How to create a positive connection between mind and body

Have you ever struggled with a series of negative thoughts at night and couldn't sleep, or felt your hands shaking with excitement in the face of an event? Have you noticed that your face lights up when you feel angry or that your palms sweat in a tense moment? I am sure the answer is yes, as many of us have experienced many times.

All these examples remind us of the mind-body connection. In fact, the mind-body connection, which has dozens of examples in our daily lives and encompasses every human being in the world, is the connection between a person's thoughts, attitudes, behaviors, body and physical health.

The mind-body connection, which dates back about 300 years, which every society from the past to the present has dealt with in one way or another, and which is not a new invention at all, is being studied in a deeper way today. The reason is that it is now much more important to cope with all that the modern age brings in a healthier way, and everything that makes us feel good and improves our quality of life.

Many scientific studies confirm that physical and mental health are intertwined and that physical condition directly affects mood, emotions and thoughts. Likewise, neuroscientific studies point out that high doses of stress negatively affect physical performance.

In other words, the body affects the mind and the mind affects the body; if one is bad, it is difficult for the other to be good. For this reason, experts argue that the balance between mind and body should be maintained. In this article, we have discussed ways to balance the mind-body connection in a positive way. But first, let's look at how the mind and body are connected.

Mind and body connection

As we mentioned above, 300 years ago, the connection between mind and body was obvious and the two were considered as a whole. However, in the 17th century, the Western world began to see the mind and body as two separate entities. According to this view, the body was a machine with no connection to the mind, and the mind was its operating system. However, it was later confirmed by many studies that our body is neither just a machine nor a separate system from our mind. On the contrary, the two were a common system that always acted together; in other words, they were not separate from each other; they were a whole.

Today, according to many scientific studies, the mind and body are not actually two separate entities, although they are often treated as such. Physical and mental health are co-partners in many biochemical processes that are intertwined, influenced and affected by each other. While scientists are still exploring the various ways in which exactly how the body-mind connection is achieved, the most important source of this relationship is the chemical and physical messengers, such as hormones and neurotransmitters, that communicate between body and mind.

The brain produces chemicals to improve our health, including antibodies that help the immune system remove harmful substances and endorphins that help the nervous system cope with stress or pain.

So, when the brain is activated, all the chemicals it starts releasing stimulate different parts of the body. For example, the fact that your stomach cramps when you're very tense is actually done by the neural networks; that stress in your mind goes to your stomach via various carriers or messengers, such as hormones and neurotransmitters. In short, this is how mental states can affect the functioning of the organs.

The body's fight-or-flight response is one of the processes that best reveals the mind and its connection. This mind-body connection is why your heart rate increases when you are excited, why you have digestive problems when you are distressed, or why your immune system weakens and you feel sick when you are stressed. Just like cogs in a wheel, the body and mind work together. Therefore, balancing the body-mind connection in a positive way is essential for overall well-being.