Mind-body connections are central to mental health and addiction recovery. Mind-body techniques like meditation, yoga, Pilates and Tai Chi activate this connection between mind and body to promote healing.
People tend to view mental and physical health as separate matters, but that’s not entirely accurate.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a practice of paying attention to the present moment without judgment, which can help improve mental health issues by helping you recognize what’s happening within yourself, your body and surroundings without judgment.
At first, meditation may seem challenging: your thoughts might flood in and emotions surge within. To ease stress responses in the body, visualization techniques such as visualizing relaxing or healing environments could prove beneficial.
Other potential pitfalls to be wary of when introducing mindfulness include expecting it to provide instantaneous relief or viewing it as a single solution; in reality, mindfulness takes time and works best as part of an array of treatments.
Meditation
Meditation can be an effective way of strengthening the connection between your mind and body, helping you remain focused, reduce stress levels and enhance happiness levels. Furthermore, it has been found to lower blood pressure in older adults who may be at increased risk.
Meditation’s primary goal is to focus on the physical sensations of breathing. Thoughts will inevitably wander; when they do, simply be aware of them and gently return your attention back to breathing. You could also try focusing on different parts of your body such as toes, feet, legs, belly, chest shoulders and arms right down to fingertips – or try different practices such as body scanning or mindful eating to enhance meditation practice.
Yoga
Yoga is a mindfulness practice which promotes peace of mind by unifying mind and body. Additionally, it may assist with managing mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
Yoga promotes activation of the parasympathetic nervous system – or “rest and digest” system – which can reduce stress levels and slow heart rate while increasing levels of GABA neurotransmitter which improves mood and promotes relaxation.
Mind-body connections provide us with a natural feedback loop between emotional and physical experiences. For example, when feeling nervous before giving a presentation, having butterflies in your stomach could have an immediate effect on how well you perform during that event.
Tai Chi
Tai Chi is an exercise regimen involving slow movements, postures and breathing techniques rooted in Taoism that has its origins dating back to 16th-century China.
Tai Chi has long been considered “meditation in motion”, providing balance and muscle strengthening benefits as well as decreasing joint and soft-tissue pain from arthritis or fibromyalgia. Furthermore, it helps prevent falls while strengthening bones.
Focus on relaxing the joints instead of tightening them for maximum Qi flow through your body. Maintaining upright posture strengthens Deep Stabiliser muscles while improving balance – Tai Chi is easy to learn, adaptable, and can be practiced anywhere!
Exercise
Exercise can provide many mental and physical benefits, and is a proven antidepressant. But to maximize results from your workout and avoid injury, form is crucial – try visualizing muscles contracting during exercise to stay engaged with and focused on the task at hand.
Studies using MRI have revealed that mind-body exercises can cause structural changes to the prefrontal cortex (pFC), particularly its dorsolateral region (dlPFC). Mind-body exercises also appear to affect the hippocampus/MTL and lateral temporal lobes – these changes may explain why mind-body exercise helps memory!
Counseling
People typically associate nutrition and exercise as ways of maintaining physical wellbeing; however, mental wellbeing plays an essential role as well. Many therapeutic methods focus on mind-body connections like yoga, meditation and tai chi which may provide additional ways of staying well.
EMDR and Somatic Experiencing are body-based therapies used to process unprocessed trauma. When combined with talk therapy sessions, they can accelerate mental health recovery.
Studies have demonstrated the efficacy of mind-body approaches as complementary or alternative treatments in several high-risk, disadvantaged populations and can act as complementary or replacement strategies to conventional medical therapy approaches. Counseling services offer holistic strategies to heal your mind-body connection if anxiety, chronic pain or PTSD symptoms exist.
