Mind / Body Awareness

It is important to be aware of the connection between body and mind.  I have always found it interesting that in the English language we have such phrases as "pain in the neck", "butterflies in my stomach", "gutted", "the world on my shoulders".  This implies that we and our ancestors have all been aware of this connection.

Years ago I had a very stressful job and decided to book a massage, with a registered physiotherapist, in order to de-stress / relax.  I soon found that the mind / body connection goes both ways.  If we relax mentally then our body relaxes, but we can also relax our bodies and thereby attain mental relaxation.  I used to go once a week and it had a huge impact on my stress.


I would therefore recommend anything that helps develop either body awareness or directly relaxes the body.  Some examples are:

• Yoga
• Pilates
• Tai-Chi
• Martial Arts (the softer ones, such as Aikido, but any could help)
• Massage or physiotherapy
• Swimming
• Gentle cycling
• Mindful movement (see mindfulness)
• Hot bath

These would certainly help us on the path to understanding the mind / body connection, and also allow us to directly access the stress.  Body awareness is a useful guide as it can give us hints to our stress levels... I used to get stressed over many months and it would build up over time, this could have been avoided if I had developed body awareness.