What the heck is the bodymind?

Research over the last 30 years has confirmed that we are a mindbody, or more accurately a bodymind. It is no longer thought, as it once was, that your mind is the puppeteer pulling the strings on a marionette made of flesh and bones.

In fact there is much more communication going from your body to brain than the other way around.

How your body feels (through exercise, rest, posture, nutrition) affects your mood and your thoughts.

For example if you have been eating a lot of junk food, your gut microbiome will be dis-regulated. This may make you feel emotionally out of sorts, anxious or depressed, as most of the serotonin (which is one of your ‘happy’ hormones) is produced in your gut. It’s also worth noting that during pregnancy your gut microbiome changes significantly which may also be affecting your mood!

Your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and perceptions also influence your bodily functions. For example if you are feeling stressed and anxious, your digestive system may be affected (you may feel sick or lose your appetite or be unable to absorb the nutrients available) and you may experience muscular tension or pain in your body.

Your body is feeding information about its state of wellness to your subconscious and sometimes your conscious mind, and your mind is feeding information to your body about its perceptions of safety or alarm. The communication happens via hormones and via a long meandering nerve called the vagus nerve which connects your brain to your heart, lungs, digestive system and reproductive organs.

The mind is pulling in information from the outside world (using your senses) and processing information from your inside world via sensations and emotions (feeling hungry, tired, uncomfortable, sated, warm: these are called interoceptive messages).

Your brain and body are trying to interpret these messages to work out if you are safe or not (it responds in the same way whether this is a feeling of physical or emotional safety or alarm).

When you feel calm and well you are in a state called homeostasis or bodily balance.

When you feel tired, hungry, anxious, cold etc it feels uncomfortable as your body systems are motivating you to do something to bring you back into homeostasis.

In BodyMind Birthing you are learning tools to help you regulate this communication system from the top down (mind to body) and the bottom up (body to mind) to help you stay in emotional and physical balance during pregnancy, birth and parenting.

Examples of the BodyMind in action

· Thoughts (the language of the mind) trigger feelings (the language of the body).

· Sometimes feelings pre-empt thoughts. For example when you meet someone for the first time, you may get a good or bad feeling about them without consciously knowing why.

· Emotions motivate your behaviour. Safety feels good so you are likely to stay. Threat feels bad making you want to move away from it.

· We can sometimes see how people are feeling by the way they carry themselves. Also, the way we carry ourselves can affect how we feel. If you sit in a slumped position for a few minutes, this can increase your stress hormones. If you stand in a bold and confident posture, it can make you feel uplifted.(1)

• Loneliness & chronic stress impacts on long-term health because the central nervous system & the immune system are intimately linked. This is area of study is called psychoneuroimmunology. Equally positive relationships with others can benefit your immune, endocrine, and cardiovascular functions. (2)(3). So people with a positive outlook and good relationships live longer. (4)

• Inflammation in the body may be linked to depression. (8)

• If you feel strong in your body, you have a more positive outlook on life. Strength training improves your mental health.(5)

• There are five times more neurons in your gut than in your brain. It is sometimes referred to as ‘the second brain’. (6)

• Negative thoughts create physical tension.

• If you feel unsafe or stressed during your birth, this can change the hormones that you release and can stop the cervix from dilating.

  Ultimately your thoughts create changes in the hormones, cells, organs and function of your body!

  In this course you will find out how to use this knowledge to your advantage during birth.