The Most Powerful Thing You Can Do To Improve Your Health
We do not truly know ourselves unless we can feel and interpret our physical sensations. Our sense of ourselves is anchored in a vital connection with our bodies.
Bessel Van Der Kolk, The Body Keeps The Score
Your body is constantly telling a story that wants to be heard and understood by you.
Creating a loving, non-judgmental awareness of your body and your thoughts is the most powerful thing you can do for your health. Developing this greater awareness allows you to become the biggest healer in your life, which is essential because no one can understand you better than you can.
Finding the right combination of nutrition, exercise, and medicine can be tricky because everyone is different. We have different lives, needs and DNA. Learning to listen and understand what your body is telling you is the way to make the best choices for your wellbeing. I’m not saying we don’t need physicians, we absolutely do. Still, your body is the best measuring tool for assessing if what you’re doing is the right thing for yourself or not…if you know how to use it.
Cultivating a connection to your mind and body makes it easier to understand if the exercise routine, diet choices or friends in your life are helping or are harming you.
“To realize you are not your thoughts is when you begin to awaken spiritually.”
Eckhart Tolle
Mental Awareness
Stress is a big driver of disease and un-wellness. Many stressors in our lives cannot be avoided and can seem never-ending. However, how we think about, feel, and process stress is mainly up to us. With awareness of what your mind is focusing on, your greater intelligence can step in and help. You may realize that you are on repeat, or beating yourself up, or obsessing over something that ultimately doesn’t matter.
If you feel like you are relentlessly thinking, you are not alone. We all are. It’s when you believe all the thoughts that come racing into your head things become harder than they need to be. Creating awareness of your thoughts can lead you to the person you truly are, behind your thoughts. When you lovingly become aware of your thoughts, you can then choose if this is the right time and place for them. You might discover you’ve gone down an unnecessary rabbit-hole that’s already stolen too much of your energy.
Your thoughts have measurable effects on your nervous system, immune system, and healing abilities. Learn to choose them wisely. See if what you are thinking is helping or harming your situation. If what you observe is unfavorable, lovingly redirect.
So How Do We Create This Awareness?
The best answer I have found is by creating a mindfulness practice. Mindfulness might sound like a hippie, buzz word, but it’s incredibly powerful. Mindfulness makes it possible to make decisions with your whole body. It can help dissolve stress, fear and anxiety, which are some of the biggest roadblocks to getting what you want.
Mindfulness is all about creating non-judgmental awareness in the present moment, and in this case, you will be creating that awareness of your thoughts and your body.
Body Awareness
Mindfulness can help you get to know yourself on a visceral level. We all have “gut feelings”, and we can talk about “knowing what the heart wants”. Your internal organs do give feedback to the brain, and you can learn to be more aware of what your body is telling you.
Most of us have learned to shut down our connection to our visceral sensations because of pain, trauma, or because society has taught us to in order to be more productive. This disconnect is extremely harmful to our health. We’ve learned to wait until our body is screaming at us to listen.
By becoming more mindful of your body, you will naturally make better decisions for your health and create better habits. You will be more drawn to foods that are good for your digestive system, you will choose exercises that your body needs to feel better, and you will detox more efficiently because you won’t ignore your bathroom signals. It makes choosing healthy choices easier!
Putting It Together
When you develop non-judgmental awareness of your visceral sensations and your thoughts, you have more agency over what happens to you.
When you cultivate more mindfulness into your everyday, you become more present with your sensations and your feelings. Eventually, you become happier and less stressed, while improving your mind and body connection.
No matter what you’re trying to heal or change, there is a mental or spiritual component to it. Body and mind are never separate. The first thing you need to do is simply observe, before criticizing or trying to fix what’s going on.
When you are more present and mindful you can see the bigger picture, which prevents you from creating harm against yourself while you are trying to achieve your goals (think fad diets, or quick fixes). It can also bring more awareness to your roadblocks.
How Do I Practice Mindfulness?
“As long as you are breathing there is more right with you than wrong with you, no matter what is wrong.”
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment--And Your Life
The first thing you can do is start to take mini mindfulness check-ins throughout your day. Check-in with your breath and body. Grounding into your body, begin to feel from the inside out, becoming aware of the feelings inside your body and what is happening in your mind. Mindfulness is about being connected to the present moment. The breath helps you get there. Many forms of meditation start by focusing your attention on your breath.
There are many apps out there that you can use such as, Stop, Think and Breathe. Headspace and Insight Timer also have mindfulness meditations or quick breathing exercises.
All you have to is slow down here and there and build your awareness; the starting point is following your mind to the breath, in and out. Then, take a minute to check in with your body to see how it’s feeling, observe the thoughts that are floating through your head.
Yoga Nidra Meditation
Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation, known as yoga sleep. It’s a practice you do lying down in a comfortable, restful position. Yoga Nidra typically guides you through various parts of your body, bringing attention to your body and your inner awareness.
Yoga Nidra is a very lovely experience in a group setting. If you have classes in your area, I highly recommend you scope them out. I also like to listen to Yoga Nidra meditations found on the app Insight Timer. You can also find Yoga Nidra meditations on Youtube.
Guided Mindfulness Meditation For Body Awareness
More Resources
App:
Stop, Think and Breathe
Insight Timer
Books:
Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach
Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment—And Your Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Contact me at rachel@rachelroot.com for more Mindfulness or Yoga Nidra resources
