In today’s mile-a-minute world, it’s easy to focus on the external solutions for our health. It’s easy to see why, with each new and exciting fad, we feel we become one step closer to this almighty “magic bullet” solution. The problem is whether it’s new diets, exercise routines, supplements, and anything else that you can think of is that we’re actually overlooking one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal: our mindset.
The way we think, feel, and perceive ourselves, as well as our challenges, has a major influence on our well-being. They say mindset is key, but it’s more than just a fluffy catch phrase; it’s critical, particularly when it comes to resetting and optimizing our health, so why is this?
The Mind-Body Connection
The mind and body are not separate entities operating independently, they are deeply connected. Modern research has shown that our thoughts and emotions can have a direct impact on our immune system, hormonal balance, and even our gene expression. There’s as much of a link between mind and body in weight loss as there is between mindset and mental health, and even our abilities to deal with external stresses.
Look at someone who has run a marathon, they will tell you that getting over the finish line has nothing to do with replenishing your glycogen stores, but learning how to get over that biggest hurdle of all, the one within yourself. When you look at it from the other side, chronic stress and negative thinking patterns can have a major impact on our sleep, increase inflammation, and weaken the body’s natural defenses. A healthy mindset isn’t just about feeling better in our heads, but it’s about setting the stage for true lasting health.
This connection is particularly evident in terms of weight loss and lifestyle change. For decades, the focus was on a very simple model: calories in versus calories out. However, a calorie from one item of food is not the same as another, particularly when we’re delving into the weeds of things like macronutrients, however, our beliefs, self-talk, and emotional state can make or break our efforts in terms of maintaining a healthy weight.
For example, when our stress or anxiety is high, this means hormones like cortisol become more freely flowing in the body, which increases cravings for unhealthy foods, but also encourages the storage of fats, particularly around the abdomen. When we see practices that foster mindfulness, like meditation, visualization, or strategies that focus on cognition, such as CBT, we can help ourselves become more aware of our habits, reducing emotional eating and supporting more sustainable weight management strategies.
What Does It Take to Reset Your Health Through Mindset
It all begins with self-awareness and setting an intention. Lots of people feel a great sense of achievement through discipline and deprivation. We’ve seen through spiritual practices like Ramadan that it’s not just about starvation, but about cultivating a far more resilient mindset.
When people adopt a growth mindset, they are more likely to stick with healthy behaviors. We can be incredibly self-limiting through self-preservation. That desire for comfort is at odds with a growth mindset, which is the belief that our abilities and habits can be developed through effort and grit. When we overcome setbacks, we’re going to experience greater satisfaction along the way, and this approach transforms obstacles into opportunities for learning rather than reasons for giving up.
The Role of Mind-Body Practices
Mind-body practices like mindfulness, tai chi, yoga, and all of those “hippie-esque” practices we’re aware of are not just alternative therapies, but are actually evidence-based methods that can enhance our physical and mental health. It’s about finding the right one that fits your lifestyle and, of course, feels good.
All of these practices promote nervous system balance, reduce stress, and, more importantly, improve our emotional regulation. If we engage more regularly in mind-body exercise, we can change the way our brains process emotions and stress, making us more resilient to life’s challenges, which makes a big difference, particularly in a world where stress rates are high and we’re constantly being bombarded with messages and encouraged to multitask.
When we talk more about the fact that conditions like ADHD are being over diagnosed, it’s not necessarily the fact that we’re over diagnosing them, but ADHD may very well be a symptom of what the modern world is, which is why it’s even more important to double down on mindfulness and focus on reducing the symptoms that can come along with ADHD and stress. For example, the stress hormone cortisol reduces immune function and increases inflammation.
The Importance of Cultivating a Positive and Flexible Mindset
It’s important to recognize that mindset is not about “thinking yourself healthy,” but it’s about making sure that your thoughts, emotions, and actions are all aligned in a way to support your goals. When on any health journey, we have to remember that there are inevitable ups and downs. There is a greater focus on perfectionism than ever, however, this all-or-nothing mindset is a common trap that can sabotage any type of progress. This means setting realistic expectations, celebrating small victories, and not ignoring setbacks, but reframing them as temporary.
When you feel that change is possible, you feel better. For those people who feel like they need to make a change in their life, that first little step can put a spring in it because they feel like they are finally doing something. That’s why it’s about shifting these narratives. Your brain, in many ways, is not able to tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined, and when we take the time to practice the right mindset, we harness the power of the mind-body connection, we benefit our health, manage stress, and ultimately achieve our goals.
Fixing our stress can be done in good and bad ways, and our mindset could very well be the missing link that transforms our health from the inside out, rather than the outside in.
