The Connection Between Mental and Physical Health and Simple Practices to Help You Restore Balance
Life can be an emotional rollercoaster—whether it's the stress of managing family responsibilities, the overwhelm of juggling commitments, the loneliness that comes with being an empty-nester, transitioning through friendships, or the uncomfortable life shifts in general that cause uneasiness and anxiety–you name it—it can feel like a lot. But here's the thing: our mental health is directly connected to our physical health. Keeping track of how we feel and having a plan to cope and restore can make a huge difference in our overall wellness. Here’s why and what you can do about it.
The Science Behind These Emotions
Stress and Overwhelm:
When you're stressed, your body releases a hormone called cortisol. This hormone increases your blood sugar levels, even if you haven't eaten. Cortisol tells your liver to make more glucose (sugar) to give you a quick energy boost. It also makes it harder for insulin to move glucose into your cells, so more sugar stays available for your brain and heart in emergencies.
At first, cortisol helps reduce inflammation and promotes healing. But if stress lasts for a long time, high cortisol levels can cause chronic inflammation. This means your immune system may start attacking healthy tissues in your body.
Loneliness:
Loneliness goes beyond being alone; it’s about lacking meaningful social connections. Even if you're surrounded by people, if interactions don’t meet your emotional needs, loneliness can trigger an inflammatory response similar to physical stress.
Research indicates that loneliness can trigger an inflammatory response similar to physical stress (Pourriyahi et al., 2021) . Historically, our bodies have used inflammation as a short-term survival mechanism during periods of isolation. This biological response was likely advantageous in ancestral environments, where being alone increased vulnerability to physical threats, prompting the body to heighten its readiness to deal with injuries or infections.
Understanding Our Perceptions of Emotional States
Our perceptions of stress and loneliness critically influence our body’s responses. When we perceive situations as stressful or threatening, our body activates two primary systems to handle these threats: the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.
Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): This system triggers the "fight or flight" response, increasing heart rate and blood pressure. While beneficial in the short term, chronic activation can lead to health issues like cardiovascular diseases and weakened immunity.
Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis: This axis manages long-term stress response by regulating cortisol. Continuous high levels of cortisol can lead to chronic stress and inflammation.
Historically, these systems were essential for survival, enabling our ancestors to react swiftly to immediate threats, like predators, or adapt to long-term challenges, such as food shortages. However, in the modern world, our stressors have become less about physical dangers and more about ongoing psychological pressures or worries. Unfortunately, when these ancient systems are continuously activated by modern stressors—such as work pressures, social isolation, or constant connectivity—they can lead to disease.
Good News: There’s a lot that we can do about this.
Understanding the impact of emotional stress and loneliness is the first step. Then, we can implement practical, simple strategies to manage and maintain both our mental and physical health. Here are some scientifically backed methods to help keep things in balance:
1. Breathing Techniques
Why it works: Certain breathing techniques can reduce blood pressure and stimulate the vagus nerve, influencing our central nervous system activity. Research shows this activation can improve mood by enhancing neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and GABA (Olsen et al., 2023). The best part is that these can easily be done anywhere (including during a moment of chaos).
4-7-8 Breathing
Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds.
Hold your breath for 7 seconds.
Exhale through your mouth for 8 seconds.
Ready to try it for yourself? I encourage you to give this a try for at least two minutes (yes, right now) to see how big of an impact it can make.
Box Breathing:
Breathe in through your nose for four 4 seconds.
Hold your breath for 4 seconds.
Breathe out for 4 seconds.
Hold for 4 seconds.
Repeat.
Try extending the length of your “box” as you practice.
2. Mind-Body Practices
Why it works: Scientific studies show that activities like yoga, Tai Chi, and meditation greatly improve mental health and strengthen the immune system. They do this by reducing the activity of genes that cause inflammation (Bower & Irwin, 2016), decreasing feelings of loneliness, and boosting immune function (Creswell et al., 2012). Yoga also increases levels of GABA, a chemical that helps calm the body (Streeter et al., 2020), and balances markers in the body that control inflammation (Mishra et al., n.d.). Clearly, these practices offer many benefits! Here’s how to get started with them:
Consider trying out body scans, mindfulness meditations, or gentle yoga.
A wonderful (and free-for-a-year) app for this is Balance. There are many options to choose from depending on your mood, level, and intention.
Another great option is to habit-stack a daily practice into your routine. You can do this by picking a current habit that you do each day (like washing your face at night) and then attaching a new mindfulness practice to the beginning or end of it. Go ahead. Pause for a second. What could this look like for you?
When it comes to meditation, aim for a tiny bit each day. You can start with just 3 minutes and work your way up.
Let’s go ahead and give it a try. I know how hard it can be to sit with a still mind. At first, thoughts will race, and that’s ok (and normal). Let yourself release them (I like to imagine them drifting up into the clouds and floating away). For the sake of practice, start the video below, close your eyes, and see if you can sit still for one entire minute, giving yourself grace and releasing as many thoughts as possible as they come through.
3. Eudaimonic Well-Being
Why it works: Having a sense of purpose and meaning in life, known as eudaimonic well-being, can buffer the negative effects of loneliness and stress on gene expression. Research shows that individuals with higher eudaimonic well-being have lower inflammation and a stronger antiviral response (Cole et al., 2015). This is because a sense of purpose helps regulate stress and immune functions, promoting a healthier gene expression profile and reducing disease risk.
Engaging in Fulfilling Activities: Pursue hobbies, learn new skills, or spend time on passions that excite you. Reflect on what makes you feel alive and incorporate more of these activities into your daily life.
Serving Others: Engaging in activities that help serve others can also serve you in return. Volunteering, mentoring, or participating in community service can enhance your sense of purpose and connection.
Building a Purposeful Routine: Integrate fulfilling and service-oriented activities into your routine by setting aside specific weekly times for these pursuits. Make them a consistent part of your life.
4. Mindset
Why it works: The power of mindset is profound and well-documented. What we tell ourselves can significantly influence our behaviors and well-being. Adopting a growth mindset—embracing challenges and viewing failures as opportunities for growth—can enhance well-being and positively influence health outcomes. Research confirms that our perspectives can directly impact our physiological health and improve overall outcomes (Parsamanesh & Vysochyn, n.d.). While we can't control every aspect of our environment, we can control our thoughts (thankfully). With consistent practice, managing our mindset becomes increasingly effective.
Regularly remind yourself of your ability to handle challenges. A simple statement like "I don’t do overwhelm" can help shift your thinking from reactive to proactive, reinforcing your capacity to manage situations calmly.
A change in scenery can significantly shift your mental state. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, try taking a walk, moving to a different room, or rearranging your workspace. These changes can refresh your perspective and stimulate different parts of your brain.
Introduce new thoughts: Engage your mind with new ideas and perspectives. Listening to an audiobook or podcast or reaching out to a friend for a conversation can introduce thoughts that challenge your current mindset and open you up to new ways of thinking, especially when you're stuck in negative thoughts.
Final Thoughts
Loneliness and stress aren't just emotional experiences; they also impact our physical health. While good nutrition is key to staying healthy, it’s not the whole picture. Incorporating stress management techniques, mindfulness practices, and meaningful activities into our lives can really boost our immune function and overall well-being. That's because our mind and body are deeply connected.
Understanding how our emotional well-being affects our bodies helps us tackle these issues more effectively. Our physiological responses to these emotions are rooted in ancient survival mechanisms. By recognizing this, we can better manage our reactions to modern stressors. This means improving our experimentation with mindset exercises, practicing stress management techniques like mindfulness or yoga, and seeking additional support when needed.
