What is the mind-body connection really? For more than 20 years I have witnessed many times, the power of how our mental and emotional perspectives and constructs create ailments or ease in our bodies. It is amazing how doctors didn’t realize the truth in their words when they couldn’t find a prognosis for some weird symptom and ended up telling their patients,”it’s all in your mind.” Our thoughts are powerful, however, they are tempered by our bodies.
Recently I held a new mind-body connection workshop with more tools and ways to connect our minds with our bodies. It was one of three workshops that I recently designed that could stand alone or be used in conjunction, to maximize the mind-body connection strategies.
The core essence of these workshops is to enhance one’s own awareness and willingness to take ownership of what stressors are happening in their life. Stressors can be either good or bad. This may appear counterintuitive because, why would your body create pains or a weird ailment when you choose to do something that brings more joy or ease in your life? What I have seen through the years is that change is the underlying reason that creates ease or tension in your body. Most often it is the unknown that creates the biggest challenge for our nervous system. The need to know what is going to happen next, but more importantly whether or not the future will bring more ease and joy versus pain and suffering.
Life is never static as all of you can attest to, however it doesn’t stop us from wanting to have consistency and an established rhythm. Some individuals have a harder time handling changes and adapting on the fly, while others seem to prefer it. Whatever your preference is, if you can stay in the middle instead of fluctuating up and down, it can pay huge dividends in the long run. However, your true power is amplified when you can recognize when you are going through those ups and downs or repeating old, conditioned patterns; you have the choice to pause and choose how you want to be. Awareness and recognition is key in identifying what your body is trying to tell you so that you can make a choice versus reacting.
Initially making changes and shifting one’s behaviors and modus operandi is energetically draining, since you are essentially creating new paths to function and be. Once these new paths become ingrained, it requires less energy since living your truth and being in alignment is the most energy efficient way of living. Living counter to your truth and being out of alignment can only last for so long, until either your body or life will upend and force you to get centered and live according to your values.
Once again we come back to our unique set of values. Our highest values essentially drive us to do the things we do and how we choose to live our lives. Our highest values inspire us and no motivation or prodding is needed to get us to seek that which we value the most. So the more clear you get about your highest values and figure out a way to live by them will help create more ease in your body and life. The less aligned you are with your values, will lead to more pain and suffering. Learn how to value what is your truth and live according to your highest values.
