The human body is absolutely amazing. We forget how many processes are going on simultaneously – digestion, metabolism, respiration, cell, muscle, tissue repair etc. Our body is constantly working 24/7 and sometimes it seems that people have a mind/body disconnect. It’s as if we leave the body to take care of itself while we get on with our lives – work, family, etc. If there’s an ache or pain, have some tablets and leave the body to it.

But the mind and body are intimately connected. Your cells, muscles and so on ‘listen’ to your every thought and emotion. For example, research has shown that when athletes visualise running a race, their muscles fire as if they are running the race. The body does what the mind wants.

In times of stress or emotional upheaval, we can use our body as a rubbish bin – eating unhealthily, drinking too much and not caring what affect this has on our health. Not only food, but every thought and feeling has an effect on your health and wellbeing. With the media around us, it’s easy not to like your size, your shape, your legs/arms not being perfect. All these things lead to lowering our health, sometimes blaming the body for how awful we feel about ourselves.

But especially with the past year, start to appreciate your body and how it always tries to maintain your health. As you start to appreciate it, you can talk to your body and cells and thank them for the amazing job they do every day. Think of the parts of your body you like and appreciate them – focus on the positive and start to feel that connection again.

Your body is waiting for you to “recognise” it’s there and speak with it so that you can start your journey to an holistic awareness that everything is connected. Start a dialogue where you work with your body to eat the right foods, exercise and so raise your health and wellbeing.

As an example, since lockdown last year, I’ve taken up running outside. Every time I finish a run, I thank my body, my cells, muscles, heart, respiratory system etc. for being so healthy and wonderful that we can do this 🙂

Start to connect and talk to your body – if you did as much as it does wouldn’t you want to be appreciated and thanked? 🙂