The connection between mind, body, posture, and stress
If you’ve ever endured a nerve-racking situation followed by a throbbing noggin, it wouldn’t seem far-fetched to connect one with the other. Nearly one in four adults reports experiencing multiple headaches every year in the United States. The World Health Organization estimates 50% of all adults have at least one headache annually. Though there are over 150 types of headaches, tension headaches are the most common and often triggered by stress. Yet while doctors might agree the two can be linked, they still don’t understand exactly how.
Brian Cole, MD, an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush…
Assess your tendencies and make a plan for a less stressful moving day
As someone who’s moved four times in the past four years, I tend to agree with the expression “Change your place, change your luck.” To me, moving always feels like a new beginning, an opportunity to shed the past and start fresh. But even as I’ve left cities, homes, and furniture behind, I’ve found that it’s not as easy to say goodbye to old habits.
We all have different moving styles — some people spend hours planning and organizing, while others might haphazardly throw everything in boxes — but almost all moves have one thing in common: They’re stressful. And…
Why emulating your younger self could help you move better
After a certain age, balance no longer comes naturally and requires more cognition and awareness for its preservation. Moreover, the mind-body connection is central to one’s equilibrium, with lack of poise suggesting balance issues may be present. Brad Manor, PhD, associate director of the Mobility and Falls Translational Research Center with Harvard-affiliated Hebrew SeniorLife, calls balance “a complex system” involving many factors. “As people age, changes in flexibility, muscle strength and power, body sensation, reflexes, and even mental function all contribute to declining balance.”
Conversely, small children exemplify balance and poise effortlessly. They can run, play, get up, sit back…
If there’s one thing we need more of it’s doing less. While the pandemic may have disrupted old routines, it didn’t shut down old habits. The desire to get things done has only adapted and possibly intensified. For many, isolation creates a greater need to be seen and accomplished.
If you find yourself exhausted by doing more even though you’re spending most of your time at home, you’re not alone. Eve Bernfeld gives insight as to why adding things to an already long list of to-dos is something many struggle with and why the paradigm of “self-care” is really about…
How to make the relationship with your sitting chum a healthy one.
Chairs create an interesting conundrum: when you see one, you want to sit in it, but once you’re sitting, you can’t wait to get out. No matter how fancy or cozy they claim to be — even those luxe or ergonomic chairs that cost a fortune — after 1, 2, 3…or 8 hours in them, you can’t take the actual sitting part out of the equation.
Why is it no matter how often you shift positions, cross your legs, sway, rock, lean forward, lean back, arch your back, slouch, use a cushion under, to the side, behind..…just …
Welcome to Body Wisdom, a newsletter discussing the mind-body connection and its relationship to health and well-being. Feel free to forward our publication to your most mindful friends.
It’s been an exciting year for us at Body Wisdom! We’ve brought an array of valuable content to our publication from skilled professionals addressing popular and relevant health topics.
We also just launched our Body Wisdom Podcast where you can continue to engage in the discussion of the mind-body connection and how the relationship impacts every aspect of life.
Here are some highlights from our community:
You are the original badass
If it weren’t for a post I saw on Facebook, I would not have known today was Mother’s Day. And yet, when I realized it was this weekend, I was not amused. One. More. Thing. To. Do.
I don’t have the energy to get the house ready for ‘my day’ to celebrate ‘me’ because truthfully looking at the pile of clean laundry that has been growing on my coffee table for the past two months doesn’t put me in the mood. …
How we are surprising ourselves with our incredible ability to change and adapt in the midst of uncertainty.
Like many of you, the Coronavirus has changed my routine. ‘Freedom’ has taken on new meaning. ‘Going outside’ is the new vacation spot to tout on Facebook. Fresh air has become a commodity — an underrated privilege as much as a bare necessity.
There are many ways to interpret this unusual time. Is it a punishment? An enlightenment? A wake-up call? Who knows. Whatever it is or isn’t, it has shaken the world to its core. And while it has brought out the best in many, it has also resurfaced our innermost fears. Most notably our fear of the unknown.
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Tami Bulmash
I write and teach about the mind-body connection and its relationship to health and well-being. More at https://www.bodyandposture.com/
