Inner Peace and Harmony Through the Mind-Body Connection

PT Corner with Friends

Harmony in the Mind-Body Connection for Inner Peace

By Thalia Dorsten

Sep 13, 2023

Harmony in the Mind-Body Connection for Inner Peace

by Thalia Wynne, PT, DPT, AT, RYT

You’ve heard people talk about the mind-body connection before and how important it is to inner peace but what is it actually and why is it important? How can we optimize the mind-body connection to live freer, truer, happier lives? 

I recently taught a LYT Method class to a group of fitness specialists who had never done a LYT class before. One comment I got repeatedly was “I couldn’t think of anything else. I had to be so dialed in.” 

 

This comment describes one of my favorite things about the LYT Method. Through this style of movement, we are moving in such a way that requires specific concentration. What this has done in my own life is because of how much concentration and effort I am putting into my movement on the mat, the rest of the world melts away. I reach a state of flow. Time stops. The mat transports me to a whole new world. My inner world. And not only does my body feel good, but my whole energetic system shifts into a more expanded form. 

 

My experience of reaching flow during my own personal practice was reflected back to me when I got the comment from the fitness specialists taking my class. Through the movement of the body, we are able to affect the mind. She was concentrating on her form, the body cues I gave, following directions to flow from pose, to pose, and the result was that there was no room left in her mind for distraction, to doubt herself. She was in the here and now, naturally. 

 

Applying practice to enhance a balanced mind-body connection has several benefits including: 

 

  • The sensation of being in body vs. dissociated or out-of-body 
  • Enhanced memory and focus 
  • Boost in creativity and mood 
  • More energy 

 

The connection between mind and body is both physical and not physical. Physically – it is connected via the central nervous system. 

 

The central nervous system comprises the brain and the spinal cord. Several nerves sprout from the spinal cord like tree branches and create the peripheral nervous system. It is through the peripheral system that we are able to sense and move. 

 

The peripheral nervous system sends signals to the brain and the brain sends signals to the peripheral nervous system in a constant energy and information exchange. 

 

So physically speaking – our mind and body are literally connected through our inner circuitry. 

 

As you know, we are not just meat suits. We have thoughts, feelings, intuition, and deep parts in us that I would describe as our soul. And our souls are connected to the physical and non-physical world around us via our energy. Electromagnetic fields and light waves that our sensitive systems can feel, even if we cannot see them. 

 

Let me describe it in a way that I learned from the work of Dr. David Hawkins – the arm does not experience its own armness. The peripheral nervous system is sending the sensations of your arm up into your brain and your brain is interpreting the sensation of the arm. So it is the brain that is experiencing the arm. But the brain cannot experience its own thoughts. The thoughts and feelings being generated from the brain are experienced from your awareness. And our awareness is plugged into the greater consciousness that is Universal Love. 

 

Everything is connected. And they all are affected by each other in this experience we call life. They can be in harmony or in disarray. In a negative energy field or a positive energy field. 

 

I don’t know about you, but I choose harmony and positive energy any day of the week. I choose Love. So by raising your awareness in several different ways – whether it’s through moving your body in a specific way – syncing breath and body – taking pauses in your day to breathe – training the mind to find love and gratitude and feel it in your heart – creating flow states – find the way that suits your unique design to find harmony in the mind-body connection and discover the peace that is possible in your life.

Previous Post ≪ Unlocking Joint Mobility: Incorporating Yoga into Physical Therapy Practices
Next Post ‘Did my Vagina Just Fart in Yoga Class?’ ≫

You May Also Like

Blog Search

Contributors

  • Lara Heimann
  • Kristin Williams
  • Sarah Kingsley
  • Thalia Dorsten
  • Ashley Newton
  • Rhonna Griffin

WHAT IS LYT?

A smarter, safer, and more effective approach to movement

Learn More