What is the relationship between mind and body?
If you’ve ever had a conversation about mental health with me, you’d heard me say it. The mind and the body are in constant communication. Anxiety and the “gut feeling” influence each other all the time. When something is off with our body, we become more vulnerable to negative emotions and stress.
Our bodies LOVE to be in homeostasis, which is when our body has all its needs met and everything is feeling and working as it should. This means the body has enough fuel from nourishing foods, it’s well hydrated, it’s fully rested, it’s not healing from an injury or recovering from an illness, and it’s gotten movement in some way.
HOW DOES THE BODY INFLUENCE THE MIND?
When we get out of homeostasis, our bodies become focused on trying to get back there. This means the body starts using its internal resources to focus on what’s needed to get food, water, sleep, movement, etc. This also means there’s less internal resources available for our thinking brain, and our emotions can intensify very quickly before we even realize it!
Balanced nutrition and eating on a regular basis not only helps us stay in homeostasis and reduce our vulnerability to negative emotion, but it also gives us the energy we need to participate in things we like. Our body has more internal resources available to go and accomplish what we want to get done, which brings us positive feelings instead of disappointment that we missed out or dropped the ball on something.
HOW DOES HUNGER AFFECT MENTAL HEALTH?
There is a reason hanger (emotion from hunger, not the thing hanging your clothes in the closet!) is a commonly used word! When you hear someone say they’re hangry, you know that means they’re angry because they’re really hungry! While they might still be angry or annoyed about the thing after they eat, the intensity of their anger in the moment is amplified because they’re hungry!
Hunger can also amplify other mental health challenges though, including intensifying overthinking, imposter syndrome and self-doubt, or keep you thinking “why do I feel so anxious?”
WHY WE NEED TO EAT REGULARLY FOR OUR BODY?
In the video, Kristen Bunich RD, The Intuitive Dietitian, talks about the importance of fueling the body with food every 3-4 hours to prevent glucose crashes and avoid hunger from taking over. Eating regularly on this schedule helps prevent your energy from dipping too much and leaving room for those negative emotions to get bigger than they need to be. Consistently fueling your body with nourishing food helps support your mind and your body, and helps prevent the need for emotional eating.
Additionally, when we wait until we’re hungry or even starving to eat, we’re more likely to choose foods that are “quick and easy” and may not be the most nutritious for our body. The challenge with that is that it can leave your body feeling crummy, which will also increase vulnerability to emotion mind and influence how we feel about things!
For example, I love cheese but my body does not like the dairy in cheese. While it tastes good and I enjoy it while eating it, I know I’ll most likely feel sluggish about 30 minutes later. If I wait to think of dinner options until I’m starving, a quick cheese quesadilla will probably sound good, loaded with lots of cheese because I’m so hungry! However, it’s very likely I’ll feel the consequences of all that cheese a little later, especially since it probably didn’t include any protein or veggies. If I plan ahead for dinner and prepare a burrito bowl with grains, protein, vegetables, and maybe just a little cheese sprinkled on top, I’ll feel a more nourished fullness afterwards!
WHY WE NEED TO EAT REGULARLY FOR OUR MIND?
Eating regularly is going to help reduce your vulnerability to negative emotions, or reduce the odds that those negative emotions will inflate into bigger emotions than they need to be. It’s a great way to support your mental health, especially during times you can anticipate stress, annoyance, worry, or frustration!
Let’s say you have a work meeting that you and your team are doing a group presentation at after lunch. You’re feeling a tad nervous about presenting and want more time to practice your part just one more time so you skip lunch. You get to the meeting and find out that your team dropped the ball. One person forgot to add their stuff to the slide deck in time, and the other showed up to the meeting 20 minutes late! You find yourself filling with anger quickly. Annoyance, frustration, disappointment, a brief moment of rage (internal of course). But it’s hard to hold it in and you snap.
Afterwards when everything is said and done, you go back to your office and finally eat your lunch (an hour and half later than planned!) and realize how hungry you actually were since it turns out that you had also barely had anything for breakfast. Once that’s settled, you recognize that although your frustration and disappointment were very valid, the hanger you were feeling in the moment intensified that emotion into more anger and rage than you needed or intended to express.
Eating nutritious food on a more consistent basis helps prevent moments like this, and helps you stay in the driver’s seat of yourself when those emotions are starting to build up!
LOOKING FOR MORE SUPPORT WITH THAT MIND BODY CONNECTION?
Kimberleigh Hagar, LCSW with Mindfully Balanced Therapy offers online therapy for women in NC, IL, & SC, specializing in overthinking, perfectionism, and imposter syndrome. Kristen Bunich, RD with The Intuitive Dietitian offers online nutrition services for women in NC and in-person in Charlotte, NC.
