Rooted in Resilience: When Emotions Are Unspoken, the Body Remembers

The Mind-Body Connection – How to Heal by Listening to Your Body

This past year, my relationship with emotions has changed in a radical way—because I finally started listening to my body.

I used to feel ruled by my moods. I’d get stuck in waves of sadness, irritability, or anxiety without knowing why or how to move through them. I numbed out, distracted myself, or got overwhelmed. But when I began exploring the mind-body connection, everything shifted.

As James Gordon writes in The Transformation, the body is a reflection of the subconscious mind. That means the sensations, symptoms, and tension we carry aren’t random—they’re meaningful messengers.

When we learn to speak our body’s language, we gain access to powerful tools for healing and emotional release.

Your Body Is Always Talking to You

And the more we listen, the more empowered we become.

The mind-body connection is the awareness that your emotional and mental experiences don’t just live in your brain—they live in your body, too. What we think affects how we feel physically. And what we do with our bodies affects our emotions, attention, and even memory.

The beautiful thing is that you can begin to process emotions and regulate your nervous system through either doorway—mind or body. Ideally, both.

Below are two of the most helpful tools I’ve found for releasing stuck emotion and reconnecting with inner peace.

Releasing Through the Mind

Start here when your anxiety is at a manageable level.

Writing has been my lifeline. For years, I felt emotionally heavy without knowing why. Journaling helped me untangle the knots. It’s like I’ve been treading water with ankle weights on—and writing lifts those weights, making it easier to stay afloat.

✍️ Morning Pages

My favorite practice is called Morning Pages, introduced by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. It’s a simple yet powerful habit: write 2–3 pages of anything and everything that’s on your mind, stream-of-consciousness style. It’s not about sounding good—it’s about creating space.

Some days I write about what I’m feeling. Other days it’s just a brain dump of my to-do list. Either way, I always feel lighter.

Giving your thoughts a container actually helps quiet the mind. By honoring your worries and naming your fears, your brain feels acknowledged—and can finally relax.

Releasing Through the Body

Essential when you’re flooded, frozen, or emotionally overwhelmed.

When your stress level spikes (think 7/10 or higher), cognitive tools like journaling often won’t work right away. That’s when the body becomes your greatest ally.

By moving the body—through breath, shaking, dancing, or yoga—you can signal to your nervous system that you are safe. Movement activates the parasympathetic nervous system (aka your rest-and-digest mode), guiding you out of the stress response and into calm.

My Journey with Chronic Pain

And how I discovered that emotions live in the body, too.

For six years, I lived with chronic body pain—aching muscles, tension in my spine, fatigue that never lifted. Doctors didn’t have many answers. But once I began working with the mind-body connection, I started to understand: the pain wasn’t random.

It was unprocessed emotion. My body had become the storage unit for all the feelings I didn’t know how to feel.

The Practice That Changed Everything: Shaking & Dancing

This wild-sounding ritual helped me release years of stored emotion and pain.

One of the most powerful tools I’ve found is Shaking and Dancing, an expressive meditation developed by Dr. James S. Gordon (founder of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine).

It’s simple:

• Shake your body vigorously from head to toe for about 10 minutes

• Stand still, breathe deeply, and let the sensations settle

• Then dance—freely, intuitively, unapologetically

At first, I thought it sounded a little “woo-woo.” But in the midst of a deep depressive episode and intense physical pain, I gave it a try. And something shifted. For the first time in years, I felt relief. Not just in my body, but in my soul.

Now, it’s a regular part of my self-care practice. I do it at least 4 times a week to keep my body free from emotional buildup. And I haven’t had a major flare-up of my pain in almost 9 months.

Dr. Gordon describes it as a modern version of traditional ceremonial dance—a way to welcome warriors home. That resonates deeply. Because every day we survive a storm of emotions, we are warriors, too.

You Are Wired to Feel—and to Heal

Emotion isn’t weakness. It’s wisdom.

Our culture teaches us to suppress, perform, and push through. But the body keeps score. If we don’t express our emotions, they stay trapped in our muscles, our breath, our gut.

That’s why mind-body practices like journaling, yoga, shaking, and breathwork are so important. They help us move energy through, rather than letting it calcify inside us.

Whether through a gentle walk, a heart-opening yoga pose, a kitchen dance break, or simply pausing to breathe—your body can be your greatest ally in healing.

Ready to Heal from the Inside Out?

The mind and body are not separate. And you don’t have to navigate the connection alone.

If you’re holding onto stress, pain, or emotion that feels too heavy to carry alone, I’d love to support you. My medicine work integrates breathwork, somatic awareness, subconscious rewiring, and connecting to your intuitive guidcance to help you reconnect with your body, release what’s stuck, and feel safe again—within yourself.

✨ Click here to schedule a free discovery call and explore how we can work together.

Your body is not the enemy. It’s the messenger.
And it’s waiting for you to listen.