning about how your specific body reacts and in turn, teach you how to control things like your breathing, heart rate, and other functions impacted by stress.