Is it possible to have positive self-image? Is it possible that our mental outlook on the world guides our immune system to make us more resilient to future threats.
Studies have shown that the thoughts of older women who are trying to lose weight show a positive impact on their overall health. This indicates that an individual’s emotions, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can positively or even negatively affect biological functioning.
Leading scientific research suggests that our minds can play an important role in healing our body — or in staying healthy in the first place.
What is the Mind-Body Connection?
The mind-body connection is the link between a person’s thoughts, attitudes, behaviors, and physical health. This theory is not new. The brain-body connection was treated in the same way by almost every medical system around the globe up to 300 years ago.
In the 17th century, however, Westerners began to see the mind as a separate entity. The body looked like a machine with its own parts and no connection to the mind.
Do you remember feeling so nervous that your palms started sweating? Or felt so worried you couldn’t fall asleep at night? This is what the mind-body connection means at work. Physical health and emotional health are intimately intertwined in what’s known as the mind-body connection.
How is the mind and body connected to each other?
Certain chemicals can be produced by the brain that can improve your health. These chemicals include endorphins which help the nervous systems cope with stress or pain and antibodies that are made by the immune system to eliminate foreign substances from the body.
These chemicals can be affected by your mental state. The fight or flight response is one of the most prominent examples. If you’re feeling stressed or anxious, your body will act as though it’s under attack and will release hormones that either prompt you to stay or run.
An anxious feeling can trigger anxiety, stress, or a rise in heart rate and digestion.
A positive attitude can make your brain more likely to produce the right chemicals needed to boost your immune systems.
It is essential to be able to build a positive relationship with your physical and mental health in order to achieve overall well being.
You can connect your mind to your body using many techniques, including meditation, deep breath, stress management and resiliency training. Spirituality and positive and negatively oriented thinking are all possible. Let’s dive in and learn how to connect your body and mind.
1. Meditation
The term “meditation” refers to a variety of practices that focus on mind and body connection and are used to calm the mind and enhance overall well-being.
Some types of meditation involve maintaining a mental focus on a particular sensation, such as breathing, a sound, a visual image, or a mantra, which is a repeated word or phrase like “Om”.
Meditation has been shown to reduce blood pressure, anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as symptoms such IBS and flare-ups in ulcerative colitis patients. People with insomnia may also find meditation beneficial.[1]
Further studies have shown that mindfulness meditation can be beneficial for depression over a period of six months.[2]
2. Deep Breathing
Deep breathing techniques, similar to meditation can be very potent and beneficial for your mental and physical health.
Yogic breathing is another name for deep breathing. It involves the voluntary regulation and activation of the breath using the diaphragm consciously and actively to increase and decrease the frequency of each cycle.
The diaphragm separates the abdominal and chest cavities. The diaphragm, which is attached to the base of your lungs, is rarely activated while breathing unconsciously. This can lead to poor ventilation and lower respiratory efficiency.
Today, many people breathe short, shallow breathing, keeping their bodies in a fight or flight response. This triggers all sorts of reactions, including the ones mentioned above.
3. Stress Management
Understanding how we react to stressful situations and anxiety can help you manage stress more effectively.
Although we might not be able change our circumstances, we can still see the positives.
Sometimes, reframe the stressful situation to help you manage it. This can change how your brain interprets these events and situations. It will also allow you to see things from a positive perspective.
Instead of complaining about traffic jams, use it as a chance to recharge, listen to your favorite radio station or just be alone.
The best way to manage stress is to prioritize your self-care. This is essential for maintaining our ability to function well and improving overall health.
Ask These Questions to Yourself
These aspects of our health are crucial to our well-being, and can help us manage stress better. These are some of the things you should be thinking about:
- Are you getting sufficient sleep?
- Are you making time to care for the people you love?
- Do you prioritize physical activity?
- Do you eat a balanced, varied diet?
- Are you giving your focus to what you are passionate about?
- How can you open yourself up to spirituality and community?
4. Resiliency Training
Resilience can be defined as the ability to adapt and quickly recover after trauma, stress, or tragedy. According to the Mayo Clinic, if you have a resilient disposition, you are better able to maintain poise and a healthy level of physical and psychological wellness in the face of life’s challenges.[3]
Maintaining your stress levels can have a major impact on your physical health. Resilience is crucial. It’s important to deal with stress in a healthy way, whether it’s through support from loved ones or changing your perspective through therapeutic methods.
5. Spirituality
Spirituality refers to a feeling of connection with something larger than ourselves. It is often associated with a search for meaning in one’s life. As such, it is a universal human experience—something that touches us all.
A spiritual experience can be described as something sacred, transcendent, or simply a feeling of aliveness and interconnectedness. Your purpose can help you to be healthy in both your mind and your body.
Whether it’s your career or personal life, knowing who you are and what your values are can help to keep you grounded. Sometimes, this can help you make the right decisions when faced with new opportunities.
Mindfulness is a way to become more aware of the current moment in your body and mind. It also teaches you how to open up to it with curiosity, kindness and compassion. This will allow you to look at beliefs, perspectives, or experiences from a different perspective, which might help you gain new insight into spiritual questions.
6. Positive and Negative Thinking
Positive thinking and optimism are being recognized by more researchers. These findings show that positive thinkers are healthier, less stressed, and have higher overall well-being.
According to Mayo Clinic, positive thinking can have health benefits.[4]
- Life expectancy increases
- Lower rates of depression
- Lower levels of distress and lower levels of pain
- Greater resistance to illnesses
- Improved psychological and bodily well-being
- Improved cardiovascular health and lower risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease death
- Lower risk of dying from cancer
- Lower risk of death due to respiratory conditions
- Lower risk of infection-related deaths
- Greater coping skills in times of stress and hardship
Negative thinking patterns such as jumping to conclusions and assuming the worst can make it difficult to address health issues.
For example, a woman struggling to lose weight may think “everyone in my family is overweight, so there’s nothing I can do about it”, even after being told by their doctor that their weight can be controlled with diet and exercise.
Make it a positive
Positive thinking can be turned into positive thinking. Although the process is easy, it takes practice and time to develop a new habit.
If you want to engage in more positive thinking, start by identifying areas of your life that you usually think negatively about, whether it’s your career, your daily commute, life changes, or a relationship. Start small and focus on one area that you want to change. Be sure to periodically stop and evaluate what you’re thinking.
Try to think positively if you feel your thoughts are mostly negative. You don’t have to ignore the negative aspects of a situation. Instead, embrace positivity and recognize that you can overcome them.
Final Conclusion
How you feel can affect how you think. Your thoughts and feelings are connected through the mind-body connection. Your emotions are bodily experiences, but your thoughts are in your mind.
It is hard to ignore the power of the connection between mind and body. When you become aware of the effects stress has on your body and mind, you might be able to develop strategies for creating balance in your daily life.
To strengthen the mind-body bond, try the following methods.
Photo credit to Leighann Blackwood via Unsplash.com
Refer to
| [1] | ^ | NIH Mind and Body Exercises |
| [2] | ^ | NIH: Mind-Body Approaches to Stress and Anxiety: What Science Says |
| [3] | ^ | Mayo Clinic Resilience Training |
| [4] | ^ | Mayo Clinic: Stop negative self talk to reduce stress |
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Lifehack published the post Mind and Body Connection: 6 Tips for Strengthening the Bond.
