Three ways to connect your mind to your body and feel more whole and balanced.

Our greatest challenge as a society is to reconnect to our whole selves; mind, body and soul. In the West, our intellectual capacities dominate, the culture is very masculine and achievement oriented. The mind and logic is considered masculine energy, and the body and our emotions are considered feminine energy. When we connect the two, we become whole and feel more balanced.

While the mind is a magnificent feature of this human form, it’s not the only incredible feature. Our bodies hold so much wisdom, knowledge and intelligence too. Our bodies are where we can connect with our emotions. By connecting to your emotions, you can better process difficult life situations. You can learn your triggers and respond rather than react which helps you grow in your interpersonal relationships too. By better understanding your emotions you have more access to favorable feelings too! You can feel more joy, passion, peace and fulfillment. Our bodies also hold memories and emotions from the past, so…

if you’re on a journey to heal your childhood wounds you’re going to need to feel it, to heal it.

It’s easy to get caught up in our minds, in fact, it’s a habit I keep having to catch myself with. I catch myself again and again getting too intellectual, too cognitive and less emotional or intuitive and I return to my body. It’s a pattern we were taught. We were told to learn in school, then use those cognitive capabilities to climb the career ladder. No one teaches us how to be embodied and in touch with our higher self! To be embodied is to be attuned to the sensations and signals our body gives us to help us navigate life. We may have a ‘gut’ feeling that something isn’t right or feel butterflies of excitement that something else is! Embodiment allows us to develop self awareness, improve our self regulation, feel connected, whole and more balanced.

So how can you connect your mind to your body and feel more embodied?

1. Practice slow, mindful movement like yoga.

Not all yoga practices are considered mindful movement. I’ve experienced what I would call HIIT yoga. The cues were called so fast I barely had time to finish one inhalation before the exhalation was being prompted. You want a practice that is facilitated at a pace that you can truly connect to your body and your breath in each and every posture. Of course your mind will wander, but there’s enough spaciousness within the class to return again and again, to the present moment in your body.

2. Go for a walk or get some exercise.

Find movement, any movement. Let your muscles get some blood and oxygen pumping through them. If you usually aren’t aware of bodily sensations I’m sure you will be after a good walk, hike or run. Of course, that being said, the hiit yoga class could work in this capacity to get the heart rate up and your blood pumping, but in my opinion that should be called exercise, not yoga.

3. Do a body scan practice.

A body scan practice is a mindful meditation practice that in my opinion provides the most direct experience of connecting mind to body. It is literally and simply the placing of your attention on different areas of the body in turn. You take a moment to sense whatever sensations are present in that spot without judgment. A body scan practice gives the body a direct channel to communicate to the mind.

Try my body scan practice or my body, heart and soul meditation for free here.

The more we build the communication between mind and body the better able we are to catch it’s signals early on. I believe that illness and sickness can be prevented if we stopped to listen to the body when it presented it’s first signs that something was off. The body tries to speak to us but we numb it with pain killers or brush it off in some other way. It’s only when the body screams at us in pain or in illness that we listen and attend to it.

To conclude, as I stated in the beginning, it’s a PRACTICE that I too am working on. It takes time and it means returning to it again and again even when we fall into our old patterns. Have patience with yourself and be kind as you go through the process of finding new ways of being and of experiencing your full human potential.