Big life changes, like a job change, divorce, a birth, a death, or scary health diagnosis, are often very stressful. One of the reasons for this is that these changes create a time of transition. The change doesn’t just happen in a single moment. Yes, the event itself might happen in a single moment, but there is a period of transition as you find your footing in your new normal.

The Oxford dictionary says the definition of transition is the process or period of changing from one state to another. It was explained to me once that a transition period is like a Venn diagram. One circle is your old state of being, another circle is your new state of being and the overlap is the transition period. Transitions are uncomfortable. Things are unknown. We have grief for the old state and hope for the new state. The hard part about big changes and transitions is in this in-between space. We are out of our old state but have not yet settled into our new state. It’s tempting to rush to settle into our new state because feeling uncomfortable is awful. If we rush it, though, we miss a big opportunity to create a new state that aligns well with our authentic wants and needs. There is so much power in pausing and using your mind-body connection to guide your way into your new state of being.

The mind-body connection

There is a science-backed relationship between our thoughts, emotions, beliefs and our physical body. Understanding this relationship and syncing our emotional and physical body is what’s called creating a mind-body connection. Mind-body connections happen all the time, even when we’re not paying attention to them or connecting the dots.

For example, have you ever noticed that when you are stressed and your mind starts racing, your heart often starts racing too? That’s the mind-body connection; the mind is triggering a physical response from your body.

How about when you are nervous and your armpits start to sweat? Ever feel sick to your stomach after you’ve made a mistake? These are all examples of the body responding to thoughts in the mind.

Maybe you’ve noticed occasions where your body reacts before your mind understands what is happening: hair standing up or goosebumps, sensing danger that you can’t see, your body feeling heavy when you don’t want to do something. These are examples of the body communicating and sending signals to your mind that you need to pay attention to something that’s not quite right.

When we ignore these connection points and their relationship with one another, we miss valuable information and insights. We may find ourselves stuffing our feelings, going through the motions of life and even becoming resentful.

When we tune into our own patterns and start to understand the relationship between our emotional and physical bodies, we can use these connection points as a powerful tool to help us live in a way that is most aligned to our authentic nature and our hearts desires.

Creating mind-body connection

There are many ways to tune in and start to notice these mind-body connection patterns. The biggest obstacle is often finding a way to feel your body again. This means slowing down enough to pay attention to the feelings coming up from the body. In our busy lives, we often disconnect from this. Creating a sense of physical embodiment is a great place to start. Try yoga, meditation, breathwork or Reiki to reconnect with the sensations in your body. You could also try taking time each day to sit or go for a walk with no music with the intention of checking in with your body to see how it feels. Alternatively, you could reflect on past experiences and try to remember if there were specific feelings in your body when something pleasant or not so pleasant happened. As you start to identify these sensations, you’ll start to notice them more often. This is when you can begin to understand the relationship between physical body sensations and your emotional state. You will be able to create and tune into your mind-body connections.

These mind-body connections are incredibly valuable during transitions and big life changes. As we are in the period of moving from the old and into the new, these mind-body connections and messages can help guide us into our most fulfilling new state.

Using mind-body connection during transitions

Here are a few ways that mind-body connections can help guide us through big life changes:

Body messages

We’ve heard the phrase “the body keeps the score” and we know there is an important relationship between our emotions and our physical body sensations. As you start to tune into your body sensations, you may start to notice patterns in the sensations you feel, and which sensations are linked to positive emotions and negative emotions. This information will be your guiding light through transitions as you pave the way to your most positive new state.

Permission to experiment

When we use mind-body connection to guide us, it creates space for us to experiment. If something doesn’t feel right in the body, try another approach and see how that feels. We rarely get it right the first time and sometimes no matter how much we think it through or plan for it, it just won’t feel right. Give yourself permission to experiment and find what feels right for you.

Aligned decisions

Tuning in to mind-body connection helps us to make decisions that are best aligned with our authentic selves. This approach naturally causes us to slow down. It can help us avoid making rash decisions based on emotion only. For example, making a decision to prove something to someone will likely not feel good in the body, it might feel tense or forced. Taking time to notice these sensations will give you space to find another solution that could feel better. This is the time to sleep on it, feel your body and don’t rush even when it feels uncomfortable. Give yourself time to notice and act on your mind-body connection.

Our mind-body connections are a powerful way to guide us through big life changes and transitions. Use this innate tool to your advantage to create your best possible new normal. Remember, change is hard and often uncomfortable, let yourself sit in that and use your mind-body connection as your guide.

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Nikki Massa is a Minnesota native, mom, cancer survivor and owner of True North Yoga. True North Yoga is a mobile wellness provider offering yoga, meditation and reiki in the Minneapolis & St Paul Minnesota metro area. Learn more and schedule your own custom on-site session at www.truenorthyogamn.com or contact Nikki at hello@truenorthyogamn.com.

Mind-body connection to guide big life changes