Recognizing the Mind Body Connection in Common Colloquialisms

Here are some common colloquialisms we all might be familiar with. For example, pain in the neck, carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders, weak in the knees, no backbone, and maybe even tight ass. When said, we don’t think of a strict literal meaning, they are more metaphorical.

Someone might say to you, I went out with that person and felt like I was on “cloud nine”. We all know that expresses something that takes us out of the ordinary, into a different place. Many of us when we refer to our bodies want to be completely literal. We think if we hold good posture in the correct way, or roll our shoulders back as we are advised, our bodies will work better. If we intellectually understand how one muscle works, then our problems are solved. To me this is what defines the mind body disconnection. Our bodies do not work through thought, and literal interpretations of information alone.
It just disconnects us further if that is our Holy Grail. I would go so far as to say colloquialisms over years have survived as a way of communicating feeling, through our bodies. They express more of a mind body connection.

For example, weight of the world on my shoulders. This image is quite profound. I always think of the picture of Atlas carrying the world on his shoulder. There is a physical image along with a strong feeling that most of us can relate to. If you have every tried to “let, go” of the tightness in your shoulders you might have found its not that easy to simply do an certain exercise, and its gone. If it is, it usually returns as with most chronic areas of discomfort in the body. The experiences we have in everyday life, along with the feelings our bodies have, are all interconnected and can never be ignored. We must include this understanding. Our bodies are not machines.

As medical science has grown so impressive with hip replacements, back surgery, physical therapy and more, we sometimes give away our bodies to someone else who we think is much smarter than us and has so much knowledge of the body. Having worked in a hospital for many years, I do not dispute the benefit of different treatments from highly skilled professionals. I also saw years of people losing their confidence in their own bodies because they no longer trusted that it does heal, and how influenced by the choices we make in everyday life. I would venture to say healing is equally affected by our circumstances, stress, behaviors, as it the literal connection of one part to another.

These simple colloquialisms point out that our physical bodies are reacting all the time to our circumstances. They are a way the body is speaking to us. Our bodies are providing information all the time, we rarely listen. With The Miracle Ball Method, we use the tools of the method to inspire feedback from our body. By doing this in reverse, letting our body tell us what is happening, we have an opportunity to let it, fix us. How amazing is that? Through our bodies kinesthetic sense, its ability to feel, you will get feedback that you can use.

The old paradigm of exercise is just not enough. I love to move and have throughout my life, but I am extremely appreciative of how my nervous system allows me to recover as I listen to it navigate with an intelligence I certainly don’t understand. But I do appreciate it, immensely! We need to be open minded or bodied, as one of my students suggested.