I went to massage school so I might be biased, but I fully believe that the mind-body connection is a real thing. The body stores memories, trauma and stories of our past. It also keeps score, as we all know from the best-selling book. I’ve seen it in myself and in the many clients that I worked with in my massage practice.
And now science has the research to prove it. Over the past decade, more and more studies have been published that provide evidence that “connections between a person’s mind, body and spirit have the capacity to affect physical health”.
The goal is a balanced mind and body, working together, not letting one take over. Aligning these different parts of yourself make for an enhanced ability to go with the flow and tap into your higher purpose. When you’re stuck in your head, or numb in your body, the energy between the two will stagnate, causing issues. To even the score, doing things that calm our nervous system is essential.
There are lots of ways to accomplish this mind-body connection. If you’re regularly on social media, many of these ways have been sold to you as a shortcut. The wellness industry makes millions on those of us who are seeking to improve ourselves, ready to charge us for silver bullets and snake oils that often have no result.
The reality is that you’ll need to do the work if you want to see the benefits. There’s no way around it – especially when dealing with big emotions and scary unknowns. It can be easy to get lost in your head, your thoughts taking over. That disconnect between what you’re feeling and what you’re thinking gets worse in times of stress, which is exactly the time that you want to be feeling more complete, not less.
Suggestions for enhancing mind-body connection
Being able to close your eyes, stand firm on the ground and take deep breaths – a vastly underused technique for coming back into yourself. Power poses are also highly recommended.
Speaking of breathing, there are some fantastic exercises designed to get your mind and body in better alignment. Single-nostril breathing, or chandra bhedana pranayama, is a practice that you might be familiar with from yoga class but you can do it anytime you need to bring the two sides of your brain together and get things moving. If it’s good enough for Hilary Clinton, it’s good enough for me.
Movement. Of any kind. There are some activities that are specially designed to enhance the mind – body connection, looking at you yoga and pilates. And there are others that do so naturally, like walking in the woods or meditating near the ocean. The movement doesn’t need to be fancy, choreographed or done in an expensive studio in order for it to be effective.
What are some of your favorite ways to bring your mind and body together?
