Reflections: The Mind-Body Connection

I’ve been thinking about the critical link to our mind-body awareness, and what an amazing information system it is, should we listen to it. Our body as an information super-highway, can and does signal important information to us about our emotional experiences and as a barometer about our stress levels. So why don’t we listen to the information our body tells us?

In the western world we give more credit to the power of our brains than we give to what our bodies tell us. In fact, we quite often don’t hear our bodies’ signals at all, or we quiet them down, to power ahead with what the brain decides is best.  With elevated stress levels at an all-time high in the general population, many of my executive coaching clients have ignored the mind-body connection for years’. I was certainly no different in my early career as an executive, responding to what everyone wanted and allowing my all-mighty brain to run the show. In some cases, the all-important body-signals, or symptoms, go unnoticed until an emotional or physical crisis grabs our attention.

With the pace of technology, globalization and the complexities of running a business today, leaders are asked to squeeze more into each day, morning and night, to meet the ever-expanding requirements of the job. One hundred percent of my clients say they don’t have enough time to focus on the most important work that would make the biggest impact to their businesses, let alone listen to their bodies. From the moment they awake, to the time they go to bed, executives are on 24/7, at the ready to respond from one perceived crisis to another. What this does to stress levels, and the production of the stress hormone cortisol in our bodies, is no small matter.

Over a period of years sustained stress levels can have a significant impact on our health, let alone our intended impact in life and work. When I ask my clients how they’re feeling in their bodies in a given moment, they often say they don’t know, or if somewhat aware, they’ll point to a part of their body that’s been hurting for years. While carrying an ever-present and mounting load of stress, they ignore the painful and chronic sensations in their bodies in favor of powering through.

One executive coaching client only paid attention to her body when it became a medical emergency that resulted in an essential operation. Her body had been screaming out to her for years to pay attention to the signals of mounting stress. Eventually, her body took the matter into its own hands. From her hospital bed, she was consumed by not being able to keep up with the ever-present demands of her email inbox. In our coaching, we went to work to make small changes in her awareness to balance the mind-body connection to minimize the stress-level in her system.
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After her hospitalization and this wake-up call, my client started to take the time twice per day to simply breathe in and out a few times, or for short meditation periods, instead of cranking out additional emails. She would sit still, close her eyes, breathe deeply several times and ask her body how it was feeling in this moment. She started to notice chronic pain in her neck and between her shoulder blades that signaled her stress-level was higher than it should be. With greater awareness about these signals, she made some critical adjustments in her daily routines to take care of herself.

Over the first few weeks of stopping and checking in this way, she was able to attune more to what her body was telling her and make important choices that allowed her to move away from old habits. This lead to blocking time each day for a walk, for breaks between meetings, and taking time to eat lunch where she practiced awareness in the moment – a basic check-in with herself. She started and stopped meetings on a new schedule, allowing 10-15 minutes between meetings, so she could check-in with her body, take a deep breath or two or three, and ensure she was fully focused and centered for the next conversation. Through these simple daily practices, she learned to listen to her body and tune into it more often throughout the day. The payoff of these practices for her was simply priceless.

The connection between our mind and body systems is profound, designed to signal what we need when our all-powerful brains try to control or rule our choices. No-one is immune to the negative impacts of sustained stress and the impacts it can have on our health.

If we take the time to listen to what we need in a given moment, through these simple mini-practices, we can work with our body instead of against it for greater health, resilience and longevity.