In order to decipher what the root issue may be when it comes to your mental health, I believe that establishing & maintaining a wellness lifestyle is a huge key step toward whole body wellness. In this article I’m going to focus on the facts of how interconnected our bodies and minds are and how that affects our mental health.

What is whole body wellness?

Healing through whole body wellness involves root issue, whole healing; it’s looking at all aspects of you as a person.

It’s not a quick fix. It’s not a two week diet; it’s about creating a positive, wellness lifestyle that sets the platform for a solid foundation for you to have positive ability to work through all the events, circumstances & issues that life presents. It’s designing and teaching a lifestyle to continually condition your body & mind for strength and wellness.

As I see it, we are innately designed to be aligned, in balance with and connected with our mind/ body / soul.

What happens all too often is we get pulled and disconnected from our mind / body by distraction, unhealthy influence, gimmicks and gadgets that promise us a quick fix and soon enough we’re completely detached and unaware of what our bodies need & want. 

Whole body wellness in terms of mental health, is using the body and it’s messages (symptoms) to help you identify and address your mental health issues.

What does living a whole body wellness lifestyle mean?

I believe that being a cohesively whole & healthy person involves tending to all aspects of our health: our minds, our bodies, our spirit. A lifestyle of wellness considers all of these aspects. Therefore, how you live your life and the choices that you make for yourself, both big and small, align with the desire to live a well & balanced life.

HOW OUR BODIES SPEAK TO US

Our physical bodies are always trying to get our attention by sending us messages via our physical symptoms. This can be as basic as the feeling of physical thirst; the feeling of being thirsty is your body signaling to you that it needs water. As basic as this sounds, I can’t tell you how many smart, successful and well intended people I’ve witnessed end up in the emergency room because they were dehydrated.

Point being: It’s amazing how disconnected we can become from the messages that our bodies are telling us.

Here are some examples of what particular mental states will do to our physical body:

• when we’re anxious we can will physically feel: a fast heartbeat, rapid breathing, upset stomach, digestive issues, sweating.

• when we’re overworked we can physically experience symptoms such as: exhaustion, insomnia, muscle soreness, headaches, fatigue.

• when we’re stressed we can physically experience skin issues like hives or itching, hair loss (long term), sore eyes, trouble sleeping, weakened immune system, digestive issues, chest pain, etc.

This shows how our bodies act as our personal alarm systems; our job is to decode what our symptoms are communicating to us.

A great question to ask when you experience a physical symptom is:

What is my body trying to tell me?

As we learn to take care of our physical bodies well, while also learning how to decode it’s messages; we will reconnect our body / mind.

THE MIND BODY DISCONNECT

It happens all too often when a client reaches out and explains that they are depressed. They usually tell me how they’re experiencing symptoms such as: restless sleep, headaches, fatigue, low mood and lack of motivation.

On the surface, this sounds like depression, right?

Well………

As I dig a bit further with questions around their physical health, I often discover that they:

• “usually” fall asleep around 12-3am

• eat poorly

• never exercise

• often forget to drink enough water

• drink alcohol several days a week

• are hooked to some bad habits such as overconsumption of screen time and social media

This information suddenly shifts my focus toward my clients basic self care habits. My job becomes about helping my client to physically regulate by supporting them in creating a wellness routine in order to weed out what could be going on with them mental health wise.

A lot of depressive symptoms mimic the symptoms that physically appear when we live a lifestyle of non movement & poor eating, self care & sleeping habits.

Without a healthy physical foundation to help ground and provide the kind of positive structure we all need to show up balanced and well; any sort of attempt to address any mental health issues becomes more difficult.

I’ve found that some symptoms that seem like there strictly mental health symptoms can be addressed and cleared at times with an intentional shift to create a wellness lifestyle.

(What I’m saying is that your chances of improving your mental health is aligned with how you look after your physical health; that is the notion behind whole health healing.)

Here are some physical symptoms that can be caused by a poor diet and lack of exercise:

• Moodiness
  A lack of protein can lead to low levels of dopamine and serotonin, which can cause symptoms of depression or aggression. 

• Sleep disturbances
  Caloric restriction or poor diet can disrupt sleep, causing difficulty falling asleep, and sleep interruptions. 

• Weakened immune system
  Not getting enough nutrients can make it harder for your immune system to fight infections, which can lead to frequent illness or illnesses that linger.

• Stiff joints
  Under use of your joints can cause them to stiffen. 

• Breathlessness
  Without regular exercise the muscles that help your lungs move in and out become weak, leading to breathlessness. 

• Low energy
  Exercise helps deliver oxygen and nutrients to your tissues, not exercising your body results in low energy levels.

• High blood pressure
  Not exercising and eating unwell can increase your risk of heart disease.

• Constipation
  Poor diet and lack of exercise are common causes of constipation. 

• Oral health issues
  An over abundance of sugar in your diet can cause cavities, and not getting enough vitamin C can cause swollen or bleeding gums.

• Reproductive difficulties
  When your body is not getting adequate nutrition, it prioritizes processes such as breathing and blood circulation over sex hormone production. This can reduce your sex drive and interrupt reproductive processes. 

Here are some physical symptoms that can be caused by symptoms of depression:

• Low Mood
  Feeling chronically sad, anxious, numbed out or empty. You may also feel hopeless, pessimistic, or irritable. 

• Loss of Interest
  You may lose interest in activities that you used to enjoy. Experiencing a general loss of pleasure is common with depression.

• Sleep
  You may have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, wake up too early, or sleep too much. 

• Low Energy
  You may feel tired or have a lack of energy, even after getting a good amount of sleep.

• Poor Concentration
  You may have trouble concentrating, remembering details, or making decisions. 

• Appetite
  You may eat more or less than usual, or have no appetite. 

• Pain
  You may experience aches, pains, headaches, or stomach problems that don't improve with treatment. 

• Thoughts
  You may feel guilty, worthless, or helpless. You may also have thoughts of self harm or suicide.

How It’s All Connected : The Body / Mind Connect

As you can see many of the symptoms that are due to a poor wellness lifestyle mimic the symptoms of depression. There’s also the overlap of when you’re feeling depressed you don’t have the desire to do healthy, positive things for yourself.

So, is it the chicken or the egg? Did your poor physical health lead to your depression? Or did the depression lead to your poor physical health and unhealthy lifestyle? Sooner or later one is going to align with the other and cause negative consequences.

In order to understand what’s going on for you physically and mentally; establishing, maintaining and living a healthy wellness lifestyle is what’s going to help you uncover the potential mental health conditions that could be buried under the physical health symptoms.

Starting with what you can control such as what you eat, how much you sleep, how much you exercise, how much water or alcohol you drink; these are “the basics” that often go under acknowledged when it comes to looking at mental health.

Once your basics are more regulated you might find some relief of symptoms. This in itself can provide you with the needed motivation and energy to tend to your mental health issues. 

Also, let’s say that after you’ve created and maintained a positive wellness routine for some time; you’re still having mental health and physical issues. If this is the case, continuing to weed out other possible physical causes of any symptoms is another suggested place to look for some answers.

*Making an appointment with your medical doctor to discover and address any physical aliments is a good way to continue to explore what can be lying underneath your mental health issues.

As your physical health becomes stabilized, that sets a great foundation to clearly be able to see what’s going on with your mental health. Looking into your mental health history entails identifying any past pains, hurts or events where there may be stagnant and unprocessed feelings, emotions, trauma, resistance or pain.

Ultimately, once something within us or something that happened to us is acknowledged, we can then work toward healing, acceptance and letting go.

MIND / BODY / SOUL HEALING

MIND

what therapy can do: (mind healing)

Therapy can teach healthy coping strategies, conflict resolution & communication skills. Generally speaking therapy can help a client identify, process & heal any underlying issues that may be contributing to symptoms of decreased mental health. Obviously there’s a lot more to it; but having a space that validates, hears you, supports and is a safe space for you to unpack difficult emotions and events can be extremely healing with the right person.

Therapy and the mind / body connection:

Somatic therapy involves looking to the body to help identify trapped or repressed emotions and through body work, breath work, attention to sensations and visualizations, these practices helps to “push them through.” Somatic therapy works to dissolve unprocessed emotions by identifying, acknowledging, addressing and helping the client find acceptance for any unhealed emotions. Somatic Experiencing is a type of therapy that is used to help treat trauma via exploring the mind / body connection.

BODY

what movement can do: (body healing)

• Energy: exercise helps deliver oxygen and nutrients to our tissues, leading to an increase in overall energy.

• Healthy Coping: movement helps us cope with difficult emotions by helping us work through them physically via breath and movement.

• Increase Mood: Exercise releases endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine, which are chemicals in the brain that can boost happiness and well-being. 10 minutes of moderate exercise has been identified to have positive effects on the body / mind.

• Decrease Stress: Exercise can help reduce stress and mental fatigue. It can also improve the functioning of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which has been identified to lower cortisol secretion. 

• Improve Sleep: Improved sleep leads to a more vibrant, alert and steady mood.

• Helps Cultivate a Sense of purpose: 

  
  
  

  Finding an activity, committing to it, gaining a community through it, while creating goals around it can all lead to creating purpose for your life.

  
  
  

• Increases Self-esteem: Exercise brings structure, healthy routine and a sense of accomplishment to your life; all of which works to increase your self esteem.

• Increases Brain function: Exercise can improve brain function, attention, focus, memory, cognition, language fluency, and decision-making. 

• Increase Ability to Emotionally Regulate

(when we’re not emotionally regulated; we’re dysregulated, which leads to all sorts of mental health issues. Feel free to read more about emotional regulation and tools and coping strategies here.

SOUL

what mindfulness can do: (spirit/ soul healing)

Mindfulness is “a type of meditation that involves focusing on being aware of what you're sensing and feeling in the moment, without judgment or interpretation.” - google

Mindfulness is a skill that teaches you to be more present so you can learn how to “live in the moment” instead of living in the past (where depression lives) or in the future (where anxiety lives.)

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy / DBT therapy is a type of therapy that focuses on teaching distress tolerance skills, while helping the client to understand & accept emotions. Learning how to be mindful is another key part in DBT.

Whole body wellness is a concept as a former athlete and therapist that I believe in so fiercely. It’s what I base my practice around and what I live by myself. Treating the whole person by looking at all aspects of how they are functioning is how we can address and identify the whole cohesive picture of what could be happening for someone.

In my opinion; this is how true healing occurs as it’s all connected.

Resources:

Here are some books that support whole body wellness & the mind/ body connection healing:

When the Body Says NO / Gabor Mate, M.D.

The Body Keeps the Score / Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D.

The Energy Codes / Dr. Sue Morter

*Images by photographer Renata Amazonas.