How Stress Impacts Your Body and Mind

How Does the Mind-Body Connection Impact Mental Health and Ways to Strengthen It?

Ever wonder how closely intertwined your mental and physical health really are? In an enlightening conversation with Demetria Nickens, a certified mental health first aid instructor and trauma recovery coach, discover how the brain and body's intricate relationship affects your overall wellness. With over two decades of expertise, Demetria breaks down the psychological and physiological mechanics behind emotional regulation and bodily functions, shedding light on the undeniable bond between mind and body.

Join Demetria as she unravels the complexities of the fight, flight, or freeze response and its significant impact on health. Learn why it's critical not to suppress your emotions and how continuous stress can manifest as severe physical ailments, including autoimmune diseases. Demetria emphasizes the importance of being mindful of your emotional states and their physical manifestations, offering practical advice on better tuning into your body's signals. This episode is essential for anyone seeking to enhance their mental and physical well-being through a deeper understanding of the mind-body connection.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Dove's Inner Beauty Podcast, where we
foster emotional awareness, oneindividual at a time.
Leading the way is DemetriaNickens, a certified mental
health first aid instructor andtrauma recovery coach with over
two decades of experience infostering emotional awareness in
others by engaging their mentalhealth.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Ever wondered how your mind and body works
together to impact your mentalhealth?
Join us as we dive into thefascinating world of the
mind-body connection and exploresimple practices to keep both
in sync.
Welcome back everyone.
This is Garfield Bone, cohoslash producer, back in the
studio with Demetria Nickens.

(00:56):
Demetria, how are you doing?

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Feeling good, feeling great.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
So, demetria, how does the mind-body connection
influence our overall mentalhealth and what practices can
help strengthen this connection?

Speaker 3 (01:12):
So, when we think about mental health, people
automatically think a diagnosis,right, they all automatically
think something negative.
But the reality is our mentalhealth and our physical health
kind of work in tandem together,right?
So I'm going to get a littlenerdy here.
Science, however, right, whenwe think about the brain, you

(01:33):
know, if you've ever learnedanything about the brain in
school, you know there aredifferent segments, right,
parietal, frontal.
You know all the differentlobes, right, and each lobe of
the brain does somethingdifferent, right?
Some regulate emotions, someregulate your bodily functions,
all the things, right, and sowhen you think about that, right
, your brain is really this areawhere everything kind of is

(01:55):
moving and shaking and doing allthe things, and so those
signals that get sent to yourbrain, right there, your
physical health is connected toit, right, and your mental
health is connected to it, andso it's important that we keep
that in mind, that they're verymuch connected to one another.
Right, when our nervous systemis activated and then we're in

(02:20):
what we call like the fightflight phase, right, if we ever
heard of that, that's idea offight or flight freeze.
That's, you know, when our bodymay feel danger or fear.
Right, and so we go into thisidea of fight, flight or freeze.
Well, that's our nervous systemreacting, right, that's the
signals in the brain going tothe nervous system.
All of it is reacting, and soit's important that we keep in

(02:43):
mind that when we areemotionally charged, those
reactions happen as well.
Right, they happen.
And so, whether that'ssomething physical that's going
on or whether that's somethingmental that's going on, those
charges, that nervous system isworking, and so it's important
to remember that your nervoussystem and your brain is all
very connected, all very puttogether, and so people don't

(03:07):
think about it in that way.
Right, they just want tosuppress the emotion.
Oh, I'll feel.
I only want to.
I only my physical health.
I'm only worried about going tosee my physical doctor, about
what's going on.
However, that continuoussuppression of your emotion is
impacting your physical health,and so people don't don't see
that there are a lot of studiesout there where autoimmune

(03:29):
diseases have, you know, wherethey're not sure where the cause
comes from.
But this idea that they live areally stressed life, that
there's been so much stress andthings that have happened, and
that it right that this happenedto their body because the
stress kind of overtook yourbody can't stay in that fight,
flight freeze mode constantly.

(03:50):
It's not good for your physicalhealth, and when your body is
constantly in that state, it'snot helpful.
It's not helpful for your brain, it's not helpful for you to
think correctly, like there areparts of your brain that's being
shut off when you're in thatfight or flight state.
And so and this people don'tknow this right, but it is part
of the psychology, it's part ofthe physiology of how we are

(04:13):
made up, and so people need tostart paying more attention to
that emotional side, becauseit's impacting their physical
side and they don't even realizeit.
And so we have to stop andreally notice what is going on
with our body.
What is going on with, like,are we sweating?
Are we getting hot?
What is going on?

(04:34):
We have to stop and notice thesethings when we have these
extreme levels of emotion, thatmay be happening, right, is it
anger, is it fear?
Whatever?
What is happening?
Is it fight, flight, freeze?
What are you prone to, right,when you're in a situation?
Right, when I was a kid, Iwould flight, right.
I didn't like fighting.
Every time there was a fightgoing on, I'm gone, right, I'm

(04:56):
not a fighter, right, and so Iwas flight, and so as I grew up
I realized that in confrontationwith anyone arguments or
anything that was my go-to I'mnot going to engage with you,
I'm leaving right.
That's my flight response.
And so it's important that werecognize that if we don't see
it for what it is, we can't helpor change it right If we don't

(05:18):
notice first.
And so noticing is a big bigpart it sounds really small, but
it's a big, big part ofchecking what's going on with
you and your mental health andphysical health as a collective.
I know that's a long, longanswer there.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
No, I'm a shark tank junkie, so I remember Mark Cuban
talking about how they invest alot into mental health for the
basketball players.
With that in mind, are thereany daily habits that we can
adapt to keep our minds andbodies in harmony?

Speaker 3 (05:55):
You know it's going to sound really cliche, but
breath right.
Breath is life and we take thisidea of breath for granted.
We don't do you notice howoften you're holding your breath
instead of just breathing itout?
How often do you just sit andRight, take it, take a deep

(06:16):
breath in and release it out?
Breath is really life andbreath helps to regulate that
nervous system, and so it'simportant that we really
understand and notice our breath.
Are you not breathing when youget nervous or when you get
scared, or when somethinghappens?
Maybe you have a presentationto do and you're like right, we

(06:38):
stop breathing and we don't evennotice it because we just keep
going through our day.
Stop breathe, it's so necessaryfor our bodies.
It helps slow everything downwhen we're in this rat race that
we call life.
So it's important that wereally one of the just major
things stop and breathe, catch abreath, right, feel that breath

(07:01):
.
Can you feel it move throughyour body?
Like that is important, andsome people can't.
They just breathe, they don'treally feel breath moving
through their body, and so thatthat's a really big indication
that, hey, you might need tostop and breathe more.
Right, when you can't feel it,you know, like if you ever drank
cold water, you could feel thatwater like going down, because
it's so cold Right that, thatyou can feel that with with

(07:24):
breath too, if you pay enoughattention but not enough.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
people pay attention enough, so we need to stop
stressing out our significantother and just stop and breathe,
Stop and breathe.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
I'm telling you it would help a lot.
People don't believe it, butI'm telling you, breath is life.
It helps.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Listen, good stuff, Demetria.
As always, you have a wonderfulrest of the day.
We'll see you in the nextepisode.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Thank you for tuning in to the Doves Inner Beauty
podcast, where we fosteremotional awareness.
One individual at a time.
One individual at a time.
For a complimentaryconsultation, visit
DovesInnerBeautycom or call336-298-6599.
That's 336-298-6599.