The real and effective path to wellbeing is always holistic

When I teach yoga psychology, I sometimes introduce this little experiment. You can try it for yourself as below:

“Stand on your feet and slouch. Collapse your chest, round your upper back, hunch your shoulders forward. Drop your head and look at the ground. Slacken your legs and feel gravity pulling your body down. Now, say something optimistic and positive, like, ‘Life is wonderful. I am enjoying my day. I feel confident and strong.’”

People immediately appreciate how disconnected this statement is with how they feel. The message is: If your body signals that you are withdrawn or dull, it is difficult for the higher parts of your nervous system, your brain, to trust the reality of a positive statement. Your body and your brain are deeply connected—that is evident in your lived experience of every day.

In the last century, we have sometimes been influenced to consider the brain as a machine-like computer that generates ‘you’ and the body as an automaton following its instructions. That is simply not true. Your sense of self and cognition derive from your body also. You are always one whole by design.

On the other hand, we must also beware that in this modern culture of searching for quick results, we are also sold the notion we can somehow manipulate these mind-body connections with a few tricks e.g., do a “power pose” by standing tall in a strong position and you will feel confident. This is valid, but only sort of. If it were that simple to create big changes in ourselves, we could solve anxiety and depression in a few minutes. You cannot “hack” your way out of ill-being with such short-term tricks.

The real part is: If you don’t straighten your spine and expand your chest, it is harder to feel optimistic and confident. So, of you are feeling down and dull, it is meaningful to change your posture towards being more uplifted. But that posture alone is not sufficient to elevate a feeling of low mood, nor will it work in just a few minutes. We need to change both body posture and body feeling, and then connect that with other changes we make holistically in other domains of wellbeing. Then the positive shift will be lasting and comprehensive.

For example, confidence is a measure of your self-perception of how much control and effectiveness you have in a situation. That depends on multiple factors: your actual capacity in that situation, your inner dialogue, the energy you have, the purpose that drives you, other emotions both positive and negative, the social support you receive, and more. We must work on all of these to achieve lasting changes in confidence.

The real and effective path to wellbeing is always holistic!