Body & Mind Balance: 4 topics to take into consideration
Every one of us is like a big, wide open space, where everything — body, social life, thoughts, beliefs, desires — is connected.
Article by Mariana Mendonça
We may think about ourselves as houses with lots of different, independent rooms: one dedicated to our mental health, another to our physical health, also one for healthy social relationships, and so on. If it worked out like this, it would be easier for us in our daily routine — every time one of the rooms became messy or troubled in any way, we could simply close its door and the rest of the house would still be organised and functional. Instead, every one of us is more like a big, wide open space, where everything — body, social life, thoughts, beliefs, desires — is connected.
Knowing that our body influences the way we feel can be a precious tool to improve our humor and our mental health. Want to know how?
1. Exercise
When you exercise, your body produces serotonin and endorphin, two hormones that contribute to a sense of well-being and even improve sleep quality. There is also a connection between exercise and psychological factors, such as increased self-esteem and self-efficacy. On the other side, people who exercise more tend to be able to stop negative thoughts and rumination processes more easily. In this way, exercise has a preventive and healing action in mental health.
Walking is also linked to creativity. This has to do with the walking activity by itself, but also with the increased humor associated with exercise in general. When you feel a little lost, you can always go for a walk: it can make you feel better and who knows if it has any influence in finding new and creative ways to deal with challenges you might be facing.
2. Be nice to your body
What does it mean to be nice to your body? Well, it has to do with being attentive and responsive to your body’s needs. For instance, nutrition has an important role in the way you feel. Try to eat healthy food and not skip meals. This will help you getting the balance you are looking for.
Other important thing is to have a good quality and amount of sleep. It is not uncommon to hear people saying that they woke up as tired as they were when they went to bed. This may have to do with the quality of sleep. Sometimes people develop bad habits that will not help to a good night of sleep. For instance, scrolling social networks just before bedtime is not helpful, since we are engaging in a brain activating activity, filled with colourful lights and stimulant content. We must agree that it is not the best way to tell our body that it is time to end the day… Instead, why don’t you try meditating? This will connect your mind and body and help you relax before falling asleep.
3. Value silence
We live in a lousy world. We are always listening to other people, the TV, online videos or music, to traffic noises, and so on. When we get a moment of silence, sometimes we don’t know how to deal with it, and we may be compelled to fill it in any possible way. The challenge here is to embrace this silence. Have you noticed that even silence has a lot of sounds? Sometimes it may be easier to embrace silence if you get in touch with nature and just listen to the wind gently shaking the tree leaves, or the sea washing the sand. This helps your mind to connect not only with your body but also with the surrounding reality — and this sense of presence is related to your wellbeing.
4. Breathe… Just breathe
Finally, breathing is essential: when breathing correctly, we even think more clearly. Breathing deeply can help us get more relaxed, by providing us with oxygen essential to our bodies’ many functions and also by immediately lowering our heart rate.
Breathing has a more powerful use than we may think (besides keeping us alive), and the best part is that it is for free and available anytime, almost anywhere.
Do you want to give it a try? Just breath in deeply, hold on for a second, and then breath out.
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