I recently read “The Mindful Body” by Ellen Langer, which I picked up because of my interest in the mind–body connection (but ended up being a bit of a strange mix of that and behavioural science).
Regardless of what I thought of the book itself (if you must know, I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads), it covered familiar topics in a way that surprised me and got me thinking about the very obvious link between two topics that are close to my heart.
Mindfulness is about paying attention
Ok, I’m sure this isn’t new to you, but let’s be clear; mindfulness is not about sitting cross-legged on the floor with a bright-clean mind and an open door to enlightenment. Although there are different academic definitions of mindfulness (Langer’s being one of them), I’m going to combine them into one basic principle:
It’s about paying attention to the moment as you experience it.
As a concrete example, it’s about focusing on your lunch as you eat it – noticing the textures, tastes and smells of your food – instead of shovelling it in your mouth while scrolling through Instagram and also pretending to be working at your desk (and yes, no judgement, we’ve all been there, done that).
It’s about noticing changes as they happen.
It’s about being more connected and aware of your body – which is actually hugely important for health.
Paying attention means understanding and engaging with your health
Take pain, for example. People who experience chronic pain say that they are in pain all the time. I have family members who, when asked, say that they get no respite from their pain, it’s just always there. It takes over their lives and makes them miserable and depressed (and the vicious cycle of thinking your life is just pain now means you become more miserable and depressed). But the chances are, if you pay attention, you notice that there are many parts of the day where you are not in pain, or the pain is a lot less intense and disruptive. Pain is variable.
All health concerns or symptoms or other body-related things are variable.
Paying attention (in a non-obsessive way, I have family members who do that too…) also means that you notice when the pain tends to appear, what you were doing at the time, what makes it better.
It means you have a better understanding of your pain and can have a more constructive conversation with your doctor when you see them, to ultimately come up with a better management plan. Plus, hopefully this makes you feel a little better mentally too.
Patient activation is also about consciously engaging with one’s health
There is a concept in public health discussions called patient activation: having the knowledge, skills and confidence to manage one’s health. It is known to improve health outcomes and, consequently, reduce costs to healthcare systems.
Practically speaking, patient activation includes behaviours like:
- Attending check-ups and screenings
- Making healthier lifestyle choices, including making lifestyle changes to improve health
- Knowing when to seek professional help
- Having better, more productive conversations with your doctor
Ultimately, it’s about being an active participant rather than a passive recipient of healthcare.
Being more aware of one’s body (eg its pain, how it varies in different circumstances, what helps and so on) is a fundamental component of this. It offers actionable insights that can be used to have more productive discussions with medical professionals – adjusting health management as needed.
Indeed, a couple of years ago I wrote about a piece of research (now published) which found that yoga (which is itself a mindful movement practice) may increase patient activation – participants reported that they felt more health aware and more confident to manage their health.
Mindfulness-type activities tend to be used in healthcare to improve stress. Of course this is important and has many downstream consequences like reducing inflammation. But it seems to me that there is so much more they can offer in the context of improving our health.
GEEKY YOGA 