When people talk about the mind body connection, we get the sense that they are speaking of some spiritual thing. Yoga was definitely the first place I really became aware of this concept. It was something I was always trying to work for. I needed to stay present, calm, and focused to find this Mind Body Connection. While at Bikram Yoga teacher training, this abstract idea all of a sudden made sense. The Mind Body Connection isn’t an abstract idea. The Mind Body Connection is simply your spinal cord. We all have a spinal cord. What we don’t all have, is the power to control our own bodies to the degree we want to and that is how our Mind Body Connection deepens.
This is a simple explanation of what the spinal cord controls. Imagine if they listed the individual muscles, not the muscle groups. Then Imagine if the listed the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves and what they do!….I bet you would take better care of your spine!
Let’s break this down to something simple, drinking your cup of coffee in the morning. In order to do this, your brain needs to tell you Aductor Pollicis, and your Flexor Carpi Radialis to grab the handle of the cup. It also needs to tell those muscles HOW tightly to grab it, because I am guessing you don’t clench your cup as hard as possible. Then a combination of the Biceps Brachii and Brachioradialis need to move your arm, hand, and cup up towards your face so your mouth can take a sip. But before that happens your Pronator Teres and Protator Quadratus get a message to activate to a certain extent so you actually get liquid in your mouth, but don’t spill the liquid down the front of your face and chest burning your body. And all that happens before the complex facial muscles take over to help you swallow! All of that to take one sip, and I bet you didn’t even know you had those muscles!
Now imagine the complexity it takes to do a Standing Bow Pulling Pose. I guarantee that person’s mind body connection is a little more developed than your average Joe’s!
The good news, is we can all deepenour mind body connection. Even those lacking control of parts of their body due to inactivity or a traumatic event can get more use of what they already had by consciously thinking about the movements they are trying to do. Science doesn’t fully understand it yet, but these “miracles” where someone gains use of limbs they weren’t suppose to gain use of usually occur because the person WANTS it so badly. I bet that person who WANTS it so badly is thinking about what it would FEEL like to move those limbs, over and over again. Why wait until you don’t have it to strengthen it?
