Do you ever feel like your body is trying to sabotage you? It could be a stomachache while preparing for a big meeting or fatigue while getting ready for a difficult conversation. These physical sensations, along with raised heart rate, shallow breathing, and other types of physical discomfort, are often early warning signs that something isn’t quite right. But what if our body has important information for us? Unfortunately, most of us have been trained to ignore our physical sensations and “push through” or “embrace the suck,” which contributes to mental health difficulties and may cause physical health problems. If we can learn how to align our mind and body and listen to it’s messages, we can gain important information for living a better life.

If it weren’t hard enough to integrate our mind and body, we have a fast-paced world where productivity is prized. Work and family can draw our attention away from our bodies. We also are filling our days with more activities and electronic use, which drowns outs the physical and emotional messages our body is sending.

This disconnection between our mind and body fuels feelings of depression, anxiety, and disconnection to ourselves and with loved ones. When we are not connected to our body or ignore its messages we get stuck in negative behavior cycles and unhelpful thought patterns. For example, anxiety often presents itself in bodily sensations that are misinterpreted or attributed to the wrong cause.

If we are able to begin making connections between our thoughts and feelings while also exploring what our body is telling us we can begin to feel more aware of patterns of behavior. Aligning mind-body awareness also improves our ability to be compassionate to ourselves and others while also enhancing our ability to be patient, curious, and empowered. When we become more compassionate, patient, curious, and empowered we are able to live more authentically and connect to others more meaningfully.

Some questions you might begin to think about to increase your awareness of the mind-body connection include:

• When you feel worried, sad, frustrated, or angry, what do you notice going on in your body?

• Where is it, what might it be telling you?

• When do you feel most aware of your body?

• How do you respond to unpleasant physical sensations?

In addition to considering what you are feeling in your body and how you respond to it, there are other ways to foster awareness and connection to our body. Here are six ways to improve your awareness of the brain-body connection:

1. Engage in body scans or other mindfulness practices that include body awareness.

2. Set aside judgment about your body and work on identifying what allows you to feel your best.

3. Learn breathing techniques that lower heart rate and encourage physical relaxation.

4. Engage in gentle or rhythmic movements such as yoga or dance since these movements encourage neuroplasticity and have been shown to reduce symptoms associated with anxiety, depression, and PTSD (Gallegos et al., 2017).

5. Keep a journal to explore physical sensations and related emotional responses.

6. Reach out to a counselor who incorporates somatic modalities into the counseling session.

If learning how to improve body awareness and enhance mental health interests you, the counselors at Align Couples Therapy would be honored to be part of your journey.

References:

Gallegos, A. M., Crean, H. F., Pigeon, W. R., & Heffner, K. L. (2017). Meditation and yoga for posttraumatic stress disorder: A meta-analytic review of randomized controlled trials. Clinical psychology review, 58, 115–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.10.004