Most individuals live their lives while experiencing varying levels of stress each and every day. While has challenges or obstacles they face, there are many unique situations for women that can make this reality of life even harder to manage.
Whether juggling their careers, tending to their families, or dealing with prejudices that have been pre-established through society, the weight can be difficult for any woman to bear on her own.
Thankfully, there are strategies that anyone can put into practice to help create more resilience through life and make everyday challenges more manageable. This is where strengthening the mind-body connection can be invaluable.
Why Women Are More Prone to Stress or Trauma
All humans experience and respond to stress or trauma in various ways. However, while each person is unique and may come across their own struggles in life, women have been shown to experience much higher levels of debilitating stress when compared to men.
While this isn’t to say that all genders don’t have difficulties confronting the pressures presented to them, there are certain stressors that are amplified for women that can and often do leave a lasting impact on their physical and emotional well-being.
For example, the physical and emotional challenges during pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum depression, and menopause are all experiences that can be difficult for other genders to fully understand how to navigate. In other situations, women can become victims of abusive relationships or workplace harassment that can leave them traumatized with deep emotional scars that can be hard to heal.
In many of these situations, professional guidance and support is the only effective way to continue moving forward in a healthy way. Trained therapists can help individuals through specialized counseling and help them discover healthy coping mechanisms they can use.
How the Mind-Body Connection Works
One of the coping strategies used by mental health professionals when teaching individuals how to better deal with and manage their stress levels is developing a strong mind-body connection.
The mind-body connection references an internal recognition that everything we’re experiencing - whether in our minds or how we feel physically - are connected. Rather than being independent feelings or emotions, both are equally connected together and can influence one another either positively or negatively dependent on various factors.
Another way to better understand the mind-body connection is to remember when you woke up in either a great or awful mood. How did that mindset impact you throughout the day? Maybe you tried to avoid social situations or were more eager to start conversations. Were you more motivated to go to the gym, or did you feel exhausted all day?
The type of mindset you’re in can trigger a multitude of physical responses in your body. Neuroscientists have studied this interplay of emotions and sensations and confirmed that there are a large number of communication pathways between the brain and body. These communications can be impacted by the type of environments we’re in every day and the information we choose to absorb.
Strategies for Creating a Stronger Mind-Body Connection
Learning how to strengthen your mind-body connection can be a powerful way to help manage the emotions you’re experiencing.
However, establishing the mindset in this area often requires more than simply attending therapy sessions. It’s about taking action in your everyday life and incorporating healthy routines to help you add more harmony between your mental state of mind and physical well-being.
Becoming More Mindful
Practicing mindfulness throughout the day can be a highly restorative way to better cope with and manage everyday stresses in life. Through meditation, you can create a peaceful space to help you unwind and temporarily step away from any struggles you may be going through.
Having more mindfulness helps to create a heightened state of awareness when it comes to your thoughts and emotions while embracing them openly instead of hiding from them. When you combine this type of exercise with meditation techniques, it can help you to anchor yourself in the present instead of being overly focused on what’s happening next.
Staying Active
Your physical health is a significant factor to how well you’re able to manage both your physical and mental well-being. This is why taking the time to engage in regular exercise can be so important. Exercising releases dopamine and other beneficial brain chemicals that are responsible for reducing stress and improving your energy levels along with supporting better cognitive function.
Whether you like to dance, play sports, or simply take a trip outdoors to go hiking, the more active you are, the more you’re able to build a deeper connection between your mind and body.
Prioritizing Self-Care
Good nutrition is another factor that comes into play when it comes to our overall moods and the energy levels we have throughout the day. Making more conscientious decisions regarding our dietary choices helps to make sure we’re taking in the necessary vitamins and nutrients we need each day to fuel our bodies and support our mental health.
Practicing self-care can also be expressed through the actions we take to help recharge and refresh our physical and mental states. Whether you’re reading a book, taking a long batch, or enjoying a peaceful day outdoors - all of these forms of self-care can play a major role in helping to minimize the amount of stress you’re under.
It’s important not to associate self-care with being selfish. It’s essential that you feel empowered to take care of your own needs and recognize it as a primary ingredient for living a more balanced and fulfilling life.
Creative Expression
Another way to help balance your emotions and create more positive influences on your physical health is to explore healthy forms of creative release. Some of the activities you could get involved in include painting, playing music, sculpting, or finding other methods of creative expression that you enjoy.
Creativity can be a powerful, non-verbal way to release certain thoughts or feelings in an incredibly therapeutic way. All of these activities help to turn the stress we’re experiencing into something beautiful and unique and can be a great way to improve awareness about what we’re feeling on a day-to-day basis that may be hard to express in words.
Leverage Your Mind-Body Connection for a Happier Life
It’s important to remember that your state of mind and physical state aren’t separate entities. They are intertwined with one another, and how you decide to nurture the balance between the two can make a significant impact on your ability to confront and manage the stress you experience on a daily basis.
By working to strengthen your mind-body connection, you’ll be empowered to navigate life's challenges with a clear mind, embrace the good days you experience and continue living a fulfilling and healthy life.
Dr. Hannah Yang
Visionary and healthcare entrepreneur by passion, Licensed Psychologist by training, Dr. Hannah Yang loves creating new possibilities in the world of mental health and wellness. Dr. Yang established Balanced Awakening in 2015 as a niche psychotherapy practice for women. As Balanced Awakening flourishes in Chicago, and soon Miami, she also loves to tap into her passion for design and Feng Shui to create fabulous environments for herself, her team, and clients.
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