You, your mind, your body – separate or connected?

My thoughts today focus on our minds and bodies as one connected entity. Perhaps you will relate to this, perhaps not, but I often find myself ‘living in my head’ on a day to day basis. I might be driving my car and suddenly I think; ‘how on earth did I get here? I switched off then’. Do you ever find yourself going through the motions of something, and then realising you’ve been daydreaming for the last five minutes, or thinking about something completely different to the task at hand? I used to live in my head constantly. Whether it was worrying about something in the past or pondering something happening in the future... I’ve discovered two interesting factors in this pattern of behaviour since practising more mindfulness. So, today is all about sharing those discoveries with you. I hope it’ll prove of interest to you.

First, by ‘living in my head’ all the time – constantly thinking about the next thing to do (the future) or worrying that I didn’t do something right (the past), I had stopped living ‘in the moment’. People always throw around that expression, don’t they – ‘You’ve got to live for the moment’, but it’s hard, right? We are wired for doing, not being. I am constantly having to retrain and reteach myself how to appreciate the present moment and bring awareness to the present moment. To me, that’s the beauty of mindfulness. It reminds you to honour the moment you are in. See things for what they truly are. Not how you think they are, because your thoughts are directing your attention away from the present. Right now, I have a to do list for today. All morning I have been keeping busy going from one job to the next. That has satisfaction too. Knowing that you are achieving something. You’re getting s**t done! My doing mode is always strong. It likes to beat down my being mode. But factored into my days, I always have some being moments. When I stop, look around me; take in the sights, the sounds, the smells, the touch of what’s in the here and now, and it helps. It helps to quiet my frantic mind. It helps me to smile. To appreciate. To see things as they really are. I have everything I need. My mind will always run a-muck with thoughts – often negative (well, that’s how we are built, right?) but through awareness and kindness, I can remind myself that; one; my thoughts will pass (they always do), two; they are connected to who I am but they are not who I am and three, reality if I care to see it, is almost always better than the fake reality in my head.

So, what of our bodies? I feel a bit sorry for our bodies. Well, mine at least. I hardly give it any attention. When I do it’s often negative (who else doesn’t look in the full-length mirror for too long?) and I often don’t notice anything about it unless there’s a problem. An ache, a pain, sure, I’ll notice that and then think I am falling apart. Whatever happened to paying homage to our amazing bodies? They are the most sophisticated machines on the planet. I won’t start a biology lesson here, but they are pretty amazing when we really think about it. However, we often dislike them. I’ve started becoming interested in the sensations of my body on a normal day (I might have an ache or pain but what about the other areas of my body?) because it makes me more connected to not just all my limbs (I am blessed to have them all) but also to my breathe, my tension, my movement. It’s all connected. How we treat our bodies is often also reflected in how our thoughts work. It shouldn’t be my body and me or my mind and me, but a celebration of mind, body and soul as beautifully crafted, connected and available to us to magically use every day.

Today, I encourage you to spend a few moments with your mind and body. Have a stretch, smile, breathe into different parts of your beautiful body, notice what thoughts come up, smile at them, notice how they shift or stay. Look around you. Find five things that make life good. It’s a warm, sunny day out there with a gentle breeze. Let’s find the joy in that at least. But I'm sure we could find a lot more too.