Mind-Body Exercises

May 31, 2021

3 min read

May is Mental Health Month. The 2021 theme for Mental Health Month according to Mental Health America is Tools 2 Thrive, which seeks to provide practical tools everyone can use to improve mental health and resiliency. An important part of that is the powerful combination of mind-body exercises for boosting mental health, improving physical health, and establishing lasting resiliency in your life. The below six mind-body exercises are important places to begin.

What are Mind-Body Exercises?

Mind-body exercises are moderate intensity, low-impact exercises that focus on several areas:

Relaxation
Physical coordination
Breathing
Movement control
Circulation
Skeletal muscle stretching
Mental focus
Balance
Flexibility

They are typically low-cost, easy to do, and can help ease pain and stress.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness exercises are a relatively new concept when it comes to workouts. Rather than focusing only on toning muscles and burning calories, these exercises are about finding balance. The balance between your body and your mind. In addition to various studios that are now offering mindfulness workouts, there are also numerous mobile phone apps that encourage mindfulness in working out and more. Mindfulness workouts help you achieve mental clarity and calm while engaging in various physical fitness efforts at the same time.

Yoga

Practitioners of yoga are rarely surprised by the idea that the mind and body are closely linked when it comes to health. Your mental health is greatly influenced by your physical health. And regular exercise is closely linked to improved mood and a better overall frame of mind. Yoga takes things a little further by using breathing and specific poses for desired effects. For instance, some poses can help relieve anxiety or insomnia, in some people. It is the connection between the mind and the body that creates desired effects.

Pilates

Pilates combines the power of ballet, calisthenics, yoga, and mental focus into a workout widely known for improving muscle tone, strength, balance, flexibility, and body awareness. It uses a combination of exercises along with focused breathing and other techniques to forget this connection and can be instrumental for reducing stress and improving mental concentration and control. Pilates has also been used to help people manage depression and anxiety by helping to promote inner stability.

Tai Chi

Tai Chi is known as the healing and martial arts exercise for mind and body. It is beautiful to watch people practice this art that combines meditation, focused breathing, and movement for a low-impact workout that benefits people of all ages. It is widely promoted as an exercise today that helps to improve overall fitness, balance, and well-being. Tai Chi is often practiced by older adults because of its low-impact nature. However, this is an art that can be beneficial to all by offering many benefits, including improved breathing, balance, coordination, and flexibility; a reduction in stress and pain; to relax the mind; and more.

Boxing

While many people view boxing as more of a brute strength and endurance effort, the truth is that the connection between mind and body is strong in boxing. But now there is a new workout called mind-body boxing that combines various strengthening and stretching postures (the body aspect of the workout) with mindful breathing and meditation (the mind and spirit aspect of the workout) and boxing (the cardio aspect of the workout). The ultimate goal is a workout that connects mind, body, and spirit.

Cycling

Cycling is well known for changing your body by working out your core as well as targeted muscle areas. However, many people have discovered the mental benefits of cycling as well. Cycling improves mood, relieves anxiety, and empowers people to manage their stress more effectively. To top it off, it has been known to improve self-perception and self-worth, creating improvements in overall self-esteem.

Some of the most effective Tools 2 Thrive are those we generate ourselves. These mind-body exercises can be instrumental in helping you improve your physical and mental health in the month of May and throughout the year.

Do you participate in mind-body exercises? If so, do you participate in the above or are there other mind-body exercises that you perform. Share your strategies and favorite ways of performing them with your respective Healthread community members, too.