My Approach to Wellbeing PART 3.
Nutritional Therapy combined with habit awareness and coaching changed so many things for me and my clients. However through my own journey I knew there was still a missing piece in this puzzle. Because after all the affirmations, positive thinking and goal oriented work, I found out that the mind does not rule over the body. As much as I wanted to be able to think my way out of a situation or emotion or experience my body was often telling a completely different story than my mind.
So it became clear to me that even if you get familiar with your mind, the emotions live in the body. And what you feel, sense and experience is either expressed or stored into your body. And after diving deep into the nervous system and the physiology of the body, I understood why we can’t ignore the body and its messages.
Part of our nervous system is autonomous which means its actions are involuntary. This part of the nervous system controls the glands and internal organs, such as the heart, lungs and digestive system. These are, essentially, the things that run our body without us having to intentionally think about them. These involuntary actions control also the states of your nervous system for example fight and flight functions & rest and digest responses. And particularly one nerve, the vagus nerve, shows the importance of body based approach. The vagus nerve is the long nerve and approx. 70-80% of the information that runs through this nerve is coming from your body up to your brain, not the other way around. Which simply means that your body is sensing your surroundings (+ inner feelings) and sending way more information into your brain than what is coming down to you body from your conscious mind.
So again this explained to me why you can’t just think your way out of an emotion or a habit or an experience. The body needs to complete certain cycles in order to let go of an emotion and if these cycles are not completed, the emotions stay underneath waiting to be felt, recognised and expressed.
Connecting with your body means that you create space for whatever is there to be seen, felt and expressed. Bringing safety into our bodies means that we can let go of the survival mode (anxiety, overwhelm and stress) and operate from a more calm state of being. This is very helpful especially when we are trying to do things that are out of our comfort zone. When you get familiar with your own nervous system capacity (the level of stress/challenges/change you can take on at a time) you can proceed towards your goals with the right intensity. And in order to know this, you want to be able to read the cues that your body sends to you. To recognise when and how the stress shows up in your body. To be able to pause when your body is telling you to slow down or rest.
When you get familiar with your own nervous system capacity (the level of stress/challenges/change you can take on at a time) you can proceed towards your goals with the right intensity.
So I included body work and connecting with your body into my approach and found this piece to be the final missing link. And my approach now is quite different from the traditional way to wellbeing as my goal is to get you to understand your body and get to know yourself. To get you to be the healer for your own body so that you will start to trust that your body will tell you the answers you need to know:
What makes things challenging for you?
When do you need to rest and how much?
What kind of diet/exercise/habits suit you the best?
What kind of goal motivates you?
What stops you from achieving the changes?
How can you support your own wellbeing?
And this means that you get to know yourself on a deeper level and start to understand why certain habits are part of your current lifestyle. What are they currently providing for you? And then you can fill the need behind the habit and change them, without the control or overwhelm.
This also means that my approach is not about quick fixes and goals but long term support and permanent lifestyle changes. It's about really understanding the root causes and driving factors for you.
