Are you a pro at analyzing your behaviors, emotions, situations, and environment? Are you constantly trying to understand yourself, ruminating, and intellectualizing everything happening in your body, mind, and life?
Yes? Welcome to the club of "intellectualizers"! I love being intellectual, understanding, and analyzing. It's a wonderful quality because it allows us to dissect and see the world differently.
But like anything, it can also be (often) a way to avoid physically experiencing the impact of what we are going through.
When we over-intellectualize, our body ends up absorbing tensions that often go unnoticed.
What are the consequences on the body?
Pelvic floor tension: Constant intellectualizing can create deep tensions all the way down to the pelvic floor. When the mind is in overdrive, the entire body, including this often neglected area, can unconsciously contract. This can lead to pelvic pain, discomfort when walking, and even affect overall posture. The pelvic floor is a sensitive area, directly linked to stress and repressed emotions, and it deserves our full attention to restore a state of relaxation and well-being. Failing to process emotions through the body leads to stress that settles in the jaw and automatically in the pelvic floor.
Chronic pain: Recurring mental tension can lead to persistent pain, such as migraines, neck pain, and lower back pain, because the body becomes the receptacle for everything the mind doesn’t express. We hurt, we don’t understand why, and eventually, we realize it’s the accumulation of not physically experiencing what we need to.
Breathing difficulties: Blocking emotions and staying in constant analysis mode can affect our breathing, making it more shallow and uncoordinated. High, rapid breathing can activate the sympathetic nervous system (hello cortisol), triggering a constant state of alertness. Shallow breathing + overactive nervous system = a winning formula for urinary incontinence/pelvic floor issues.
Fatigue and exhaustion: Constantly analyzing keeps the brain active, which eventually drains the nervous system. We sometimes feel drained and without energy because the mind is taking up all the space, at the expense of the body. This exhaustion makes us move less because we’re so tired. And the key to a healthy body, mind, and heart is movement.
Loss of grounding and tension in the feet: Excessive intellectualizing often disconnects us from our grounding, which can manifest as tension in the feet. When we’re constantly in our heads, we disconnect from our base, affecting not only our posture but also the pelvic floor. Our feet, in direct contact with the earth, are essential for feeling rooted, stable, and secure in our bodies. This disconnection can cause imbalances that travel up the body chain, reaching the pelvic floor, exacerbating tension and pain in the area. Reconnecting with the feet through perception and relaxation exercises can help ease these tensions and restore a sense of physical and emotional stability.
What are the solutions to calm the mental hamster and release the body from these stored emotions and their impact on our well-being?
Reconnect with the body through breathing: Rediscovering a three-dimensional breath, which is the most natural for the body, will help calm the accumulated tension caused by shallow breathing. Breathing with trust stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, helping to soothe the mind and release tension, including in the pelvic floor and diaphragm.
Incorporate foot and grounding exercises: Exercises for foot health help reconnect the feet with the rest of the body and bring sensation back into the body. Walking barefoot on natural surfaces like grass or sand, massaging the feet with balls, etc. Feeling the direct contact of your feet with the ground can improve stability, reduce pelvic floor tension, and bring a sense of safety into the body.
Move to release tension: Movement is essential to release stress and relax the pelvic floor. Moving allows the body to release accumulated tension and helps calm the brain, reducing the need for constant analysis. Moving with awareness is the key not only to release tension but also to return to the present moment and fully experience what is here and now.
Practice somatic exercises and deep relaxation: I love Jacobson's relaxation technique, which allows you to release each muscle and focus on areas of tension, such as the pelvic floor. This can alleviate pain and reduce the tension associated with over-intellectualization. Somatic exercises that calm the nervous system will automatically and instantly draw attention to the body and reduce mental alertness.
By integrating these practices regularly, you can release the tensions related to mental stress and restore balance between the body and mind. The body, just like the mind, needs space to breathe and relax in order to function harmoniously.
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