Calming the Body - by Ben Harper

Our bodies often store unprocessed stress. Think of the tight shoulders, or the stress headache you might get. Others experience stress in their stomachs, or in the tightness of the chest. Our bodies and brains are very closely linked. And there is increasing evidence that our physical health is improved or compromised by our mental health. (the other way around may also be true, but today we focus on things being this way around!)

Reading the body for signs of stress, can help us to be more aware of it, and being more aware of it, can help us then to address it. Addressing it may involve working to remove the stress, doing calming activities or simply noticing, naming and accepting that this is how we are feeling.

Meeting the Body where it’s at

Another approach to addressing what the body is telling us is to start by meeting our body where it’s at, and then working with it to bring it to a calmer place.

So if we notice our shoulders are tense, we tense them more, before releasing them…

  • If we notice ourselves feeling agitated and restless, we engage in something active, before slowing the pace down gradually…

  • If we notice our breathe is short and shallow, we breathe more intentionally like this, before gradually changing it to longer and deeper breaths.

This approach is about coming alongside your body, being with your body, meeting it where it’s at.

By being alongside it, you become more able to accompany it, and guide it to a more healthy place. Think of it being like someone who runs alongside another runner in order to help the runner run at a good pace for the race they’re running, encouraging, showing them how to run a bit faster or slower than they are doing.

Meeting our body in this way is a compassionate response to a body that’s reacting to external circumstances.

This may work too with bigger changes we want to make for our health.

  • Stopping smoking may start by slowly reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke and allowing your body to slowly get used to less nicotine.

  • Reducing your salt intake might involve reducing this by a little bit each week. Starting to run more may start by gradually increasing your walking speed by a little bit each day (the NHS couch to 5k programme is based on this principle).

Sometimes big, radical changes are needed, but sometimes meeting your body where it’s at can be helpful.

TRY THIS …

  1. Take a moment now to consider what your body is telling you…

  2. Accept what’s happening.

  3. Move in accordance with what’s going on (walk, tense, scrunch, breathe.)

  4. Gradually change the pace to bring it to a place of greater calm

Tuning into our what our body is telling us, and responding to what it needs is known as attunement. Think about tuning a car, tuning in a radio; it’s about making fine adjustments so that things work are able to work at their optimum.