An Approachable Take on Wellness: Leaning Into Your Body & Mind Connection
It’s the first month of a new year! Social media is flooding with posts of the past year and setting intentions for the new year. For many, the new year feels refreshing. The new year might feel like an appropriate time to turn over a new leaf or start fresh toward a goal that was daunting to overcome the previous year. It is likely that most of these posts are focused on taking steps to achieve a healthier lifestyle or make steps toward integrating some aspect of wellness more and more into one’s daily routines.
Since 2020, there have been overt and covert shifts in societal expectations that impact the way folks navigate wellness. I consider wellness to be a comprehensive way of caring for one’s mind, body, and soul. This includes committing to make conscious choices that focus on one’s mind and body connection and that brings you fulfillment, peace, and joy.
I think a lot about the way our society has continued to evolve and although there has been a shift in the way that folks think about wellness in recent years, there are still many ways in which our society does not create an environment that provides the ability for prioritizing our wellness and healthy functioning. In Gabor Mate’s The Myth of Normal, this is the premise in which this author unpacks the way in which our society is not conducive to providing an environment where humans can easily lead a healthy and fulfilling life. (I really recommend this read if you want a deeper dive into comprehensive wellness/healing!)
Being a part of Western society, it has become very clear to me how our society is rooted in the go go go culture of achievement and success. In order to be viewed as the socially constructed productive/successful member of society, one must be able to have a sufficient income to be able to afford ever increasing rent prices, navigate inflating prices at stores, and pay bills. Some folks have resources and are born into a world where achieving this isn’t stressful, and they don’t have to think about or worry about monetary income. For many others however, money is a constant, pervasive stressor.
For those who feel this ongoing pressure and are constantly operating under fight-or-flight mode, figuring out how they are going to make enough to make ends meet makes tending to wellness feel unrealistic. It can feel like a luxury that they just simply do not have time for. I want to discuss ways in which tending to wellness can be integrated in order to achieve more balance and stability, especially in a world where some folks feel as though they are in a constant hamster wheel of navigating chaos and trying to reach some sense of security/ stability.
My approach is rooted in systemic thought; in other words, how each aspect in one’s life is connected and integrated so that each aspect of one’s life has an impact on one another. When thinking about wellness, this systemic, bio psychosocial approach takes an inherently comprehensive lens that encompasses physical health, mental health, environmental contexts, and larger societal influences.
In striving to focus on wellness, there has been more research around this bio psychosocial approach, with the hopes of achieving balance through mind body connection. Tuning into your emotions and how your body is reacting may sound straightforward to some. In reality, it is immensely challenging for most folks who experienced trauma throughout their life.
Trauma can get in the way of staying connected to one’s body, which will hinder one’s natural ability to feel comfortable enough to sit in an emotion and unpack why they are experiencing it. The societal shift towards a focus on wellness, specifically mindfulness, made a large impact on many folks; they were better able to slow down, step away from the go go go of our Western society, and attempt to sit in what they are feeling. Many have found healing through these strategies that connect us to our body and staying in the present moment- whether through meditation, yoga, or general breathwork.
I know I was someone who used to question how these strategies may be effective or helpful at all. Because I was raised in a household where talking about emotions was not acceptable, I grew up learning how to shut out my emotions and disregard the messages my body was sending me. The mind and body are connected, when you are thinking or feeling something, it is due to the experience that your body is either having in the present moment or something that got triggered from the past. For many who have experienced trauma, we have triggers that cause our body to react in an instinctual, fight-or-flight manner.
Therefore, the strategies that lean into mind-body connection and allow us to tune into our body, such as meditation, yoga, or breathwork can be immensely challenging or uncomfortable for those who have experienced trauma. The benefit, however, of learning how to sit with the discomfort and understand more about yourself and your emotional landscape, can create lifelong change. For those who grew up in a household similar to mine or have experienced other types of trauma, relearning how to listen to yourself and trust your emotion is initially SO challenging (and painful, uncomfortable, tough, all of it!). But with time, you do learn to unpack some of the harmful narratives and scripts that tell you it doesn’t matter how you feel or what you are experiencing.
The understanding and learning about oneself that comes from slowing down and tuning in can provide a foundation for knowing what you need to achieve a healthier, stable, and more balanced lifestyle. Taking these initial steps toward slowing down and connecting with yourself is accessible to most folks, which is why I love talking about this early on in aiding people in their healing journey and learning more about themselves.
After growing more familiar and comfortable with this foundational, pivotal step, it often becomes easier to sit in your authentic experience; this strengthens the ability to reflect and unpack your thoughts and emotions through strategies such as journaling or sharing with others. For now, let’s start with the first step of slowing down, taking a breath, and tuning in. I’ve listed some accessible resources below for free guided meditations, yoga, and general breathwork so that you have a starting point of checking out something that may feel comfortable for you to integrate into your wellness journey!
Free Resources:
Meditation/Breathwork Resources:
Insight Timer —> https://insighttimer.com/guided-meditations
The Free Mindfulness Project —> https://www.freemindfulness.org/download
Tara Brach Guided Meditations —> https://www.tarabrach.com/guided-meditations/?cn reloaded=1
Yoga Resources:
Yoga with Adrienne —> https://yogawithadriene.com/free-yoga-videos/
Yoga with Kassandra —> https://www.youtube.com/@yogawithkassandra/videos
Yoga with Bird —> https://www.youtube.com/@YogaWithBird
Photo by Prasanth Inturi: https://www.pexels.com/photo/silhouette-of-man-at-daytime-1051838/
