A mindfulness perspective on stress, sleep, and reconnecting with the body.
If you’ve been feeling anxious, stretched, or struggling to sleep lately, I want to say this clearly up front:
The problem isn’t you.
Life is….well, lifey. Things happen. Challenges arrive whether invited or not. In fact, the only time you can truly guarantee you’ll avoid stress is when you’re six-feet under (and even then, who knows!).
The problem isn’t you
And yet, so many of us are telling ourselves that if we’re not coping well, we must be doing something wrong.
We’re not.
We’re living in a world that prizes doing. Hyper-productivity. Twenty-four-seven producing, achieving, pushing, optimising.
A world that keeps us busy, switched on, often without much space to pause, rest or simply be. It’s no wonder our nervous systems are fried and we wake at 3am tangled in our sheets, teeth a-grinding.
Most of the time we’re living in our heads – planning, analysing, ticking things off, often at the expense of listening to what’s happening in our bodies.
When we live like this, we’re only living a half-life.
Mind and body – two sides of the same coin
Somewhere along the way (particularly in Western thinking), the mind and body got split into two separate things.
Descartes famously said, “I think, therefore I am.” This reflected a very top-down way of seeing ourselves, where the body (if it was even considered) was seen as slave to the mind, and if we could just control our thoughts, everything else would fall into line.
We now know – from a wide range of scientific research, and from what many other cultures and traditions have recognised for centuries – that it doesn’t really work like that.
Around 80% of the information we take in from the world travels from the body up to the mind, not the other way around. Our bodies are constantly sending us information about safety, stress, fatigue, comfort, connection. And all of that shapes how we think and feel.
Mind and body aren’t separate systems. They’re deeply intertwined.
The Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh playfully corrected Descartes with the phrase, “I breathe, therefore I am.”
A reminder that our existence isn’t primarily a thinking activity – it’s a living, breathing, embodied one.
It’s a reminder that we don’t just live from the neck up!
What does calm actually feel like?
Here’s a question I often invite people to explore:
What does calm and ease feel like in my body?
Many of us are so used to running on adrenaline that stillness can feel unfamiliar – even uncomfortable. We rest only once everything is finished (which, of course, it never is).
We ask ourselves: Have I worked enough to deserve rest?
Rather than the far more helpful question: Have I rested enough to do my best work?
Rest isn’t something you earn once everything’s done. It’s something you need along the way.
Reconnecting with the body
One of the very first things we do in mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) is to reconnect with the body, through gentle movement and a practice called the body scan.
The body scan builds something called interoception – the ability to turn your attention inward and notice the sensations and signals in your body.
It sounds simple. And it is, But it can also be surprisingly profound.
When practised regularly, research shows that this kind of awareness is linked with lower anxiety and greater wellbeing. Not because we’re fixing or forcing anything – but because we’re tuning back in.
A short practice you might like to try
If you’re curious, here’s a very brief way to explore this for yourself:
- Find a quiet, comfortable place
- Set a timer for 3–5 minutes
- Let your gaze soften or close your eyes
- Take a few gentle breaths, down into the belly
Then slowly bring your attention through the body.
Start at the head.
What do you notice there?
Tightness? Softness? Heaviness? Lightness?
Then move your attention down into the neck and shoulders.
Then into the arms.
The torso.
Down through the legs.
All the way to the feet.
You might notice areas of tension softening on their own when you bring attention to them – but you’re not trying to relax or change anything.
You’re simply noticing.
Finding our way back to balance
As we learn to notice what’s happening in the body, we often become better at recognising when we’re tipping out of balance – and at responding a little earlier, and a little more kindly.
The body is always in the present moment. When we bring attention to the body, the mind naturally follows. And from that place, things tend to feel more manageable.
Perhaps most importantly, we begin to meet our experience – just as it is – with a bit more care and compassion.
If you’re curious to explore this kind of practice further, you can find details of the mindfulness courses we offer here.
View our courses
Jan