Your Body Is Part Of You
Over the past several hundred years, the idea that humans’ minds are separate from our bodies has become increasingly entrenched in the dominant North American and European cultures. And because of this, mental health and physical health are often treated like they are completely separate.
I’m not about to take a stance on the major philosophical debate of the mind-body problem. But I am going to state something obvious: your body is part of you.
Your mind lives within your body, and your body is intricately wired into your brain. It's impossible to separate the two.
Your Mind is Part of Your Body
Treating your body with kindness literally nurtures your mind.
Eating in a way that nourishes you deeply gives your mind energy – it gives your brain the fuel it needs to focus, develop, and stay healthy, and it gives your entire body the sensation that you interpret as “energized”.
Moving your body in a way that stimulates but doesn't tax your body boosts your mental health. Physical activity boosts blood flow to your brain, releases feel-good hormones, and boosts confidence. On the flip side, working out too hard can deplete your body’s ability to buffer stress!
Getting enough sleep clears the waste products out of your brain and gives every part of your body the opportunity to repair itself, giving you that “refreshed” feeling when you wake up.
When you take care of your body, you're taking care of your mind too.
Your Body is Part of You
Your mind is so deeply tapped in to every body system that your mental health will always show up in your body. There are immediate physical mechanisms that are activated in your body with every single emotion you feel – from changes in heart rate, to altered pain sensitivity, to the speed that the muscles in your intestinal wall contract, and much more.
When you effectively cope with an emotion, these physical effects are transient, and your body will bring you back to its neutral state. When you ignore your emotions and stressors, these physical effects continue long-term and your body will run out of the resources it needs to return you to that neutral state.
Everyone’s body responds slightly differently to chronic stress. For me, the first physical sign of too much stress is headaches. For you, it might be an upset stomach. Or tight hips, or irregular periods, or back pain, or flare-ups from an old injury, or all-encompassing fatigue. These physical symptoms are very real. Just because something is caused by stress doesn’t mean it’s all in your head.
Stress and emotion can also exacerbate other illnesses and injuries, and when you don’t address that, it can be difficult to heal. Even when you’re doing everything right: taking your medication and supplements, getting the right amount of exercise, eating “correctly”, and all the other ways we address physical illness, you may not recover as well if you don’t address the mental factors.
Integrating The Body and Mind
If you’re like most people, you get frustrated when your body hurts or doesn’t work the way you want it to. You get irritated at your body because it feels like you have no control over it, and you don’t understand why it feels or acts the way it does.
The good news is that by learning how to communicate with your own body, you gain more control over the way that it feels and acts.
Your body tells you what it needs. You know this, because you probably know how to interpret many of the body’s signals: hunger, thirst, and fatigue tell you to eat, drink, and rest respectively. Your body also tells you when it needs movement, physical touch, time outdoors, and other physical needs – do you know what your body feels like when it needs these things? When you’ve been sedentary for too long, deprived of hugs, or indoors for too long, pay attention to how to how your body feels. You can learn to recognize these messages from your body. You may realize that a feeling that you’ve always interpreted as tired or sad may be a request from your body to fulfil some physical needs.
Similarly, it’s always worth exploring whether your physical symptoms are reflective of what’s going on for you mentally. When you experience symptoms in your body that seem to appear out of nowhere, ask yourself: is it possible that my body is expressing an emotion that I’m ignoring? Does this symptom coincide with stress, overwork, sadness, anxiety, or anger? Remember that all emotions express themselves in the body, so also consider happiness, excitement, anticipation, and love, too! Once you identify what mental state may be influencing your physical experience, you have much more control. You can express the emotions you feel, remove sources of stress, or lean on healthy coping mechanisms to soothe your response.
If you have trouble understanding the messages your body is sending you, you might need to spend a little more time intentionally living within your body. Meditation, yoga, tai chi, and other forms of mindful movement are excellent ways to do this. Learning more about your anatomy and physiology can help too - ask a knowledgeable friend, the internet, or your healthcare providers to really explain what’s happening inside you.
Image Credit: The Gender Spectrum Collection
Realizing that your body and your mind are both equally real and equally part of you can reduce the judgement and frustration that we often subject ourselves to. Your body and your mind both deserve your respect and care, and you can care for them both at the same time, simply by listening to what you need.