Health Harmony & Happiness with Cathy
From learning to use your body’s rhythms and the rhythms around you to optimize productivity and avoid burnout to living sustainably, I give you tools that help you discover how to live and feel your best no matter what season of life you are in. I’m Cathy Struecker and I love to connect others with ways to cultivate health, harmony and happiness in life.
Join me as I reveal what has worked for me on my path towards more conscious living and talk with other experts about their own personal take on what creates health, harmony and happiness. Through my journey with cyclical living, yoga, anxiety, parenting, and entrepreneurship, I bring you various perspectives that will help you navigate self-care, work-life balance, mindfulness, spirituality and much more.
Health Harmony & Happiness with Cathy
#84: Harmony Within: Exploring the Body-Mind Bridge
Your mind and body are one, not separate as we've been led to believe. And the quality of both your breath and posture mirror the way you show up in this world.
Imagine if a simple shift in your posture could change the way you're perceived or the way you perceive the world around you, or if intentional breathing could bring focus and calm to your life. In this episode, I unpack the profound idea that the body and mind are one and not separate. And as one, your breath plays a crucial role in binding them together.
In this episode you'll learn:
- What the body-mind connection is
- How it influences how you show up in this world
- How breathing and body posture impact your thoughts and how you feel.
Plus, I share details with you on the upcoming five-day challenge: Intentional Breathwork Simplified - a chance for you to kick-start your journey towards a more focused and intentional life.
Resources:
Intentional Breathwork Simplified - www.cairnyogawellness.com/breathworkchallenge
Science Discovers the Perfect Formula for Hugging - Psychology Today
How We Feel App (Android)
How We Feel App (iPhone)
Get started tracking your own rhythms and the rhythms around you - Daily Rhythms Tracker
Grab the full show notes and resources at www.cairnyogawellness.com/podcast84 and subscribe and listen wherever you catch your podcasts:
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Other Episodes like this one:
#59: How You Breathe is Who You Are
#61: The Truth Behind Your Aches and Pains
#49: The Best Way to Ground Yourself
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Your mind and body are one, not separate, as we've been led to believe, and the quality of both your breath and posture mirror the way you show up in this world. In today's episode, you're going to learn what the body-mind connection is, how it influences how you show up in this world, and how breathing and body posture impact your thoughts and how you feel. Welcome to Help Harmony and Happiness with Kathy. I'm your host, kathy Stricker. I'm a state patrol wife, mama to three lively kiddos, a yoga teacher, certified NLP coach and an energetic rhythms expert. As an energetic rhythms coach, I help action-taking women use their body's rhythms and the moon's cycle to optimize productivity and avoid burnout, without letting their desire to remain in control alter their focus. And this podcast is all about doing just that, and perhaps a bit more, so that you can create your own path to health, harmony and happiness. So come along with me, and may this episode serve as a nudge to discover tools that could help you on your path towards more intentional living. Enjoy the show. Hey friends, welcome to episode 84 of the podcast. I am so grateful that you are here today. Before we get started, I want to tell you about a little challenge that I have coming up, actually starting next week, august 28th through September 1st, and it's called intentional breathwork simplified. It's a five-day challenge to focus your overactive mind faster than meditation. In this challenge you're going to learn the basics of breathing intentionally to regain focus and calm your overactive mind at any moment, without having to spend a lot of time doing so. Each day of the workshop you're going to learn one new breathwork technique at least for optimal productivity and ease, that you can integrate into your day without adding to your to-do list. I don't want this to be something that you feel like it's another thing you have to do in your day, because I think I'm speaking to most of you who already like to fill your days with things. So this is not just another thing to add and check off your list. Breathwork is something that, once you learn how to do it, you can seamlessly integrate it into your life instead of having it interrupt your life, and that's the beautiful thing. So I will link to that in the resources or in the show notes, but also you can find it directly at carnyogawellnesscom slash breathwork challenge and you'll just sign up there. You'll get all the details in your email of the times that we are meeting.
Speaker 1:If you can attend live on Zoom much better than if you go back and rewatch it, simply because I know how that goes. If you're anything like me, you've probably signed up for things in the past and then not been able to attend all or part of it for some reason or another. And how likely is it that you often go back and actually watch those things? My guess is and I could be projecting this on you and I apologize if I am, but my guess is it's not very often, probably. So that's why I just encourage you to show up live in person if you can, because it is gonna be so much better than if you have to try and carve out that space in your calendar at a later date. But if you have to do that for one or two days, fine, do it, because I know that once you experience it live in person, you'll actually want to come back and get more of the information. So just a little plug for that.
Speaker 1:Today we're talking a little bit about breath work, but we're also talking about what the mind-body connection is. We're gonna talk about how it influences how you show up in this world and how breathing and body posture impact your thoughts and how you feel. So it's kind of a little precursor to the challenge or the workshop that I'm doing next week, which is a very cool thing. So the body-mind connection sometimes it's called mind-body, sometimes it's called body-mind. You just get to pick what you want and stick with it. Today I'm going with body-mind.
Speaker 1:It's sometimes referred to as the study of psychosematics. Psycho meaning related to the mind, so that's your thoughts, emotions and nervous system, and somatics meaning relating to the body, which could also include your health, your hormones, your posture, your gut as the second brain, all of the physical part of you. So it's relating to the body. It's the relationship of things relating to the mind and body as one complete unit instead of separate units. So it's looking at it not with your brain just being a separate entity and your thoughts and those sorts of things being separate and your body having all these separate ailments or separate things that are going on. It's instead bringing it all together your thoughts, your emotions and physical health as being all one, impacting each other as one instead of separate. It's kind of like a chicken and egg situation, right? Is it the injury in the body that's causing the mental disruption or is there a mental disruption in the body that is causing the dis-ease or the lack of ease or the discomfort. It can go either way. It's more like all things all at once, all the time. It's all happening right. So when you start to consider the relationship between your mind and your body, or your body and your mind that way, it changes things.
Speaker 1:I define body-mind as the unit of the body and mind and how it responds to its environment, as one complete whole rather than separate parts. So I'm going to say that once again the unit of the body and mind and how it responds to its environment as one complete whole rather than separate parts. I've talked about this before in episode 61, in regards to how your aches and pains are simply messages from your physical body about something that may be off in your mental, emotional health or awareness. But today we're going to dive into what that body-mind connection looks like. Historically, this has been a concept more widely accepted by Eastern cultures, and that's likely because when we have a discomfort or something that isn't working right in our bodies, we just want the quick fix, and modern medicine has done a beautiful job of creating treatments for individual ailments, dis-eases, injuries and discomforts, and praise God, because that is a good thing. We can find more comfort sometimes in that quick fix. It's sometimes also the easy fix. But if it's not addressing the root cause to some of the ongoing dis-ease or lack of that you experience, which likely also lies in the mental and emotional parts of you, you'll just have to keep treating more and more individual parts instead of actually getting better. So until you can recognize that everything is one and not separate, and the way your body tries to communicate with you and send you messages is through its discomforts, you'll never, ever get to the root cause, be it mental, physical or emotional.
Speaker 1:But I'll tell you that breath plays a huge part in all of that. The physical act of breathing communicates how you will move through this life or face this life. So if you can harness and even master your breath, you can master your thoughts or your mind. And on top of that, the perceived threats that we have in our minds also influence how we breathe. So let's start with breath. We train our body, mind, to show up differently and see things through a different lens, so that when threats, stresses or challenges do happen, they impact us far less than if we are unaware of our breath and we let stress dictate how we breathe.
Speaker 1:Consider when someone jumps out at you and startles you. What does your breath do? Your body likely responds with a short, quick gasp in the chest, and that happens so quickly it's hard to tell if it's your body or your mind responding first, but the breath is shallow Now. Consider that fear response happening all the time, day in and day out, because of little worries or stresses that we have just grown accustomed to living with. That's how most of us live, and the fact that this body mind is so intricately woven together greatly impacts how we show up in this world. That's how most of us live all the time, and the fact that this body mind is so intricately woven together greatly impacts how we show up in this world. So let's talk about neuroplasty, because that leads into how we show up into this world.
Speaker 1:Neuroplasty might be a new word for you, but it's really just the brain's ability to adapt and change based on our experiences and thoughts. It means that we can continuously change over the course of a lifetime depending on what we choose to surround ourselves with, including our thoughts. So this is a really good thing, because it means that phrase you can't teach an old dog new tricks is totally irrelevant. Totally irrelevant. So if you find yourself using that phrase, maybe reconsider, because although it might be challenging to learn new things, it is possible with the right mindset and the desire to change.
Speaker 1:In Philippians 4-8, the Bible says whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. We are directly being encouraged to actually think about good things instead of negative things or instead of what could go wrong. We are being encouraged and told to think about the good things in life. I think that's just a beautiful verse and that's why I wanted to include it today, to just give you a little bit of inspiration or motivation from the spiritual side of things too, that the universe, the energy around us, wants us to think of positive things, wants us to call in that energy and set our minds on those things, because when we do, it impacts our bodies as a whole, it impacts who we are and how we show up in this world.
Speaker 1:Whatever you're thinking about, it's all the direct effect of what is going into your mind, your thoughts, your internal and external dialogue with yourself and from others, and it shows up in your physical body. If your mind is unhealthy, your body is unhealthy. So if you're filling your mind with stress, negative thoughts, fear, self-doubt, your body is also going to be unhealthy. Your body is going to physically feel the weight of those emotions, of that contractive energy. Now, all these things present in different ways in the way that you hold yourself and how much self-confidence and belief you have in yourself, but it really involves what's called emotional resonance.
Speaker 1:Just as emotional states can affect your posture, facial expressions and body language, they also shape how we are perceived by others. But it also goes the other way. How you consciously or unconsciously hold your body can dramatically change the way you feel, as well as the beliefs you have about yourself. This is something we have been talking a lot about with our kids, because I think at a young age, it's important to teach kids to learn that the way that they stand and the way that they hold their bodies definitely impacts how they feel and how they show up in this world.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I have been using with my kids is to ask them if their collarbones are smiling, which may sound silly and cheesy, but if your collarbones are smiling, it kind of means that they're turned up a little bit, they're upright and you're standing tall, and that's a posture that is really going to exude confidence and belief in yourself, even if you don't feel like you have it all the time. If you can create that posture, your mind will start to believe it. Standing with good posture, in an open rather than closed stance so ears stacked over shoulders, shoulders down and back, chest lifted, shoulders over hips, hips over ankles will communicate self-confidence. And that's what I mean by saying are your collarbones smiling? It's bringing your shoulders back. It's bringing your chin back just a little bit so that your ears are stacked over your shoulders and your shoulders are over your hips, hips over ankles.
Speaker 1:Just doing will dramatically change the way you feel as well as the beliefs that you have about yourself. Studies have even shown that taking these open, expansive postures like power posing or standing in the posture that I just described, but with your hands on your hips, increases feelings of power and confidence. So it's kind of a thing. If you haven't heard of it, it is the thing. It's kind of an old thing actually. But power posing is to stand, and even if you do this in front of a mirror much better, because you are doing mirror work at the same time, standing and just embodying that feeling of power and confidence, how you hold your body literally has an impact on your stress response in this world. So how your mind perceives stress and even responds biochemically to it, and I think that's pretty cool that science does show us that these things actually work and that absolutely your body and mind are one and not separate.
Speaker 1:I like to believe this open posture also calls in positive energy and attracts abundance into your life. So here's the woo, woo part of it. I'm not sure if there is research or science on it, but I'm sure there is some out there somewhere that leading with an open heart and an open presence definitely invites good energy. I certainly would think it would, and not to be left out is the idea that how we move our body not just in a held posture but like, for instance, in yoga postures or sequences as I've unpacked in previous episodes, or how we move through life, either fast paced or slow and lethargic, definitely plays a role in how we feel. But also the touch that we receive impacts how we feel and the release of hormones in our bodies.
Speaker 1:Hugging, for instance and I mean a good, genuine hug with medium pressure that you can relax into in that lasts 20 seconds or more causes the feel good hormone, oxytocin, to be released into your bloodstream. This is that hormone. That's like the love hormone. Okay, that's what we'll call it. But a good hug like that debates your vagus nerve and the parasympathetic state, so it brings you into that calm and relaxed state so that you can relax. It also lowers your cortisol levels. I'll link to a great article about this in the show notes. It has more to do with the importance of like moms and children or moms and babies hugging, but it's a wonderful article so I will link to that in the show notes.
Speaker 1:But even if you don't have someone else to hug you or to receive hugs from, you can simply hug yourself and still receive the same benefits. Same rules apply 20 seconds, medium pressure until you relax. You might even throw in some affirmations or positive self-talk to reassure and calm you when necessary. An alternative to hugging yourself is to simply place one or both hands on your heart center and feel the touch and movement of your chest as you breathe. This has similar calming effects to hugging.
Speaker 1:Another thing to note is that if your body is unhealthy, or what you're putting into your body is unhealthy, your mind will likely also be unhealthy. Right when intention goes, energy flows. So if you are putting negativity and you are putting junk food and you are putting crap into your body, your mind is not gonna be clear, it's not gonna be focused, it's not gonna feel good and even times of little stress, little pressure, are gonna feel more intense because you're not taking care of your body the way you could be to make it feel its best. Junk food not only makes you feel lousy, but emotionally and mentally it also brings you down. Remember that your mind and body are one. They're not separate. So what's going into one is actually going into all of it, and that includes the quality of your breath. And now we move on to how breathing and body posture impact your thoughts and how you feel. Without breathing, we are absolutely nothing.
Speaker 1:And I've got another Bible verse for you today, because apparently I was on a roll, but this one comes from Genesis 2.7. And it's like the most profound breath statement Ever, I think, because this is how we came into being and into life as human beings. That's what I believe the Lord. God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Two things I want to point out there. We were, breathed life into us, we were given the great gift of life and now we get to be responsible with how we use it. And it was breathed into the nostrils, which means your nose is made for breathing, not your mouth. And although, yes, you can breathe through your mouth, it is not optimal and I'm going to talk about that in intentional breath work simplified or you can just check out my Instagram and see I've kind of been chatting about that for a little bit. But let's get on to how breathing and body posture impact your thoughts and how you feel.
Speaker 1:I've said in the past that yoga is the gateway to understanding yourself, and while that may be accurate, I've also said that, without intentional breath, moving through things that are recognized as yoga postures is really just stretching. So if we really chunk that gateway to understanding yourself down even further, it's really about the breath. Your breath is truly the gateway to understanding yourself. The quality of your breath is the quality of your mind, but sometimes it takes coming to that realization through something movement based, because we are such an action oriented society and often find it hard to give ourselves permission to just slow down and notice the breath, let alone set aside time to intentionally practice breathing in a different way. Right, but when we can invite breath work practices into our daily living, as I mentioned at the beginning, as integration rather than interruption, it doesn't have to be just another thing to add to your to-do list.
Speaker 1:I mentioned before how a short, startled breath is a stress response, and if your breath is like that consistently over time, it's likely because you're living in a constant state of low level or even high level stress. Stress impacts your body with tense muscles, elevated shoulders, shortened hip flexors and abdominals, and because everything about the stress response makes your body want to curl up and protect itself, everything in the front is closing in and contracting, and when the front side of your body is curled inward, as it often gets when working on a computer or looking at your phone or driving all things that most of us do multiple hours a day it no doubt has a negative impact on your breathing. There's no space for your lungs to expand outward and tight muscles prevent your rib cage from moving laterally and your diaphragm from moving downward on the inhale. So here's that chicken or egg theory. Once again, stress causes our bodies to want to protect and contract, including shortening the breath, making it harder to calm the nervous system. But when we are stressed like that, the thing that we most importantly need, when we're even if we're hyperventilating, the thing we most importantly need is to open and breathe. But it's really hard to do that when we're constantly put in this stress response. So the cycle just continues. So unless we consciously decide to take charge and to start to be intentional about our breath, about posture, about movement and thoughts, we'll be perpetually stuck feeling worse and worse, no matter what medicine we try Unless, of course, that medicine is intentional breathwork.
Speaker 1:As we wrap up, when you open your body, even with things as simple as changing the way you stand or sit, and begin to become aware of your typical breathing patterns, you can begin to control your breath and activate the relaxation response and begin to approach the world in the emotional state.
Speaker 1:That's just right for you to feel confident and at ease with life. But it all starts with breath, and when the rhythm of your breath aligns with the rhythm of the life you want to be living, you indeed will have that life. Okay, friends, I've dropped a link to intentional breathwork, simplified in the resources of this episode, or you can find it at CarnYogaWellnesscom slash breathwork challenge. It starts Monday and I'd love to have you join. Even if you don't join at the start, you still get access to the recorded sessions for a limited time, or you can wait until the next time I hold this challenge because, yes, it will be offered again Until next time. You've been listening to Health, harmony and Happiness with Kathy. I'm Kathy Stricker, helping you find and use the rhythms in and around you in all you do. Cheers to cultivating your own version of Health, harmony and Happiness in your life.