What The Body Holds
A popular book by Bessel Van Der Kolk, is called “The Body Keeps The Score.” The body holds both conscious and unconscious data. Our brains simply are not designed to be fully processing our environments every second of every day. That would be an incredible amount of stimuli to have to process if it did. Can you imagine if we cognitively processed every sensation we had, temperature on our skin, lighting, sounds, smell all at the same time? Woah. Just thinking about all of it is a lot! So, if our brains are not processing everything, where does all the information go? Quite simply, our bodies respond to the stimuli and then let our brains know when we need to cognitively process the information. Our brains and bodies like patterns. As humans, we seek the familiar, even if it is at an emotional or mental cost to ourselves. (This can be identified as a specific example of one of the many reasons why it is so difficult for those in abusive relationships to leave. The pattern feels familiar, and change is challenging for our brains to comprehend, even if it would benefit us).
So, let’s do a bit of a deeper look into the idea of what happens when patterns get stuck within us, causing symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Your brain can get stuck in a loop of still trying to “organize your life as if the trauma were still going on–unchanged…and the survivors energy now becomes focused on suppressing inner chaos, at the expense of spontaneous involvement in their life” (Van Der Kolk, p. 53). In everyday language, this basically means that mental health symptoms loop the brain into a pattern that gets so stuck, we struggle to find enjoyment in life. This then cycles into chronic stress symptoms, disabling the body in ways of increasing inflammation in the body, decreasing our immune systems capability of fighting off illness, creating gastrointestinal issues and influencing many other serious health conditions, including our ability to tolerate pain.
In Mel Robbins Podcast "Neurosurgeon's Protocol to Feel Better Now: The Best Way to Heal Your Body & Live Pain Free,” Mel interviews renowned Neurosurgeon, Dr. Sanjay Gupta M.D. about the connection between emotional/physical pain and our physiological experience of pain. They specifically highlight the major impact that building mindfulness, meditation and movement is in processing trauma, pain and emotional experiences that are holding us back, and how utilizing movement and creative expression support full embodied healing and happiness. The science simply backs up the importance of incorporating movement into the emotional healing experience. Dr Gupta advices the following acronym for treating pain: MEAT-which stands for:
M: Mobilizing-mobilize the body supports chemicals in the body to respond naturally to heal ourselves. Movement triggers natural analgesia’s–aka-pain numbing–similarly to how an opioid would trigger analgesia. It may hurt a bit to start moving, but (with clearance from a doctor), movement can begin to provide natural hormonal responses that support emotional AND physical healing. An example of this? Ever wake up stiff in the morning? What happened to the stiffness if you didn’t take time to stretch? You got stiffer. If you take a few minutes to warm your body up? You will find you are physically more comfortable during the day. This affects mental health similarly. It may be difficult to build new habits, but through warming up, we find that there is a bigger benefit. (Analgesia also stands for the A in MEAT)
E: Exercise- Exercise supports our mental and physical health. Exercise is both a short and long term practice which also releases our body's natural feel good hormones. Exercise additionally builds stability, both physically and emotionally. In practice, I often see clients come in with poor body posture. They are weighted down by the intensity of life and the world. When we begin to build body muscle however, the ability to hold ourselves in confidence through conflict or emotional trials becomes easier, because our bodies are feeling stronger which supports our minds.
T: Treatment-Treatment for mental and physical health is best supported through integrated and holistic practices. We cannot simply see an injury as “just physical,” as pain also is interpreted in our brains and bodies through our past histories. If we have trauma histories, or diagnosis of depression, anxiety or other mental health diagnosis, the ability to tolerate pain may be negatively impacted. By engaging in holistic therapies including mental health counseling, yoga, fitness cardio, meditation, acupuncture, massage etc… supports healing the entire body, which has greater long-term benefit that includes improved pain tolerance.
Movement and Dance supports holistic healing. We learn to tune into our bodies and build improved response systems for listening to what our bodies, not just our brains, are trying to communicate to us. We build improved physical health, balance and self insight by working with the subconscious through movement, increasing our ability to recognize past behavioral patterns that are no longer serving us. For those of us who have experienced trauma, we also are presented with the opportunity to re-teach our bodies how to self soothe, settle and decrease trauma reaction cycles. If we can understand the insight of our somatic experiences, we increase our ability to change from REACTING to RESPONDING. We have more choice over our physical and mental health. As another founder of somatic healing, Peter Levine describes that “the ability to transition between intense emotional states is popularly referred to as “flow,” as “being present” or “in the moment” as opposed to being stuck in one’s past (Levine, p. 40).
Let’s work on finding our flow through creativity, movement and the arts. Let’s decrease pain cycles-both physical and emotional. Let’s explore our resilience in body and mind.
Resources:
Levine, P. A. (2010). In an unspoken voice: How the body releases trauma and restores goodness. North Atlantic Books.
Robbins, Mel (Host). (2025, October 16). Neurosurgeon’s Protocol to Feel Better Now: The Best Ways to Heal Your Body & Live Pain Free (334). The Mel Robbins Podcast. SiruisXM Podcasts
Van Der Kolk, B. (2015). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin Books.
