Connecting all the hard things
“If one didn’t know better one might think each of those things existed in its own silo. Unaffected by anything else. That is simply not true. When it comes to the human body there is always some kind of ripple effect down to the smallest cell whenever we do anything.”
- Ericka Thomas
Transcript
Ep 190
Connecting all the hard things
One of the most powerful tools we have to build resilience and overcome chronic stress and trauma is connection. It’s the first thing that is sacrificed in the face of stress injury and yet it is the number one thing we need if we’re going to heal.
In health and wellness, connection has become an overused meaningless word. Just like the words wellness and health. Our work IN today is a deep dive into some of the less obvious meanings of connection and how we can use it beyond the obvious to get and stay healthier physically, mentally and emotionally.
On the surface if I say connection is important for health and wellbeing, what does that mean to you?
For me, I immediately picture human connection. Going out with friends, having some meaningful relationships with people. Of course those are connections. But there are so many more connections that we can make that can take our physical, mental and emotional health to the next level.
Today I want to look at some of the more subtle connections that can give us exponential health improvements.
Over the past few episodes we’ve been discussing doing hard things when it comes to movement & exercise, nutrition, and sleep in order to influence adaptations in our overall health. The first connection I want to make is that physical connection. An understanding and awareness that every system in our body is connected to every other system. They all work together and are influenced by each other to give us what we know of as our health status.
The connection here is how we eat influences how we sleep and how we move, How we move influences how we eat and sleep. How we sleep influences how we eat and move.
Now throw in how we feel emotionally and how we think intellectually and the things we believe and value and we get an even more complex network of influencers if you will on our overall health.
If one didn’t know better one might think each of those things existed in its own silo. Unaffected by anything else. That is simply not true. When it comes to the human body there is always some kind of ripple effect down to the smallest cell whenever we do anything. Every walk we take, every bite of food or sip of water, every nap in the sun or night on the town it all affects our body.
This physical connection to the body is a critical part of our health. Most people when they talk about their health they’re thinking about their physical health. Are they sick or not sick, in pain or not in pain, strong or weak, active or sedentary. And all of that only scratches the surface of what health is. Because that physical piece doesn’t necessarily address the mental or emotional aspects of ourselves. We tend to ignore those pieces or misunderstand their connection to the physical.
There is something called the biopsychosocial model of health.
“The Biopsychosocial model was first conceptualized by George Engel in 1977, suggesting that to understand a person's medical condition it is not simply the biological factors to consider, but also the psychological and social factors [1].
-Bio (physiological pathology)
-Psycho (thoughts emotions and behaviors such as psychological distress, fear/avoidance beliefs, current coping methods and attribution)
-Social (socio-economical, socio-environmental, and cultural factors such as work issues, family circumstances and benefits/economics)
This is a far more holistic approach to health in my opinion yet to this day most of our modern medical providers insist on mind body separation. This disconnect.
I’m not sure why it is such a hard thing for medicine to look at a human being as a whole, integrated system, but it is.
Anyway what we as lay people who are becoming savvy participants in their health care need to wrap our heads around is that all of our systems are interconnected. The idea that everything that goes on in your body is affected by and affects everything else is daunting but it’s actually really good news because that means there are a million and one pathways that we can improve our experience in this body. And it all counts. It all makes a difference.
Things like micro nutrient balance for example. Something as simple as getting optimal amounts of vitamin D can improve your overall energy, mood, cholesterol profiles and more. Zinc, iron and magnesium are also big (and common) deficiencies that can have huge effects. And they aren’t in your typical yearly blood panel, but should be so ask for them. And then follow up with the question on normal range v. optimal.
Our biology is interconnected. That’s the bio part.
It stands to reason that it isn’t ONLY our biology that is connected. Recent pain science has shown us the power of our mental and emotional health on that biology as well as the power of our biology on our mental and emotional health. One only has to look at placebo studies to see that. That’s why we use placebo studies for drug efficacy because for a drug to be effective it needs to prove it’s better than the placebo effect.
These are the kind of connections that can make a difference in our overall health and wellbeing if we include them in our tool box.
Things that improve our mental and emotional health. They are going to look different for everyone. I’m not only talking about seeing a therapist but that might be a piece of it for you and can definitely help get you started.
I’m talking about finding activities that lift your spirit, bring you joy, that give you purpose and in which you find some kind of personal fulfillment.
Activities that allow you to stay “connected” to yourself and your community who can then also support you. Your tribe so to speak.
This can be a hard thing for people but even introverts need friends. Human beings don’t thrive in isolation physically, mentally or emotionally for too long. This is part of why the lock down was so detrimental especially to our young people.
We all have lows and highs in our lives. We all know that. Cultivating a greater awareness of our community is important because of how that affects our mental and emotional states and how those states affect our physical/biological health. The people we surround ourselves with can have a great influence on how healthy we are for good or bad. Not all communities are supportive.
That's something to think about. Who are your connections? Who do you surround yourself with and how do they influence your choices? Your behavior? Part of connecting is fitting in but it’s not always for the best. That’s something for you to decide for yourself.
Now of course…It doesn’t help when we get so many conflicting health statistics.
For example the red wine and resveratrol thing. They say red wine is good for you because there are epidemiological studies on people in areas of the world who drink red wine live longer.The theory was that it was the resveratrol in the wine. It’s counter intuitive because alcohol is a cancer causing toxin to the body. Alcohol is poison. When they actually did studies on resveratrol it was not shown to have any clinically significant benefit for longevity and not only that it actually blunted the effects of exercise. So what’s going on with the red wine thing?
Well the theory is that in these countries red wine is consumed in social settings. And it’s the social aspect of the behavior that is the bigger contributing factor to longer life and health spans for these communities.
So what can we take from that idea?
For me that means we need each other. We need to be there for each other. And we can use our community connections to support our own personal internal physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing.
The link between these external connections and our internal bodily health connections is our nervous system. It is our nervous system that is constantly reading the environment. Both our external and internal environments because they are both equally important for our survival.
If our internal environment is deficient in some nutrient or under attack by some toxin or chronic illness or pain it raises the alert status throughout the body. If our home has a lot of conflict or our job is stressful or toxic or we have lived a life of abuse and neglect, or any other number of traumas,coming from the external environment the nervous system can get switched on and adapt to stay on. That will change every physiologic system in the body and it will affect mental and emotional response to the world around us. It will affect our relationships with other people making connection harder.
It can become a very tangled web.
Once you become aware of some of these connections Even though they can seem super complicated, you can start to untangle them. There’s no right or wrong place to start. You can’t get it wrong if your purpose is to feel better. Start where you are. With one thing. Maybe that’s moving more. A simple walk after every meal can work magic on your blood sugar response. Maybe adding more fiber or protein into your day. Even something as simple as cooking for yourself instead of fast food, that’s huge. Prioritizing sleep might be a good place to start. Or giving yourself some time to do something fun with friends once a week.
Whatever you choose, it’s never too late to start. You don’t need to change everything everywhere all at once. I guarantee it will make a difference. Doing the hard things are always worth it.
Thanks for listening today!
If you're looking for ways to handle the effects of stress, physically, mentally and emotionally through the body head over to savagegracecoaching.com/theworkin you’ll find all the show notes for this and other episodes plus lots of free resources. And if you’re in a place where you are ready for more and you live in the Dayton Ohio area I’m taking private clients for trauma informed yoga and trauma release exercise in person and online. So you can book a discovery call and we can have a real life conversation. And of course I’d be ever so grateful if you would take a moment to like and subscribe to this podcast wherever you’re listening.
Thanks again everyone and as always stop working out and start working IN.
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Hey there!
I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a health coach and trauma informed yoga professional bringing real world resilience and healing to main street USA.
I offer trauma release + yoga + wellness education for groups and individuals…regular people like you.
Book a call to learn how I can help.