Mindfulness, stress and physical sensations: how are they connected?
This week, I want to bring back an older blog and say a few additional things about it.
Reading it again gave me an opportunity to reflect on the commitments I made to myself earlier in the year and acknowledge my successes. Reason number 764 to write down and reflect on your goals and intentions! If I hadn’t looked back, I wouldn’t have recognized how much I’ve learned and grown and I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to take a pause here and nourish my own sense of goodness and self-worth!
Since moving back to the states in August, I’ve gotten a lot done. I started Your Yoga: a Virtual Community, launched another iteration of Your Brain on Mindfulness, and expanded my yoga therapy practice. I’ve been deepening my understanding of what true self-care looks like for me which includes rethinking where and when I “rush” and how to avoid it, how much time I spend in a car, and how to consciously and regularly carve out time for nothing (notice how for me, it’s less about adding and more about subtracting). I’ve also done a lot of healing work on a shoulder injury and through that, improved my skillfulness around interoception AND I can see more fully how hugely that skill pays off, both in the short and long term.
Which leads me to last February’s blog: Can Noticing The Sensations In Your Body Reduce Stress and Anxiety?
Did you know that one of the best ways to lower anxiety is to practice interoception; the skill of paying attention to the sensations in your body?
This simple practice of shifting your awareness from your mind to your body can calm your nervous system and reduce ruminating thoughts and anxiety. It also strengthens a part of your brain called the insula which is the center of the mind/body/brain connection. This center shares information about our sensations and emotions with the decision making areas of the brain so that we can respond to the moment at hand with both our physical and emotional bodies in mind. The insula is also the center of the brain that governs empathy and self-agency, facilitating deeper connections and a greater sense of personal power.
In Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 weeks to dissolve stress, build resilience and thrive, we’ve been exploring this powerful practice and here's how it's been making its way into my own life:
I joined a women's leadership program this January. It was a totally spontaneous decision based on my annual new year’s reflection which resulted in my intention to:
Receive facilitation and support for my own personal growth
Expand my communities and deepen personal connections
Build confidence in the face of challenges
Strengthen my personal commitment to self-care
Increase self-agency
And of course, practically moments after finding clarity around these intentions the leadership program dropped into my lap.
Each month we explore a new topic and February is SOVEREIGNTY. How’s that for starting out strong? And as I’ve followed my own exploration it occurred to me that it’s really the same concept I teach in Your Brain on Mindfulness which I refer to as AGENCY; an internal sensation of having power over oneself or self-governance.
This month I’ve been reflecting on where I give that agency (or sovereignty) away and why. What I discovered is that it’s generally related to fear. When we’re afraid we shift into our sympathetic nervous system often referred to as our fight/flight/freeze response. We all respond to fear in different ways depending on the situation and our own temperaments and past experiences. My personal tendency is to shrink. I’m much more of a flight/freeze person than a fight person. The thing is, I don’t always realize I’m in fight/flight/freeze. I just suddenly can’t quite orient from my own inner compass. And when that happens, I can feel a sense of powerlessness and even shame for not being as “strong” as I think I should be. What a revelation to realize that, OF COURSE I’M DISORIENTED. That’s the nature of being in your sympathetic nervous system. Physiologically, your vision narrows, mentally your mind gets foggy, and emotionally you become dysregulated. In other words, you absolutely cannot respond from your center with a clear perspective. No one navigates well from their sympathetic nervous system - it’s literally impossible! Whew! What a relief to make that connection. Self-compassion reigns once again!
Cue interoception and the original question: Can noticing the sensations in your body really lower stress?
The answer is definitively YES!
Among other things, when we practice interoception we improve vagal tone and strengthen the insula. In other words, our rest/digest system gets stronger and our fight/flight/freeze response gets less sensitive, giving us more access to our inner compass. When we can take greater control of our nervous system, we have more agency, more sovereignty, and more presence of mind.
Here are just a few more of the benefits of interoceptive awareness:
Improves the flow of information between your body/mind/brain
Improves your ability to feel what's happening in your body and respond to its needs in the moment
Improves emotional regulation (ability to respond appropriately to stressors without overreacting)
Increases self-agency and empathy
Helps us feel more connected to ourselves and others
I'd love to help you explore this concept and I've got three great options:
1. Listen to this free audio meditation that will help you shift your awareness from thoughts to physical sensations, decreasing stress as you practice interoception.
2. Join Your Yoga: a Virtual Community where we explore this concept and many more through meditation and yoga. All classes are both live and recorded.
3. Consider whether Yoga Therapy would be a good fit for you and contact me to schedule a free consultation.
As always, I would love to hear from you. Please let me know how you're doing and if I can answer any questions.
Much love,
Rachel