Do you want to feel better? Then move your body.

We often hear the phrase “mind over body” but not much the phrase “body over mind”. The body’s impact on the mind is what Caroline Williams, author of Move, wrote about in her book, and in an article she has written for New Scientist in May 2021 entitled Mind-altering moves. 

 I discovered a lot about how our body can affect our mind years ago during my NLP training and later on I learnt more about our body’s connection to our mental well being during my TA training. 

 Caroline confirms that neuroscience research shows that the way we move our body can change the way we think and feel and lists six ways through which we can achieve this:

 ✔ Walking/ Running

 Moving and thinking are intertwined and walking or running at a pace that feels easy for you allows the mind to wander and thus allow for broader and more creative ideas to flow. I certainly experience this every time I do some exercise. Caroline suggests that a walk is the best thing to do before an ideas meeting. These activities, when done at the right pace, have a big impact on blood flow to the brain, which increases memory and spatial awareness. 

 ✔ Strength Training

 Studies have shown that today’s sedentary life style is causing a decrease in our muscle strength. This is not only relevant to our physical health but also our mental health because strength training appears to increase grey matter in the brain and improve memory. The reason is linked to the release of a hormone called osteocalcin from bones during weight bearing exercise that has been linked to age related cognitive ability. Feeling strong, says Caroline, also positively affects our self-esteem and mental resilience possibly because “our sense of what we can achieve in the world is built on the foundation of our bodily sensations”.

 ✔ Dancing

 Bopping to music makes us feel good. It is also a natural human trait. You only have to watch what a baby does when you play music. I certainly saw this when my girls were babies. Apparently this feel good factor is “because our brains work as prediction machines that constantly make guesses about what is likely to happen next”. Therefore a regular beat is easy to predict and so provides a pleasurable sensation due to a dopamine hit every time we get it right. When this occurs repetitively, it can lead us to feel  “powerful and in control” according to music psychologist Edith Van Dyck. So we can access this kind of powerful pleasure alone, or experience bonding if we choose to do it with others. 

 ✔‍ Breathing 

 An ability to control the muscles of your chest and diaphragm, to regulate and synchronise your breath, has been shown to make a big difference to the way you think and feel, lead to deep relaxation (a state of “ being” rather than “ thinking”) and even achieve an altered state of consciousness. Wim Hoff’s method to cope with stress is heavily based on learning to control our breath. I enjoy cold showers much more when I control my breathing. 

 ✔ Posture

 Standing or sitting up straight has been associated with a positive mental attitude. New research links this to neural pathways between the brain and adrenal glands, which are responsible for the adrenaline rush caused by stress. This neural pathway also has a connection with the muscles of the core that stabilise the torso and support posture. This can explain the stress- relieving factor of exercises like Pilates, yoga and Tai chi. Therefore the more upright your posture the more confident you will feel and the less stress you will experience. This certainly helps when it comes to public speaking. 

 ✔ Stretching

 Apart from feeling good and loosening tight muscles, it seems stretching has the additional benefits of reducing inflammation and boosting our immune system through releasing adenosine triphosphate, a molecule that manages levels of inflammation, inflammation being the immune system’s response that increases in times of stress, injury or infection. Stretching also seems to stimulate drainage of toxins through the lymphatic system. This helps the mind because the less inflammation you have in your body, the less depression, chronic pain and fatigue you experience.

 Michelle Obama and Beyoncé joined forces in 2011 in a campaign to get the Nation to “move their body” to tackle obesity. What they might not have known are the benefits they also imparted to mental health. 

 Do you want to feel better? Then move your body.

“Don’t just stand there on the wall

Everybody just move your body”

- Beyoncé