Do you often feel that you’re less motivated, more disconnected, burned out, easily irritable, or numb? Do you feel more apathetic towards life events or do you feel so overwhelmed that you pull away from interactions that aren’t essential? Do you hear those around you having the same concerns? We live in a society now that is heavily regulated through our interactions with devices. It can negatively impact our brain’s development, responses, functioning, and ultimately our brain’s overall awareness of ourselves.

It can cause a sense of disconnection between our brain and our body, even though they are intricately connected. This means that as we endlessly scroll, watch videos, or play video games, we are not noticing the needs of our body. We disconnect from it and then when we are done, this sensory load can come rushing back- in the form of aches, anxiety, stress, irritability or even to the other extremes like numbness, depression, and apathy.

This lack of bodily awareness can have long term consequences, but thankfully, some simple solutions can have equally long-term positive impacts. This blog on Movement and Body Awareness will talk about some of those simple strategies.

The Brain-Body Connection

There are so many internal systems within our body that work directly with our brain, impacting our mental health and physical health. You can check out the main blog page for blogs on how our digestive system, immune system, and stress responses all directly impact our brain.

Knowing about these interactions can build our understanding of some of the reasons our body may feel certain ways or how our thoughts and emotions may be impacted by various situations. Building that awareness of our body can help us manage our reactions in stressful situations and plan for our future needs.

Unfortunately, though, we often don’t connect with (or bring our awareness to) how our body feels as a whole unless it is in a negative context- such as when we are feeling aches or pains or maybe when we feel insecure about how we may look. If someone was able to magically track all the thoughts you had about your body in the past two weeks, how many would have actually been positive or neutral thoughts? How many would have been negative thoughts?

Now when you add in the impacts of constantly scrolling on social media or binge watching videos when we are bored or overwhelmed, how many times in the last two weeks were you not aware of your body at all? How numb or dissociated were you from your body? You can ask these same questions to your kids, teens, friends, etc.

Our generations have less and less positive or neutral interactions with their body on a daily basis, and while it may seem inconsequential, it actually has a big impact on our ability to regulate our body’s responses. Many of our body’s responses can become unconscious, especially when responding to chronic stressors and anxieties. Lacking awareness of those responses hinders our ability to change or regulate them.

We unfortunately move less as a society in the United States. Students have less physical activity requirements and sometimes punishments include the loss of recess or physical activity breaks. Thankfully we see more trends moving away from those practices as well as reductions of the use of screens and phones in school settings in some areas in the U.S.

Also, adolescent girls often become less physically active following puberty as increased anxious thinking regarding body image and negative social messages about their physical abilities are more likely to start to form and build. When we have these negative views towards our bodies and their abilities or a lack of daily interactions with our body, we stop recognizing how our body can positively aid us in addressing our stress and mental health.

How Boosting Movement Helps

Don’t Get Overwhelmed

If we aren’t walking or going for a run when we’re frustrated or overstimulated, we don’t get the chance to experience how effective that action can be for our feelings of anxiety or for helping our minds focus and problem-solve. If we don’t regularly use deep breathing to regulate our heart rates (a tool used regularly by pro athletes), then it is hard to understand how effective that method is if we are just beginning to try it when we’re already stressed or upset. It is hard to see the benefit of these strategies if we’re not already engaging in them, but for most people to be able to run or practice daily deep breathing, they will have to start small! Most people don’t stick with new habits when we try to GO BIG right away. It’s about progress, not perfection. But don’t get overwhelmed if you’re not a runner or you’ve never tried deep breathing more than a handful of times!

The point that I’m attempting to make is that building these strategies and our bodies abilities has to happen through steps. For example, if you’re not naturally a runner, you have to work yourself up to that physical ability. Starting with a more realistic method to reconnecting with your body, it’s abilities, and your confidence in them. Maybe that looks like daily stretching or going for walks instead. This allows you to build yourself up- both in your bodies abilities and your confidence in yourself as a whole. In doing so, you’re also experiencing the neurochemical mental health benefits of those movements in your body. But also know that simply walking has numerous mental health benefits! It can be a better choice over running for working through your thoughts and problem-solving because it can help balance cortisol levels. There is no one answer to what types of movements you can work towards building into your life.

Starting Small

Break down your end goal into the most reasonable and manageable starting steps for you. This is key to long term consistency and benefits. The image below is an example of how you can do this.

You can start at earlier steps than these too. You may start with simple stretching, guided body meditations, and breathwork. You can start by sitting outside- somewhere peaceful and just noticing how your body reacts to the environment and your thoughts. Does the warm sun make your feel cozy, does a cool breeze make you feel relaxed or does it make you form goosebumps? The point is noticing how your body is feeling and reacting. It builds your connection with yourself. When we are more connected with our body, we notice its cues like hunger, tiredness, satisfaction, etc. We can actively respond to them then before we become stressed or before we miss out on the benefits of the moment we are in.

The most important part is that you start consistently acknowledging your body and hopefully begin moving again with a purpose (meaning not just to get from point A to point B) as you reconnect with your body. Just the simple acts of movement can help regulate us and boost our mental health, but most importantly, it makes us start to be more aware of what our body needs, what our body is capable of, and how we can care for it. Taking care of our body takes care of our mind and our overall ability to function and enjoy our lives.

Citations

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*Brownson RC, Boehmer TK, Luke DA. Declining rates of physical activity in the United States: what are the contributors? Annu Rev Public Health. 2005;26:421-43. doi: 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.26.021304.144437. PMID: 15760296.

*Dishman RK, Saunders RP, Motl RW, Dowda M, Pate RR. Self-efficacy moderates the relation between declines in physical activity and perceived social support in high school girls. J Pediatr Psychol. 2009 May;34(4):441-51. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsn100. Epub 2008 Sep 23. PMID: 18812410; PMCID: PMC2671981.

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*Wilke J, Mohr L, Tenforde AS, Edouard P, Fossati C, González-Gross M, Sánchez Ramírez C, Laiño F, Tan B, Pillay JD, Pigozzi F, Jimenez-Pavon D, Novak B, Jaunig J, Zhang M, van Poppel M, Heidt C, Willwacher S, Yuki G, Lieberman DE, Vogt L, Verhagen E, Hespanhol L, Hollander K. A Pandemic within the Pandemic? Physical Activity Levels Substantially Decreased in Countries Affected by COVID-19. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Feb 24;18(5):2235. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18052235. PMID: 33668262; PMCID: PMC7967678.

*Wu, D., Dong, X., Liu, D., & Li, H. (2023). How Early Digital Experience Shapes Young Brains During 0-12 Years: A Scoping Review. Early Education and Development, 35(7), 1395–1431. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2023.2278117