The Mind-Body Connection

Understanding how the physical sensations in our body can guide us towards healing

Have you ever felt an uncomfortable sensation arise in your body and had no idea why? A slow panic, heaviness in your chest, or a sudden feeling you couldn’t explain? Our bodies remember what our minds have tried to forget, and the emotions we suppress don’t disappear. They live in the body and will eventually find other ways to get our attention.

Photo taken by me somewhere in the Okanagan Valley

If you are just discovering the mind-body connection and the way our mental and physical health are deeply intertwined, this is for you.

We have been conditioned to view the mind and body as separate systems. Mental health has been placed in one category and physical health in another, as though they operate independently of one another. But the mind and body are in constant communication. Our physical health influences our mental wellbeing, and our mental wellbeing influences our physical health.

And at the centre of this connection is our emotions.

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“The mind and body are not separate. What affects one, affects the other.”

- Joseph Pilates

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A lot of us have spent years suppressing emotions we didn’t know how to process. We learned to push them away, ignore them, or convince ourselves they weren’t important.

But the more we do this, the more disconnected we become from our emotions. And eventually, we can become so disconnected that when they begin to surface, we might not even recognize them as emotions.

Instead, they may show up in ways that suddenly make us feel uncomfortable in our body without understanding why.

A sensation may appear seemingly out of nowhere. It might be a feeling of restlessness, unease or even dread. We may feel shaky, light headed, have tightness in the chest, or feel like we can’t breathe deeply. It may even be a slow feeling of panic that builds under the surface. These feelings and sensations may leave us feeling confused and wonder what is happening to us.

I felt a lot of these things before I understood what emotional suppression was.

Distractions

There was a time when I didn’t understand my emotions at all. I had no idea that I was suppressing them. And I didn’t know that by suppressing the feelings I didn’t want to experience and numbing myself with distractions, I was also numbing my ability to fully experience joy, connection, love, peace, and the beauty of life itself.

So whenever uncomfortable emotions began to rise to the surface, I did what many of us do.

I distracted myself.

I scrolled through social media. I played Candy Crush. I went shopping. I watched Netflix with a glass of wine in hand. I kept myself busy with everyday tasks. Anything to avoid sitting with what I was feeling, and completely oblivious to the fact I was avoiding my emotions.

We all have our own ways of avoiding our emotions, and the distraction itself is not the issue. That’s a coping mechanism.

The question is: what are we trying not to feel?

When we become distracted enough and the discomfort subsides, we feel a little better and life goes on as usual. And we don’t usually talk about it with anyone either, because talking about it might mean facing what’s underneath.

But when we do this, all we have really done is send that emotion back to where we have been hiding it.

That emotion may have been living in the nervous system for years, influencing our thoughts, behaviours, relationships, and even our physical health. And it surfaced because it was trying to get our attention for a reason.

The Physical Connection

Louise Hay wrote a fascinating book called Heal Your Body, and reading it was an eye-opening experience for me.

In the book, she explores the possible emotional and energetic contributors to physical symptoms and illnesses. She lists physical ailments and then gives the possible emotional cause. I’m not saying I agree with every interpretation, but I found exploring the emotional side of physical symptoms to be incredibly valuable.

There were a few physical symptoms I experienced that I could identify as stemming from emotional causes.

One of them being the chronic neck pain I experienced for years. That pain would often lead to migraine-like headaches. I was convinced the reason for this was a car accident I had been in years earlier, even when my chiropractor suggested there might be a connection to trauma.

According to Hay’s work, neck problems can be associated with rigidity, inflexibility, and an unwillingness to see other perspectives.

Ironically, I refused to consider any explanation other than the accident.

She suggests that headaches can be connected to self-criticism, fear, and invalidating oneself.

That one hit close to home.

“The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.”

–Caroline Myss

And in my Root Cause Therapy training, I learned more about the connection between emotional patterns, nervous system responses, and physical symptoms. Since then, I have had the privilege of guiding people toward uncovering the root causes of emotional struggles and physical symptoms as well.

All of this has shown me over and over again that mental health and physical health are not separate systems.

And they never were.

They are deeply connected, which is why I believe so strongly in a holistic approach to healing from anything. The mind, body, emotions, and nervous system all work together. When we ignore one piece of the puzzle, we may miss valuable information about what is really happening beneath the surface.

I would like to add that while I find Louise Hay’s interpretations insightful and personally relevant, I don’t believe physical symptoms always have one single cause. Our health is complex and influenced by many factors.

With that said, my own experience has taught me that a lot of our suffering can be traced back to emotions that have been suppressed and carried in the nervous system for years.

Sitting With Emotions

There’s a lot of talk these days about sitting with our emotions. And if you’re anything like I once was, you might be wondering what that even means.

This is where somatic work comes in.

Somatic work helps us reconnect with our inner world. It helps us to explore what has been sitting beneath our conscious awareness so we can begin completing the survival responses and emotional loops that may have been running for years.

A lot of traditional approaches, like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, focus primarily on thinking and analyzing, whereas somatic work focuses on the nervous system.

And our nervous system does not communicate through logic, reasoning, or words.

It communicates through sensation, movement, breath, and experience.

That’s why practices involving gentle movement like Tai Chi, stretching, yoga, and slow deep breathing can be so effective. Slow experiences send a message to the nervous system that we are safe in that moment, which helps the body recognize that the threat has passed.

If you are new to somatic work, a good place to begin is by bringing your attention to any physical sensations in your body.

Notice the feeling of your body being supported by the chair beneath you.

Notice your feet making contact with the floor.

Take a moment to visually scan the room you’re in slowly and observe your surroundings.

Noticing that there are no immediate threats present sends a message to the nervous system that we are safe. This is so important because in order to sit with our emotions, we need to feel a sense of safety.

So how do we actually sit with an emotion?

Sitting with an emotion begins by noticing when it arises, acknowledging it, becoming curious about it, and allowing it to be there without immediately trying to change it.

Yes, it’s uncomfortable to let those sensations and feelings be there without trying to resist them with distractions. But it’s the only way through.

“What you resist not only persists, but will grow in size.”

– Carl Jung

And it also goes deeper than that…

I’ve spoken with people who have identified and understood their emotions intellectually, thinking that was healing. They were able to see where those emotions came from and the patterns they had created in their lives, but the relief they experienced was temporary and left them feeling frustrated with the process.

And that’s because understanding an emotion intellectually is not the same as feeling and processing it.

Insight is an important part of the process, but insight alone is not the work.

To move through an emotion, we must also allow ourselves to experience it. And that can feel incredibly uncomfortable, especially if we have spent years avoiding, suppressing, or judging our emotional experiences.

This work is not easy. But it is essential if we want to release the heaviness we’ve been carrying, disrupt the harmful patterns we’ve been repeating, and create meaningful and lasting change.

So the next time an uncomfortable emotion arises, instead of distractions or numbing, I encourage you to just try noticing what is happening in your body instead.

Notice where you feel it. Is it in one specific area of the body, or does it seem to be everywhere?

Does it feel heavy?

Warm or cool?

Tingly?

Is there tightness?

Is your heart racing? Is there pressure anywhere, or even pain?

There is no right or wrong experience. Every nervous system is different. The goal is not to analyze the sensation. It is simply to notice it, allow it to be there, to become curious about it.

And to listen, because our bodies are constantly communicating with us, and every symptom is a messenger.

From J. Mike Fields on Facebook

This process can feel uncomfortable when we are used to suppressing our emotions.

I know that because I’ve been there. But this is how we begin reconnecting with ourselves after years of being disconnected.

There are no shortcuts, no bypasses, and no way around the emotions we have been carrying.

If we want to create lasting change in our lives, the only way to get there is to allow those emotions to be there, and to listen to what they are trying to communicate to us.

And because this work can be uncomfortable and intense, having a somatic guide or coach can be extremely beneficial, and I highly recommend it until you get comfortable going through the process alone.

Meditation

To help those who are just beginning to explore this process, I have created a guided somatic meditation. You can listen here ⬇️

This is nothing like traditional guided meditations that focus primarily on the breath or observing thoughts. This experience is designed to help you connect with the physical sensations within your body.

It can benefit anyone, but it was created intentionally for those who are just beginning to rebuild a sense of safety and the mind-body connection.

Learning to listen to our bodies is not always easy, especially after years of emotional suppression. But when we are able to begin receiving the messages our bodies have been sending all along, everything starts to change.

“Healing is a collective journey. When we heal, we not only transform ourselves, but create a ripple effect that elevates the entire ecosystem around us.”

– Thomas Hüble

Learning to tune in and listen to our bodies is where true healing begins. It’s how we start to unravel those layers of protection we’ve tightly wrapped ourselves in.

And this work is never just personal.

Every time one of us has the courage to feel, process, and release what we’ve been carrying, we light the way for others to do the same.

Because when one of us heals, we all rise.

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If you decide to listen to the meditation, I would love to hear about your experience. And if you feel nudged to share any insights or stories, I invite you to do so in the chat or comments👇

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As always, I’m so grateful to have you here, walking alongside me on this journey of self-discovery. If this post resonated, clicking the heart below, or sharing it helps others in our Collective find it too. And if you feel called to support my work further, a coffee is always appreciated 🙏💖👇