The body is a key to a healthy mind, in part because it always reliably shows us how things truly are. The vast majority of physical illnesses are in some way connected to how we think and how we live. Through working with the mind, we can greatly influence how we feel in our body — but it also works the other way around: by working with the body, we can also heal and transform our psyche. The body and mind are simply interconnected, and their synergy offers much deeper and more effective possibilities than when we approach them separately.
The body speaks its own language.
For many physical illnesses, the same principles apply as for illnesses of the soul. In most cases, the body is simply telling us that it is receiving too little of what it needs and too much of what harms it. Holistic medicine has long known that food is our key medicine — and can equally be our primary poison. We can heal most illnesses purely through healthy nutrition and lifestyle. Even in the case of infectious and hereditary diseases, we can at least improve their course and prognosis this way. Beyond all of this, we can also significantly influence our psychological well-being, as it is directly connected to the healthy functioning of all organs, especially the condition of our gut microbiome.
There is a clear and direct connection between mental and physical health. The two constantly influence each other. How we feel, both physically and mentally, reflects how we treat our body on both a material and experiential level — and these two levels overlap in many ways. This allows us to use the body to receive perfect feedback about situations, relationships, and ourselves — provided we know how to listen to it. Some physical and emotional states simply need to be heard and will then subside on their own. Others need to be expressed and processed. Still others need to be unblocked and healed to enable recovery, transformation, and personal growth.
Once we understand our body and build a friendly relationship with it, it can become our partner in implementing any changes related to mental health and well-being. Sometimes this may mean simply learning how to breathe properly. Other times, it may be beneficial to incorporate relaxation activities or outlets for releasing tension. We can even retrain the body to respond differently in certain situations — for example, not to trigger a stress reaction where it is not appropriate.
How can we work with this?
For many in the Western world, even learning to listen to the body can be a challenge. We are so trapped in our heads and thoughts that the body often feels like little more than a vehicle for the brain. Yet giving conscious attention to the body and its sensations is healing in itself.
The body always signals when something is wrong, and it is not necessary to wait for a major illness to notice. It is enough to stop from time to time and consciously observe how we feel in our body. The body often sends us information about a situation much earlier than our conscious mind catches on. Tightness in the stomach, shallow breathing, clenched jaws, hunched shoulders — there are many ways the body signals inner distress. We often don’t even notice when our body starts to tense with anxiety. But once we learn to sense and work with these signals, we can prevent them from escalating further and, over the long term, learn to live in a way that allows us to feel well most of the time.
A frequent challenge is learning to accept the states and feelings we don’t particularly like — for example, our sadness, our pain, our imperfections, our failures, or our fears. Many approaches talk about the need to love yourself and your body, but this can be somewhat misleading. We do not have to force ourselves to love all these things — but we can learn to respect them. We can learn not to run away, but to accept and be with everything that our body is telling us. Then we can create a way to live with all aspects of ourselves in inner integrity, self-respect, and dignity.
There are many well-known and lesser-known methods for working with the body, and it is up to us to find one that suits us. We can start with the simplest things, such as paying attention to what we eat and whether it truly serves us. We can also learn to breathe more consciously. But we can just as well, through work with movement, voice, or breath, access deeply buried traumas and allow them to be expressed and healed. The body carries the memory of all emotional wounds we have suffered in life, and through the integration of bodywork and mindwork, we can help heal them.
In Eastern teachings, one concept often appears, suggesting that our personality, experience of the world, and decision-making are anchored in three different areas of the body. The head is only one of them. The other two are the heart and the belly. You can read about them in the following article .
Three levels of perception, experience, and decision-making
The level of the head — meaning logical and rational thinking and decision-making — is placed first in our society. It has brought us many benefits, especially in terms of material well-being and safety. However, it seems that in this perfectly calculated world of ours, people are becoming less and less happy. As if something is missing. As if our overgrown rationality is starting to suffocate us. It’s no longer enough to simply be — we feel we must be better, more correct, more efficient, have everything figured out, and make the “right” decisions.
But what if there isn’t always a better or worse option? Life is full of uncertainty and unexpected twists. How are we supposed to know what to do, how to decide, what to believe in? What can we rely on in life?
And why do we always have to be so stuck in our heads?
According to Eastern teachings, true wisdom and a happy life don’t come from intelligence or cleverness — they can’t be invented or calculated. They lie more in the ability to achieve a balance between reason, emotions, and instincts, because all three are equally important to us. It’s a way Eastern wisdom teaches us how to live in harmony and inner integrity.
Living in integrity means including the full complexity of our experience and being able to connect it into a balanced whole. That’s why Eastern wisdom doesn’t work with thinking alone — the head — but also with the heart, which relates to emotional experience and how we relate to ourselves, to others, and to the world. And with the belly, which holds our instincts and embodied experience.
A content and balanced life lies in the ability to bring all three of these layers into harmony — to be in tune with who we truly are and what we truly feel. It’s about listening to and cooperating with ourselves and with the world around us in wholeness, with respect for all the forces that shape our life space.
When a person can’t decide on something or can’t understand a situation, they can try asking their heart — How does this feel to me? And they can also ask their belly — What does my instinct say about this? The art of listening to your heart and belly is a way to reach inner (and later outer) harmony. Sometimes this requires quieting the head and deliberately tuning in to the body. Listening to what the heart and belly are telling us — how we feel in a situation and what our gut response is. When we manage to make decisions and live in such a way that we feel good on all three levels, we are walking the path of inner balance and embodied wisdom.
P.S.: Did you know that the heart has an estimated 40,000 neurons capable of carrying long-term memory? Or that our gut microbiome greatly influences how we feel in life? It’s slowly becoming reality that modern science, through its research, is confirming this ancient theory of the wisdom of the heart, belly, and head.