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

To Volunteer Or Not To Volunteer, That Is The Question.

I joined ACCESS as a volunteer in December 2018. At that time I had recently separated from my partner of 30 years and was going through mediation and divorce proceedings. I also saw my youngest daughter off to University in the UK where her older sister had gone some years before her. In addition, the coaching practice that I had established six years earlier was going through a stagnant period due to the lack of attention I had been giving it. I found myself at a loss as to what to do and where to start. So I did what I always did in the past in such life situations. I started volunteering.

 “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” — Mahatma Gandhi, Lawyer & anti colonial nationalist

 Through volunteering at ACCESS, a non-for-profit organisation that offers guidance and support to Internationals arriving in the Netherlands, I instantly found myself thrust into a community of like-minded people. Two days a week, I woke up and had a sense of purpose. This unlocked my brain’s creative channels, which had been blocked from recent negative emotional experiences. A month into my volunteering role I soon discovered that, as a coach, I can join the ACCESS Trainers network which plunged me into yet another community of entrepreneurs who were facing similar challenges to me and willing to exchange skills and support one another.

Seven weeks into my volunteering I moved to The Hague International Centre, which is part of the many expat centres in the country that ACCESS serves. I loved the face-to-face support that we as volunteers were providing there. Furthermore, working alongside the Dutch municipality staff was an added bonus as I was trying to grow and develop my Dutch language skills to a higher level.

 In July of that year, I became Project Manager at THIC. Through networking events I attended via the ACCESS community, such as Rise and Lead, a yearly event to advance women in leadership, I connected with Stephanie Ward, a business and marketing mentor, who was instrumental in supporting me and offering guidance that got my coaching business again off the ground.

 For some people volunteering may conjure negative images of unworthiness and lack of appreciation. On the contrary, I have found that volunteering has huge benefits to my mental and physical wellbeing as well as leading to new and sometimes, unexpected, career opportunities.

 “Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless.” – Sherry Anderson, Author

 Before completing the year at ACCESS I moved from a position of wondering what could I do, to a place of feeling involved, productive and content. I had a sense of purpose and a goal. Gratitude plays a huge role in volunteering work. I was grateful for the connections and friends that I made and the networks I became part of, not to mention the personal fulfilment that I felt at playing a part, however small, in an organisation that made a positive contribution to the lives of others.

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” ― H. Jackson Brown Jr., Author

 Research has revealed that volunteering has many health and social benefits. Belonging to a group and regularly interacting with people can increase your lifespan, strengthen your immune system and fight off depression. Volunteering can also sharpen your mind because you are constantly learning new ways of doing and being. I personally don’t need research to prove to me the benefits of volunteering as I have experienced it first hand on many occasions in my life.

 “You give but little when you give of your possessions.  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” – Kahlil Gibran, writer & Philiospher

 My job at ACCESS was not the first time I did volunteer work. My first experience with volunteering was in my early twenties in the UK when I took on a voluntary summer job as part of the work experience demanded by my Pharmacy degree. As I was an overseas student at the time I was not allowed to get a paid job. This volunteer summer job led me to secure a year’s internship that I was required to do after graduation in order to become a member of the pharmaceutical society and thereby practice as a pharmacist in Great Britain. During that internship I developed a great friendship with my mentor whose advice and guidance led me to secure my first paid job as a pharmacist at St Thomas’s hospital in London, where I worked for the next 5 years. That first volunteer job cascaded into a sequence of positive events that were very beneficial to me on a personal and professional level.

 “It’s easy to make a buck.  It’s a lot tougher to make a difference. ” – Tom Brokaw, Journalist

 The next opportunity for volunteering came my way when I was married and a first time mum in Aberdeen in Scotland. I decided to become a stay at home mum and take a career break. Unknown to me I was suffering from postnatal depression and, at the suggestion of a neighbour, I started attending a toddler group where mothers gathered with their children and created together a fun and playful time for the children and an opportunity for stay-at-home parents to bond and be part of a community. Volunteers, who were amongst the parents that attended, ran it. At some point when a volunteer was needed to continue running this group I put my name forward. I realised how helpful the group had been in combating my depression and I wanted to do my part to support other parents who might have been in a similar situation to mine. My daughter and I experienced happy times in the two years that I volunteered there and made lasting friendships.

 “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Winston Churchill, Politician

 Later on, in Oman, volunteering called again and I became a member of an information centre that was part of the Global Shell Petroleum network, which supported internationals relocating to and from Oman. Through this volunteer work, I learnt new skills and made great friendships, while making the transition of relocating to a new country easier for others.

 When back in the Netherlands, and shortly before I started with ACCESS, another opportunity to volunteer came up. This time it was in a municipal organisation that was set up to help with refugees following the war in Syria. I was one of many who gave some of their free time to supporting refugees with the settling-in process in this new country that was offering them a safe home away from their war-torn country. It was a very humbling experience.

 Should you ever be faced with the question of to volunteer or not to volunteer, I would invite you to consider saying yes.  Perhaps, like me, you might experience health and social benefits as well as developing personally and professionally.