How Do You Relate To Your Body?
The relationship you have with your body is not as straightforward as you might think. This link, so obvious and essential, is often kept in the background, despite its importance. The body seems to be a glaring reality for some people, a reality that does not deserve any exercise in thought or awareness. However, it is not the case.
Often, the relationship you have with your body is instrumental or functional. Instrumental because you see it as a way to generate a certain impact in others. So you take care of yourself to please or to attract. The opposite can also happen: you avoid the gaze of others or you neglect because you don’t have a good self-concept.
The relationship you have with your body may also be only functional. You only remember him when you feel pain or get sick. As long as it is healthy, you forget that it is an organism in constant activity and that everything you do, feel and think takes place biologically inside it.
Carelessness and obsession with the body
Some people have a distant relationship with their body. They do not explore him, do not know him and may even feel a certain contempt or apprehension towards him. Both extremes can appear in those who have this problematic connection with their bodies. Some are overly modest and attentive, and others are just plain indolent.
Those who become obsessive with their bodies are usually apprehensive. They are particularly insistent on hygiene and are afraid of bacteria. They also do not tolerate natural odors like sweat, urine or feces. For them, these are not natural smells but an alarm signal. Their modesty can sometimes reach extremes. In this case, the body is a territory of combat and the expression of a latent psychological conflict.
On the other side, we find those who show a total relaxation. However, extreme neglect in terms of personal hygiene and the body in general is a sign of a mental problem. Not to shower, not to change, to smell bad and not to worry about it… All of these facts are normal for these people. Their minds are so busy that their bodies take a back seat. If the relationship you have with your body falls into one of these two categories, you are probably in need of help.
Emotions and the relationship you have with your body
Emotions are neither positive nor negative per se. However, some can cause great disruption in your body. By disturbance we understand an activation of processes that alter the normal balance. These emotions are anger, sadness and anguish. And, of course, all those that derive from it: frustration, stress, intolerance, etc. All of these emotions are a response to stimuli that are perceived to be threatening. Yes, they are seen as such, although they are not necessarily.
Your emotional universe greatly influences the relationship you have with your body. Many books have pointed out that emotions sometimes help restore organic balance or facilitate the appearance of mechanisms that lead to disease, among others. Science has been able to prove that anxiety is one of the usual companions of certain diseases, in particular infectious or autoimmune diseases.
It has also been verified that anxiety negatively influences surgical procedures. What is known as “stress” tends to interfere with the body’s normal recovery processes. The secretion of hormones during stressful episodes causes certain types of diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, to have more favorable conditions in which to develop. In addition, stress depresses the immune system and this promotes the development of other diseases.
Many people ignore the effect of emotions on their bodies. They don’t notice, for example, that the rate of their heartbeat increases or their breathing changes. They are also unaware of their temperature changes, the strain in some of their muscles, or the speeding up of certain processes. The relationship you have with your body depends on your sensitivity and awareness of these changes in your body.
Our thoughts 80% of the vagus nerve fibers that connect the brain to many internal organs are afferent. In other words, these fibers go from the outer body …
