How a Healthy Body Supports a Healthy Mind in recovery

How a Healthy Body Supports a Healthy Mind

You may think that your brain is only a component of your body but there is actually a strong body and mind connection.

There are many studies with evidence to show how a healthy body supports a healthy mind – how you feel mentally affects the state of your body.

For example, if you are under a lot of stress whether it is over your job, money, relationship drama, and other stressful situations, your body will respond to that by causing headaches, tense muscles, stomach problems, and even high blood pressure.

The state of your body affects your mind

It works the other way around as well where your body can affect your mind.

If you are not feeling well physically, you can feel poor mentally.

For example, if you are experiencing a serious health issue like heart disease, it can affect your emotions where you can feel depressed, stressed, or anxious which can also affect how you will treat or cope with this disease.

With a positive outlook on your life, you will be able to handle pain better.

How the brain works

The brain affects your health by producing pain killers called endorphins and gamma globulin which makes your immune system strong.

If you are sick, being hopeful and having a positive attitude will help you get better and the brain will make chemicals to boost the body’s healing power.

If you continue to be negative in your thoughts and your emotions, your brain will not produce these chemicals that heal your body.

Your thoughts and your mental state of mind will determine the physical state of your healthy body.

What stress does to the body

Stress can affect your physical health as well because your healthy body will act like it is being attacked.

Stress will cause your body to release hormones to speed up your heart rate and breathing, tense up your muscles, and increase blood pressure.

The more constant that your stress level is, your blood pressure can continue to go high.

If you relax your mind and your body, the hormones that create stress will stop.

Helpful tools for the wellness of your mind and body include doing deep breathing exercises which send a message to the brain to calm down and then your brain will send the message to the body to do just that.

Progressive muscle relaxation is when you relax each muscle group to reduce tension and anxiety.

Yoga involves meditation, breathing, and exercises that stretch the body.

Last but not least, laughter can be a good pain relief and can speed up the healing process as well.