Small Bites by Annabelle Zinser

Author:Annabelle Zinser [Zinser, Annabelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Parallax Press

18

The Body Mind Connection

OUR BODIES AND MINDS affect each other. They are not separate. Calming the body calms the mind and calming the mind calms the body. The breath is the bridge between body and mind. Conscious breathing brings the wandering mind back to the body and we become truly present here and now.

It’s good to pause and become still at various times throughout the day in order to feel your whole body taking a deep in-breath and out-breath. This wonderful practice allows you to become fully aware of the state of your mind. In this stillness, you can mindfully observe your emotional reaction to the mental formation that’s taking place and see how it’s being expressed in your body.

You may feel how fear makes you freeze, shake, break out in a sweat, or constrict your throat. You might observe how feelings of depression make your body feel heavy or lethargic. You may notice how joyful and happy feelings give you a sense of lightness and ease. You may also experience how feelings of equanimity and serenity make your steps much more stable as you walk.

Understanding the relationship between the mind and the body can help you recognize and put a stop to a habitual reaction. You can notice beneficial mental formations, those that provide peace and happiness, and see how they manifest in your body. You can invite them, like welcome guests, to stay as long as possible. You can also perceive unwholesome mental formations, those that will cause suffering for yourself and others. You can see how they affect your body. You can embrace them with compassion and help their transformation so they won’t make you suffer any longer. You can also notice neutral mental formations and feel them in your body.

If you can detect the effects of different mental formations in your body, you have a good set of tools to help you identify which qualities you want to nourish and which you want to transform. This practice can help you to stay open, be curious about life, and find joy in everything you encounter in yourself and around you.

The following guided meditation can help us to understand the body and mind connection:

Breathing in, I’m aware I’m breathing in.

Breathing out, I’m aware I’m breathing out.

Breathing in, I feel the whole length of my in-breath.

Breathing out, I feel the whole length of my out-breath.

Breathing in, I’m aware of my whole body.

Breathing out, I calm my body.

Breathing in, calming my body helps calm the functions of my mind.

Breathing out, joy emerges.

Breathing in, I’m aware of the mental formation of joy.

Breathing out, I feel the joy in my body.

Breathing in, I’m aware of the mental formation of calmness.

Breathing out, I feel calmness in my body.

Breathing in, I’m aware of the mental formation of despair.

Breathing out, I feel how despair is expressed in my body, and I embrace it with compassion.

Breathing in, I’m aware of the mental formation of fear.

Breathing out, I feel how fear is expressed in my body, and I embrace it with compassion.

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