#56 Harnessing the power of your mind-body connection

November 12, 2024

In this episode, we dive deep into the fascinating concept of the mind-body connection and its profound impact on athletic performance. We explore how our thoughts and emotions influence our physical capabilities and share practical strategies to strengthen this vital connection. From mindfulness and visualization techniques to understanding the science behind the connection, this episode is a must-listen for athletes looking to elevate their performance and overall well-being.

Episode Transcript

(upbeat music)

Okay, picture this with me.

It's game day, right?

And you are there,

minding your own business.

You kind of tense, sure,

but you're mainly excited

and filled with anticipation off today.

And then out of a sudden, this thought creeps into your mind

that goes something like, I think I could have trained more.

I could have prepared better for today.

Seeing the other team now, I'm not sure I'm ready for this.

Actually, it would be a miracle if I won this today.

So you have these thoughts, and out of a sudden,

you can tell like your heart starts racing

about faster, but harder.

You start getting antsy, there's this unease,

like almost panic, creeping,

inching through your body,

and you can't sit anymore.

You have this nervous energy.

You start sweating and,

you don't know what to do with yourself.

That's a good example of the mind body connection

or something that happened in your mind

had an effect on your body.

And my body connection is pretty much that.

It's the relationship between our mental processes

and our physical processes,

our mental quote unquote,

"buddy" and our physical body.

And that is what I wanna talk about with you today.

It's a beautiful topic, it's a fun topic,

it's an obvious topic, we all know about it,

but are we very intentional about it?

That's the question, right?

So welcome to the healthy & aligned podcast.

My name is Lisa, I am a mindset

and innovation coach for athletes and athletic teams.

So I work basically with anyone in the athletic sports world

to make sure that their mindset is

in a way that supports them to be successful,

to reach peak performance,

and especially to create a sustainable career

in the sports industry,

and by doing that, creating a legacy.

So I'm excited that you are here.

I love the topic of mind body connection,

it's very simple, it's very straightforward,

but it's so powerful.

And I have mentioned it, maybe not by using these words,

but it's a fact in probably most of the episodes

that I have recorded for the healthy & aligned podcast.

So it's like, it's that fundamental.

So I thought it would be time to kind of like bring it up

to the surface,

and have a bit more intention about it,

and just a bit more understanding of how things work,

because then that will allow us, you know,

the more we understand, the easier it is to manage

our performance, to manage our mind and our emotions

to be a peak performance, high performance athlete, right?

'Cause that's the ultimate goal.

Now, I don't think I need to explain to you really

why it is important for athletes

to understand the mind body connection,

because I mean, obviously, it's the bridge

between mental processes and the physical state,

and athletes are physical performers, right?

You are a physical performer.

So anything that affects your physical state

kind of has to be important to you, right?

So that's it, that's why my body connection

is so crucial for athletes.

And to explain how it works,

I wanna look a little bit into the neurobiology behind it.

So we all know that our brain is the master commander,

command center of our body, where everything happens,

and it also controls our nervous system, right?

Our nervous system is basically how we, well,

let me say it differently.

Our nervous system defines our state,

how we feel and experience the world.

So nervous system is related to fight or flight, for example,

or to rest and digest.

So there is a par, there is a sympathetic

and a parasympathetic nervous system.

And both of them are super important.

Both of them are great, like we need to both of them,

and we're gonna make use of both of them,

and they're always balancing each other out.

Like, he cannot be fighting and resting at the same time, right?

You can only do one or the other.

So it's important that we maintain a balance

between both of them, because as I said, both of them are important.

So that's the nervous system, right?

And depending on where we are, in which state we currently are,

we see the world differently.

So if I'm in a fight or flight state,

I will see more things as a threat, for example,

because that's what my mind at is at, right?

That's what I'm focusing on, like,

ooh, what could come at me now?

Or maybe any additional to-do that comes on your list

feels like such an extra burden,

and it's jeopardizing everything else.

You know, like, the view that we have is very different

when we are in that state versus when we're super chill.

We might not recognize every threat, actually,

that is coming our way, or we might not take things

seriously enough, or, you know, and I'm going to the extremes,

of course, but they're there.

So you want to make sure that you can be sort of like,

and be dexterous with the nervous system.

You want to be able to use both sides equally,

because they are equally important.

And know when to activate which part, right?

We're in a competition.

You want that fight or flight focus and commitment

and extra energy that is, you know, unlocked.

And when you're in recovery,

you want to be in the rest and digest phase.

You want to chill, or even after a competition,

you want to be able to calm down, to let go of this,

to give your body time to recover,

time to heal from all these strenuous things

that you did before.

So both important and both something that you can manage actively,

right, if you know how.

Now, let's go back to the mind body connection.

So what happens if I have a thought?

A thought triggers very often an emotion.

And an emotion is then what triggers the body

to send out a signal to release specific hormones

in our body.

And those hormones have an effect on our physical state.

So to make it a bit more concrete, let's say you think,

oh my god, I can't win today.

Everything's going to fail and fall apart.

And it's going to be so embarrassing.

And you start getting really anxious, right?

The example I said earlier today, you are anxious.

An anxiety triggers the brain to release stress hormones, right?

So we're going into fight or flight.

So that would be cortisol.

That would be a adrenaline that is released in your body.

And that's what makes your body prepare for action, right?

Prepare for that fight.

So your heart rate goes up, you know, your muscles get tense.

You can't sit still.

You need to start being active.

So that's just what happens, right?

So you thought something and a triggered an emotion

and that triggered a physical reaction.

Different example, let's say you have like a calming thought,

you know, you think, oh, so it's going to be fine.

You know, I'm so excited.

I was going to be good.

You know, you maybe have a feeling of gratitude

for being there and being excited about the game.

And so cool that you get to be part of this experience.

And you know, like your thoughts like that.

And that's when you feel content.

You feel peaceful, you feel calm, you feel excitement

and anticipation, all of these emotions

and the body releases the feel good hormones.

So that would be, for example, serotonin or dopamine.

And those hormones then calm your body.

And they make you feel like really, really nice in your body.

And you really calm.

And your heart rate is super like stable.

And you know, not super excited.

And yeah, so it can go, you know, like towards both parts

of the nervous system if you want.

So the concept is very straightforward, right?

Thought, emotion, physical reaction.

That's like the tick, tick, tick, tick.

Thought influences emotion, emotion influences,

physiological change in your body.

That's it.

The interesting thing is that we can also flip that.

So the my body connection, it goes both ways.

So if you have, if you change your physical state,

it will have an effect on your emotions

and those will have an effect on your thoughts.

For example, if you go and get a massage, right?

You get that.

Beautiful massage, your body gets like really soft.

Your muscles start to relax.

You know, it tends anymore.

And you then start to feel calm.

You start to feel peaceful.

You start to feel content, you know,

like those emotions could come.

And then your thoughts are very likely also

peaceful, calm, relaxing thoughts.

Like nothing, nothing exciting, you know,

nothing that would just, you know, juice you up again.

So it goes both ways.

We can start with the mind or we can start with the body.

And that is also an important thing to understand

because now when we look at how we can influence

that body connection and how we can make use

of that mind body connection,

knowing that we can come from both ways,

it's super helpful.

So let's look at coming from the body.

Let's start with that.

If you want to get out of fight of light,

for example, you want to calm down your body

and then, you know, have good, feel good emotions

and relaxing thoughts.

You could use things like I said before, massages.

You could do breath work.

You could do anything that relaxes the body.

So they could be progressive muscle relaxation.

It could be a hard bath or a shower, maybe,

maybe you want to do yoga or some extraching.

So all the things that relax the body

will then in turn relax the mind.

And of course, as I said, you can go the other way around as well.

If you're too calm for the situation

and you want to have that energy, the hype up that, you know,

you do that with your body.

So you do high energy exercises.

Maybe you go sprinting, you know, run up and down the apartment

if that's all you have, you know, do jumping jacks.

Like activate your body, activate your physical state.

Basically, get your heart rate up.

Get your, maybe break into a sweat, you know,

use all the muscles that you have.

And then your mind will be much more activated as well.

It would be, it's more awake, you're more alert,

you're more focused, you're, you know, dialed in the situation

because your body is activating that part of your nervous system.

And your thoughts will also be less about,

"Uh, I just want to chill.

I just want to lay here and relax."

And it will be more along the terms of like,

"Okay, let's do this.

Like, let's get it done."

You know, let's, you know, tackle all those to-do

or let's do that practice or whatever.

Even me, right now like hitting my fist in my open palm,

that's an activation of the body, of the physical body,

to get my emotions and my mind hyped up for action.

So it doesn't have to be the 30 minute hit workout.

That's probably too much, you know,

if that's before the practice.

It can be small things, but just use the body

to activate your emotions and your mind.

And, right, as I said, you know, use it in a way that you want it.

You want to become calm your body.

You want to be activated, activated your body.

Like sometimes I love to do some activation exercises

in the morning.

Like if I have a high time in the morning to get going,

it's always very helpful for me to just do some physical movement

to like wake my body up, wake my emotions up

and wake my mind up because of this body connection.

And the same way it goes for a wind down in the evening,

you know, like a slow maybe in yoga session

or like a stretching or a hot bath or something

will allow my system, my nervous system to calm down.

My physical body is relaxing.

My emotions are calmer, my thoughts are calmer,

and then I can, you know, potentially have a better night of sleep.

So you can just use it to your advantage.

That's it. That's, that's not simple.

And let's talk about it the other way around.

So if we use the mind to then influence the body

because as I said, it goes both ways, right?

There are specific things that we can do

to basically control, quote unquote,

control our mind to activate the body.

So one very, very important thing to do is self awareness.

Practice self awareness.

Understand the thoughts that are going through your mind.

Have an awareness of what you are thinking.

Like what are thoughts that you keep repeating

in specific situations?

Be aware of your emotions.

I just understand the inner workings of your mind pretty much.

That is always the first step

because then you can start managing that.

First step is observe, create awareness,

understand no judgment, nothing.

And then in the next step, you can say like, okay,

of these thoughts that I have,

which ones are the ones that are helping me

and which ones are the ones that are holding me back.

And then you can start working with that.

So again, if you need to be more active, you know,

and you want to get ready for competition

or activate your body in a way,

you can think thoughts that do that.

You can think about the game coming up

or the next tournament that you're facing

or how you actually did in the past practice

and you go into the memory of it.

A very, very helpful practice for this is also visualization.

So to start visualizing the next competition

or start visualizing the next practice

and make it like a visceral experience

where you activate all of your senses.

It's like you're there, you know?

And that also has an effect then again, on your body.

I have done an entire episode on the topic of visualization.

It's such a cool tool.

It is number,

to rule, which number is it?

51.

So if you want to get more into detail on visualization,

I really recommend that episode.

It explains basically how to do it, right?

And it's such an activation, again, in both directions.

So to activate your body,

or it could be a tool to also calm you down.

So you can visualize different situations

where you would have a calm, rest and digest nervous system.

Tools you can use other than visualization

or affirmations that can help you.

You could start journaling, you know,

like get your thoughts out and get like a deeper understanding

of what is happening inside your mind, inside your brain

and how you feel about specific situations.

It could be a gratitude practice, for example,

if you want to, you know, have those feel good hormones

in your body.

Any type of stress management technique is helpful.

So if you have any of those, that's perfect.

And again, like with so many other things,

we use, for example, when we talk about affirmations,

if you work with affirmations,

really make them an emotional experience,

really make them something that you feel in your body, right?

And you can practice that every day.

You can do it all the time if you want to.

And then when it matters, you can just say that affirmation

in your head or out loud, and it will have an effect immediately

on your emotions and on your physical state, right?

If that's the first time you say it,

maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, you know,

but practice those things like you practice

any other skill for your craft, for your sport.

And that's when it really matters

in the hard times and the difficult times

and the important moments, you have access to those things

without having to consciously trying to figure out

how it works again and, you know,

lose the focus on the actual competition

and be more in your mind trying to practice

some of that affirmation or something, you know?

So I really recommend that you try it out.

Try out different things, you know?

Be aware of what you need right now.

Like me right now, I need to be calm and relaxed

with a little bit of activation.

If I'm a bit too chill, I think that this podcast

is not gonna be fun to consume, right?

Like my voice is probably not gonna be animated enough,

my body language is not gonna work, you know?

So I cannot be too chill.

If I'm too excited, however,

I'll probably question everything that I say.

I will stumble over my words.

I will get upset if I say it worked wrong

or something like that, you know?

So I know exactly sort of which state I want to be in

when I record this podcast.

And before I press record, I work on that mind,

my body connection to get me to that state,

to get me activated enough, but not too activated, right?

And to be confident in my calmness as well, you know?

In my relaxation.

So every time you do something, you can practice this.

Every time you go out, every time you meet someone,

every time you are, you know, about to do something,

you can think about, okay, what's the state

that I need to be in right now?

That would be the most beneficial for this activity.

And then practice getting yourself there.

Whether it is coming from the physical perspective,

whether you come from the mind perspective

or whether it's both.

Oh, I haven't talked about both, have I?

Right?

Oh wow, okay.

So I give examples from the body perspective,

from the mind perspective,

but there is also a combination.

So if you do, for example, meditation,

that is a tool that uses the mind and the body

at the same time, for example.

Or if you do, like a guided visualization practice,

where you lay down with your body

and you're like really, you know, relaxing your body

while you are listening to some type of visualization,

for example, that would also do both.

My favorite, favorite technique of all times

is tapping, tapping is a mind body technique,

where we tap on specific points on our upper body.

So we use the physical perspective of it.

And we tap on specific points

that are connected to the nervous system.

So this is even more pinpointed.

This is even more targeted, right?

And while we tap on these points,

we say our statements, we say statements out loud

that influence then our thoughts

and our thoughts again, influence our emotions.

And we create this connection between our mind

and our body about very specific topics.

So this is a technique that uses sort of both approaches

at the same time, so it's like a combination.

And I personally love it.

I use it for pretty much everything that I do.

And yes, I also tap before I start recording my podcast

to get myself on that specific level of activation

and relaxation that I need to be.

And I upload tapping videos every Sunday

on my YouTube channel.

So if you want to try it out,

just head over to my YouTube channel.

Unless you're here already.

And just tap with me.

It's a really fun and powerful method.

So yeah, so there we have the three approaches.

Coming from the body, coming from the mind

and having a combined approach of using body

and mind simultaneously to then be in the state

where we want to be.

And that is my body connection for you.

It's, as I said earlier, in the interaction,

it's nothing super difficult, complex, complicated.

Now, it's very straightforward, it's very easy,

but it is all so powerful.

Knowing how to do this can change the game completely

for you.

It can change the way you experience life.

You experience the world, how you perform,

how you show up, how you react.

Like it, it's, it's so powerful.

Okay, let's stop it right here.

I'm so happy that you are here with me today.

If you enjoyed this, if you got any insight from this,

make sure that you subscribe so that you stay tuned

for all the future episodes that are coming up.

The next one is going to be about focus,

mastering focus and refocus for that matter.

So also a very cool topic and very important topic

for any type of athletes to understand

and to know more about.

So subscribe to the podcast or to my channel,

depending on where you consume this.

And until then, next Tuesday when we talk about focus,

I wish you a beautiful rest of your day.

(upbeat music)

[Music]

#56 Harnessing the power of your mind-body connection

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