In America, our culture has noticeably woken up in awareness of this mind-body connection reality.
Your mental health is a reflection of your overall health, showing up in your physical body, through the internal mind-body connection.
If you were born before the internet, this could be a newer idea to you as you didn’t grow up with yoga or meditation practice.
In 2008, I attended yoga studios and classes weekly, but you had to do some research to find a general type of yoga class like Hatha or Vinyasa yoga. Over a decade later, you can find studios everywhere, for beginner and advanced yoga, and every class flavor in between.
This growing popularity of yoga in the western world bridged eastern philosophies that the mind directly affects the body. There’s a fine line between fact and woo, and distinction to spiritual thinking.
The mind-body connection is factually based, and you can find enough supportive evidence without too much effort on just about any credible mental health site. Personally, I’ve been living this out since my Perfect Health mind-body transformative experience.
Why the mind-body connection matters
Living in America, the bottom line to why mind-body connection matters to us are that we want to live our Best Self, so that:
1) we can have a great career, work-life, or business (or all three).
2) we can attract and keep a good relationship, have a happy family and friendships too.
3) we can stay healthy and look good and have the energy to pursue our passions, contribute, and give back.
Our Collective Bodies Today in America
In America, as a whole society, our bodies can get brushed aside unless we prioritize taking care of ourselves. This has stayed steady through the generations and hasn’t changed much from past decades.
It still takes work to maintain our bodies, and how much we do this can depend on our limitations, body, genes, lifestyle, attitudes, and thoughts.
We take care of our bodies, first so we can look good and appear healthy, and we’ll spend the money to invest in ourselves.
No matter what our motivations are, by taking care of our bodies with healthy foods, exercise, and good habits, our bodies are naturally resilient and strong, and we can get back to our normal health with relative ease if we’re healthy.
Like so many, when I was in my twenties I felt healthy enough, so having life longevity goals just wasn’t a top priority (like in other countries around the world).
In some other countries, patients are told they’re physically well so that they think themselves to better health. A healthy mind does good for the body.
In America, health prevention and pacing ourselves is not the way our society is set up. We don’t usually take the time to find out what’s going on behind the scenes in our bodies unless something goes wrong.
If we’re on the toilet too often or not enough, that becomes a mild concern as it’s telling us something about our current health story.
We hope and rely on modern medicine to cure and correct any building-up health problems.
If you go to the doctor’s office, they will prescribe some form of medication even if it’s just a mild pain killer. They won’t usually just send you home with happy thoughts and a list of foods to eat.
Expecting to hear something wrong and how to fix the problem can cause pre-conditioned responses. In thinking that we need medicine to heal or use as a “feel-better” crutch, addictions can take control (over minds and lives) if we’re not careful.
That can lead to hypochondriac thoughts and obsession over the smallest physical symptom that gets worse because of the excessive energy and worry thoughts put towards inflammation or ailment.
These are not good places for our minds to be. We want our thoughts to be happy, positive, and loving so we have healthy bodies (in the mind-body connection).
The thoughts that you agree with will drive your results. Stress eating and unknown caused inflammation that often gets brushed under the rug as minor, are potential signs that a place in your mind isn’t happy.
Practical Mindful Tips for Mind-Body Connection Health
Here, I want to give you some practical mind tips to positively affect your mental health, so you can improve your physical health. These can be wise gems you apply for longevity, overall good health, and a rockin’ body!
Begin with an open mind for what you want to achieve, whether that’s a great physical body or a healthy body, and your intention will help get you there in the mind-body connection.
1. Believe there’s a better, sustainable physical body way to take care of yourself with preventative mental health care, where you experience daily joy and are in control of your life. Your mind drives the bus (your body’s vehicle).
Believing this even if you don’t know how to transform and renew your mind for healthy success, is a good place to start. Mind-body health go hand-in-hand in the deeper mind-body connection, that we can’t see.
Remember, our bodies are built for resilience as long as we don’t have to endure long-term abuse or live with diseased minds.
You can take care of your body by jumping back in at any time and getting back in shape, health, and wellness as best you can, no matter what your exercise past was. You can pick back up, and go to a spa, gym, or just start moving. Nothing else needs to happen. You can decide to ride your bicycle or walk to work, or climb stairs instead of taking the elevator every chance you get.
What will motivate you and get you there are your thoughts. Then when you’ve achieved a small goal like taking an enjoyable hike, you’re doubly rewarded with your healthy look and happy smile on your face, along with the feelings of accomplishment you have inside.
When what you’re thinking (your thought life) is healthy, your inside body is rewarded. The mind-body connection and alignment is reflecting how we positively think about ourselves and show up in our outer body mannerisms, self-confidence, and body weight.
It’s all connected.
So that is why your thought life matters…
2. Cleaning up your thought and thought processes are going to pay huge dividends in investing in your health.
Just like you maintain and clean your computer, car, and home, it’s important to do a regular overhaul or seasonal cleaning in your mind and mental health, removing the old cobwebs and sorrows.
What you are thinking about is affecting your feelings and moods, of whether you get to the gym and whether you practice self-care, and feel deeper self-love. Your thoughts are determining your choices and actions.
So what pops up as thoughts that you allow to stay in your mind, steer your ship. Your current, past or present negative thoughts can be slowing you down if you apply negative energy, emotions, and meaning.
Your negative thoughts fall into 3 main categories:
1. Your Past Trauma or Issues: You have an issue from your past that hasn’t resolved or is chronically an issue or pain point. You might’ve pushed thoughts away, so you didn’t or don’t have to confront the issue, but it keeps showing up as signs or triggers in your body or life. Dealing with the emotions and feelings of these repressed thoughts is the way to get free and heal, even if the issue can’t be resolved right now.
An example of this is holding onto unforgiveness for a situation that can’t be changed, but you can immediately let go of your resentment and anger.
What to do: Healthy ways to purge these emotions can be journaling, talking to a trusted friend, or someone who had gone through similar past situations. Then, getting advice and validation from a caring third party who wants to see you well now as much as you do.
2. Your Current Situations: You are in a current situation where you feel stuck or trapped. You could be feeling life overwhelmed, frustrated or bored. You don’t know if you should stay or go or change course, but the writing is on the wall. It’s just a matter of time.
Healthy growth for any situation doesn’t mean there aren’t problems. Conflict and setbacks are often how good progress is made. Ideas birth into action, good innovation comes from growing pains, and great relationships are built. Two steps forward and one step backward is healthy.
The difference to know when to abandon is when it’s clear and you know you’ve reached an obvious, dead-end (a job has ended, a relationship is destructive, or one person in a relationship wants to move on).
When you’re stuck in a bad situation, that can create stress and unhappiness, as can dead-end situations. The next step options are different for each, but removing yourself from why it happened or why you’re in the situation you’re in, will get you to your next happy beginning faster as you seek future possibilities and start making new things happen. You get out of your own way, that takes you out of your rut.
What to do: Evaluate/re-evaluate options for your situation. Weigh all your possibilities you know (and trust and know there are others out there you don’t just yet). Find higher road perspectives and habits to maintain happiness. Finding a new activity and buying time for a breakthrough is a good idea if you don’t know what to do. That’s not procrastinating or avoiding, that’s positively getting on with your life.
At some point, you will get clarity for a decision, not care anymore, or the situation changes for the better. Leaving a problem long enough from this perspective of not having a good answer, the problem will solve itself eventually.
Your Future Unknowns: You don’t know how something will turn out (career, family, financial, relationship). No one has guarantees or a crystal ball. The process of being productive during uncertainty is the way through your trials as you manage the thoughts coming from your mind. How you know if you’re unproductive is, you feel like you’re spinning wheels or are lost in self-pity. You’re then spending too much time thinking or wallowing, when you could be taking action, volunteering time for work where you make connections, or doing a physical activity to boost your self-esteem. That can be your quickest way out.
An example of this is if you’re wondering where your next breakthrough will come from in ______ area. Doing nothing to figure out a solution will keep you stuck as you’re in a victim mentality.
What to do: Take baby step actions towards a goal you want to meet. In your mindfulness and intention, you can then find a solution that will take you to the next step.
You can answer the question: what will I do today to get closer to this goal? Then use whatever resources you have to start where you are. You just have to begin. Because from there you will get new insight. If you do nothing, you stay stuck. Use your phone, your typewriter keys, your voice, your creativity, ability to work out, and start moving in a direction.
When you start researching and putting yourself out there in front of situations, something will open in your favor. When you let go of the lack (of abundance) thoughts, doors open to unknown possibilities.
This life is wired for your success if you grab that believing ticket and start moving towards a goal.
When To Ignore Your Brain… Seriously!
My brain kept telling me, “you’re the only one who is dealing with this crisis.” That’s sadly not reality. But that was my reality from my brain if I chose to listen.
Similarly, unless you’ve trained your brain, it’s telling you a story that’s not reality or helping you cross a hurdle you have.
Observe and identify what that is. Stop the madness, as similar thoughts around different circumstances have probably shown up before. You weren’t aware in the moment so you didn’t recognize it and didn’t learn how to grow and master the lies that are constantly swirling in our minds, ready to devour and self-sabotage if we allow.
Your brain is building up protective files to keep you alive if harmful or fearful situations arise. Your mind is a producer of drama and fictional chapters with worry as the plot.
Worry is helpful if you come up with solutions. If you let worry persist beyond helpfulness, then you can end up in anxiety and panic that won’t help you operate or make sound decisions.
As an example, reminding yourself (worrying) often that you inherited less than good genes won’t help you. Taking regular preventative measures based on your history and passed down family health facts, will. Set tasks and alerts on your calendar for your health prevention tasks so you don’t have to think about them. Just like how you would alert yourself to take your car in for a regular oil change. Don’t worry about anything, just take care of what needs to be taken care of.
You can also replace worry and fear with positive self-affirmations and thoughts. You can look in the mirror after you’ve made yourself look as beautiful as you are! And then say nice things, treating your mind as though it were another person than the one you look at in the mirror. You can tell both of you (your face and your mind) that “you are love.” That’s powerful. And add more positive affirmations where you start believing.
Because hiding in the back of your mind (or subconscious mind), the thought where you think you’re not good enough or you’re going to fail is ready to take over, until you’ve proven to yourself that you’re good enough or successful.
…So until you actually get there, telling yourself “you are already there” is a good way to eliminate the negative chatter and unproductive noise in between.
Your ego mind is ready to pounce at any weak moment you have and twist perceived messages, that you can then end up projecting onto others.
Manage your mind like it’s your Best Friend so that you can become your Best Self (inside and out).
A mentally healthy and stable outlook, effectively affects how your body performs in the mind-body connection realm. You don’t live with constant anxious symptoms and stress.
And from there, you also create healthy habits (eating, working out, sleep routine), better daily choices (decisions, behaviors, actions), and positively impact your physical health (stress-less living, protecting your heart, and reaching your ideal weight).
Healthy, positive steps also lead to personal growth, creativity, productivity, and so much more. The positive reward possibilities are endless and success keeps coming… just remember, it all starts in your mind and in the mind-body connection.