Dove's Inner B.E.A.U.T.Y. Podcast

How Stress Impacts Your Body and Mind

• Demetria Nickens • Episode 12

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How Does the Mind-Body Connection Impact Mental Health and Ways to Strengthen It?

Ever wonder how closely intertwined your mental and physical health really are? In an enlightening conversation with Demetria Nickens, a certified mental health first aid instructor and trauma recovery coach, discover how the brain and body's intricate relationship affects your overall wellness. With over two decades of expertise, Demetria breaks down the psychological and physiological mechanics behind emotional regulation and bodily functions, shedding light on the undeniable bond between mind and body.

Join Demetria as she unravels the complexities of the fight, flight, or freeze response and its significant impact on health. Learn why it's critical not to suppress your emotions and how continuous stress can manifest as severe physical ailments, including autoimmune diseases. Demetria emphasizes the importance of being mindful of your emotional states and their physical manifestations, offering practical advice on better tuning into your body's signals. This episode is essential for anyone seeking to enhance their mental and physical well-being through a deeper understanding of the mind-body connection.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Dove's Inner Beauty Podcast, where we foster emotional awareness, one individual at a time. Leading the way is Demetria Nickens, a certified mental health first aid instructor and trauma recovery coach with over two decades of experience in fostering emotional awareness in others by engaging their mental health.

Speaker 2:

Ever wondered how your mind and body works together to impact your mental health? Join us as we dive into the fascinating world of the mind-body connection and explore simple practices to keep both in sync. Welcome back everyone. This is Garfield Bone, coho slash producer, back in the studio with Demetria Nickens. Demetria, how are you doing?

Speaker 3:

Feeling good, feeling great.

Speaker 2:

So, demetria, how does the mind-body connection influence our overall mental health and what practices can help strengthen this connection?

Speaker 3:

So, when we think about mental health, people automatically think a diagnosis, right, they all automatically think something negative. But the reality is our mental health and our physical health kind of work in tandem together, right? So I'm going to get a little nerdy here. Science, however, right, when we think about the brain, you know, if you've ever learned anything about the brain in school, you know there are different segments, right, parietal, frontal. You know all the different lobes, right, and each lobe of the brain does something different, right? Some regulate emotions, some regulate your bodily functions, all the things, right, and so when you think about that, right, your brain is really this area where everything kind of is moving and shaking and doing all the things, and so those signals that get sent to your brain, right there, your physical health is connected to it, right, and your mental health is connected to it, and so it's important that we keep that in mind, that they're very much connected to one another. Right, when our nervous system is activated and then we're in what we call like the fight flight phase, right, if we ever heard of that, that's idea of fight or flight freeze. That's, you know, when our body may feel danger or fear. Right, and so we go into this idea of fight, flight or freeze. Well, that's our nervous system reacting, right, that's the signals in the brain going to the nervous system. All of it is reacting, and so it's important that we keep in mind that when we are emotionally charged, those reactions happen as well. Right, they happen. And so, whether that's something physical that's going on or whether that's something mental that's going on, those charges, that nervous system is working, and so it's important to remember that your nervous system and your brain is all very connected, all very put together, and so people don't think about it in that way. Right, they just want to suppress the emotion. Oh, I'll feel. I only want to. I only my physical health. I'm only worried about going to see my physical doctor, about what's going on.

Speaker 3:

However, that continuous suppression of your emotion is impacting your physical health, and so people don't don't see that there are a lot of studies out there where autoimmune diseases have, you know, where they're not sure where the cause comes from. But this idea that they live a really stressed life, that there's been so much stress and things that have happened, and that it right that this happened to their body because the stress kind of overtook your body can't stay in that fight, flight freeze mode constantly. It's not good for your physical health, and when your body is constantly in that state, it's not helpful. It's not helpful for your brain, it's not helpful for you to think correctly, like there are parts of your brain that's being shut off when you're in that fight or flight state. And so and this people don't know this right, but it is part of the psychology, it's part of the physiology of how we are made up, and so people need to start paying more attention to that emotional side, because it's impacting their physical side and they don't even realize it. And so we have to stop and really notice what is going on with our body. What is going on with, like, are we sweating? Are we getting hot? What is going on?

Speaker 3:

We have to stop and notice these things when we have these extreme levels of emotion, that may be happening, right, is it anger, is it fear? Whatever? What is happening? Is it fight, flight, freeze? What are you prone to, right, when you're in a situation? Right, when I was a kid, I would flight, right. I didn't like fighting. Every time there was a fight going on, I'm gone, right, I'm not a fighter, right, and so I was flight, and so as I grew up I realized that in confrontation with anyone arguments or anything that was my go-to I'm not going to engage with you, I'm leaving right. That's my flight response. And so it's important that we recognize that if we don't see it for what it is, we can't help or change it right If we don't notice first. And so noticing is a big big part it sounds really small, but it's a big, big part of checking what's going on with you and your mental health and physical health as a collective. I know that's a long, long answer there.

Speaker 2:

No, I'm a shark tank junkie, so I remember Mark Cuban talking about how they invest a lot into mental health for the basketball players. With that in mind, are there any daily habits that we can adapt to keep our minds and bodies in harmony?

Speaker 3:

You know it's going to sound really cliche, but breath right. Breath is life and we take this idea of breath for granted. We don't do you notice how often you're holding your breath instead of just breathing it out? How often do you just sit and Right, take it, take a deep breath in and release it out? Breath is really life and breath helps to regulate that nervous system, and so it's important that we really understand and notice our breath. Are you not breathing when you get nervous or when you get scared, or when something happens? Maybe you have a presentation to do and you're like right, we stop breathing and we don't even notice it because we just keep going through our day.

Speaker 3:

Stop breathe, it's so necessary for our bodies. It helps slow everything down when we're in this rat race that we call life. So it's important that we really one of the just major things stop and breathe, catch a breath, right, feel that breath. Can you feel it move through your body? Like that is important, and some people can't. They just breathe, they don't really feel breath moving through their body, and so that that's a really big indication that, hey, you might need to stop and breathe more. Right, when you can't feel it, you know, like if you ever drank cold water, you could feel that water like going down, because it's so cold Right that, that you can feel that with with breath too, if you pay enough attention but not enough.

Speaker 2:

people pay attention enough, so we need to stop stressing out our significant other and just stop and breathe, Stop and breathe.

Speaker 3:

I'm telling you it would help a lot. People don't believe it, but I'm telling you, breath is life. It helps.

Speaker 2:

Listen, good stuff, Demetria. As always, you have a wonderful rest of the day. We'll see you in the next episode.

Speaker 3:

Thanks.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for tuning in to the Doves Inner Beauty podcast, where we foster emotional awareness. One individual at a time. One individual at a time. For a complimentary consultation, visit DovesInnerBeautycom or call 336-298-6599. That's 336-298-6599.