Today we will be talking about how mindfulness practices improve or contribute to better physical health. Mindfulness can help relieve stress, treat heart disease, lower blood pressure, reduce chronic pain, improve sleep, and help with digestive issues. And, as if that is not enough, a new study at Brown University showed that people that participated in mindfulness practices, having awareness of an attention to their current feelings of thought, we’re less likely to be obese and have less abdominal fat than people that did not participate in mindfulness practices. The key to the positive effect on your physical body is awareness, which then allows you to make better choices.
I am not going to go deeply into the metaphysical effects of mindfulness practices on each of these. We know from our prior studies that all of these are connected. Mind, body, and spirit are connected. I know you’ve heard the saying “When Mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy”. This is the same theory, if one of the three your mind, your body, or your spirit is not doing well, the other two of the triad will be effected. We have all experienced the changes in our bodies when we are angry, when we are sad, and when we are afraid. When we are experiencing these challenges for an extended period of time, there is a chronic effect on the health of our bodies. The key is not to experience these challenges for an extended period of time, and when there is no immediate threat. Without mindfulness practices some of us have a tendency to always live in a state of hyper vigilance, because we are not aware of how we can experience life in the present moment without returning to the past or trying to protect or predict the future. Mindfulness helps us stay in the present moment and thereby eliminating the stress that is associated with it.
Again, mindfulness allows us to bring awareness to our bodies and to any situation and allows us to pivot. To change from reactionary mode and shifting our thoughts in a way that allows us to respond in a manner that is not detrimental to our physical health.
Doing what we can to support our optimal physical health then allow us to operate optimally in our minds and spirits. They are all connected. When your body isn’t happy, so goes your mind and spirit. Mindfulness brings this awareness and then the tools to support us in balancing the three.
I want to encourage you to seek out and introduce mindfulness practices into your life that work for you. Try a few things and choose what nourishes you. Need some help? Sign up for a free Self-care Consultation with me and we will discuss it. The link to my calendar is below.
Namaste’