Why the mind-body connection is like weekend traffic

*HONK* *HONK* *HONK*

Do you feel stuck in the middle of a never ending weekend traffic jam?

You know that frustrating feeling when you're stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic trying to get out of town for the weekend, and the opposite lanes are nearly empty?

That's what our mind-body connection looks like:

80-90% of the traffic is traveling from our body to our brain (somato-psychic)
10-20% of the traffic is traveling from our brain to our body (psycho-somatic)

What does that mean?

Well, there's a long-held debate in psychology about whether thoughts give rise to feelings or feelings give rise to thoughts. In other words, do I feel sad because I think sad thoughts, or do I think sad thoughts because I feel sad?

The answer, like most things in life, is both. It's a feedback loop that reinforces itself.

But given the flow of traffic, it's safe to say that:

The feelings in our body are carrying a lot more information up to our brain than our conscious thoughts are sending back to our body.

So many interventions in popular psychology rely on changing our thoughts while so few focus on processing the massive traffic jam of feelings and sensations that most of us are carrying around like a weekend trip from hell.

But here's the good news! We get into traffic jams because the flow of traffic is constantly changing and the roads can't adjust. But the ratio of mind-body traffic is always the same, so we can resolve the backlog by building stronger somato-psychic pathways and becoming a more efficient traffic conductor.

When our nervous system is able to handle the flow of somato-psychic information (nervous system regulation), it makes it easier to take a step back and get some distance from the flood of feelings and sensations that might otherwise overwhelm us.

This, in turn, allows us to make conscious choices and put that 10-20% of psycho-somatic traffic to it's best use (self regulation).

Mindful movement in any form - such as yoga asanas or a meditative martial art - is particularly powerful. Do you have a favorite method that helps you?