The Mind Body Connection

When you hear or see the words ‘Mental Health’ what do you immediately think? Most people say they think of ‘illness or depression.’

When you hear or see the words ‘Physical Health’ what do you immediately think? Most people reply with words like ‘fitness, strength, wellbeing.’

I find this so interesting because in both cases we are talking about HEALTH!

Mental health and mental illness are often seen as the same thing, but they are not.

We have struggled for years to understand mental issues. We find this a difficult subject to deal with because we can’t see ‘mentality’ in a way that we can see ‘physicality’.

Neuroscience has taught us that the connection between the mind and the body is strong. Especially when it comes to wellness. One definitely affects the other.

For years now, using my NLP training, I have been sharing techniques to help people deal with anxiety, lack of confidence, fear and many other mental barriers that keep us from living life to the full.

The first thing to understand is that the mind is very powerful. We can change how we feel, look and behave by changing our thoughts. Everyone in your family and work place is unique, they bring unique problems and unique experiences to every situation. It is important for us to stop treating one another like robots and instead as the unique individuals that we are (warts ‘n’ all, as my dad used to say.) 

It’s ok to admit that we are not mentally tough every day. We all have days when we cope with life better than other days and that’s ok! It’s exhausting pretending that we have life ‘sorted’. I promise you no one has life sorted. Everyone is worrying about something right now. 

Here are a few tips to help yourself and others:

• Avoid labelling yourself or others and just be you. Don’t be afraid. Accept that everyone struggles from time to time depending on external circumstances and internal self-talk. 
• If you saw someone in physical distress you would probably run to their aid, let me encourage you to do the same for someone in mental distress. A little compassion can make a huge positive difference. And when we reach out to help others there is the added bonus of feeling useful and good about ourselves. 
• Be open to hearing what someone says if they are feeling ‘down’. Offer a bit of support, try to understand where they are coming from. Educate yourself on mental health, understand that it is very difficult for someone to lift themselves out of the mire when feeling low, motive and action are probably both missing and so they feel stuck. 
• Teach your children to be resilient and bounce back from adversity, the sooner they learn to deal with disappointment and be flexible in their thinking the longer they will enjoy mental health. 
• Mindfulness, time in nature, music, dancing, movement, create new positive memories, imagine your ideal day and make it a reality. 
• Choose to do something every day that challenges your mind and helps you grow. Learn a language, read book, plan a holiday, read jokes, dance, be mindful.

Anne McKeown - 2mpower.co