Your Body Knows:
A Body-First Approach to Mental Health
I am a yoga therapist. I use a body-first approach to mental health.
That means that while in counselling you might talk through what’s bothering you on your pathway to healing, in yoga therapy, you might do less talking and more observing what’s happening in your body when difficult thoughts, feelings, memories, or sensations arise.
Our body cues often hold the keys to the pathways we need to walk down. The body is constantly working behind the scenes to keep us alive and safe. For example, you don’t have to think about keeping your heart beating, pulling your hand back from a hot stove, blinking when something flies toward your face, or catching yourself if you trip. Your body is always scanning the environment, assessing potential threats, and reacting to protect you — often long before your mind even notices what’s happening.
Many of the mental health challenges we face — such as anxiety, PTSD, and depression — stem from disruptions to our sense of safety. These reactions live in the body and become part of how we’ve learned to protect ourselves. It can be hard to unravel the full story of how these patterns formed, but through body awareness, we can learn to observe, interpret, and respond to these signals in a way that helps bring us back to a state of ease — what some might call the “window of tolerance,” or as I like to say, the “window of awesome.”
There are many ways to approach healing, and each situation, like each person, is unique. That’s why yoga therapists offer one-on-one sessions — to help people learn to decode their body’s signals and turn them into meaningful action.
If there were a one-size-fits-all approach to wellbeing, it would be mass-produced and sold in every store. And while there’s no shortage of gadgets and apps promising calm, my approach is simpler: helping people learn to listen to their bodies and use the body itself as a resource for guidance and healing.
The better we learn to understand what our body is saying, the more clearly we can communicate those needs to others — whether that’s a counsellor, doctor, or physiotherapist.
Many people who experience hypertension, stress, migraines, anxiety, or depression think of these symptoms as being “in the mind.” But these experiences also have a bodily address, if you will.
Take, for example, the cranial nerves. These twelve pairs of nerves connect your brain to the rest of your head, neck, and many internal organs. They’re responsible for sight, smell, hearing, tasting, chewing, facial expression, swallowing, heart rate, digestion, and even neck movement. Essentially, they help us take in our surroundings, find food and safety, connect with others, and assess whether we’re secure and at ease.
When the muscles around the cranial nerves become tense or stiff, circulation decreases and movement becomes restricted. This can cause dysfunction — headaches, jaw pain, poor digestion, sleep issues, breathing difficulties, and more. It’s as if the body is stuck on constant alert.
Modern life doesn’t help. Hours spent looking down at phones, driving, or sitting at computers can keep us in a forward-head posture that contributes to tension and anxiety. Sometimes anxiety drives physical tension; other times, physical restriction drives anxious feelings. Often, it’s both.
Gentle stretching, self-massage, and fluid movement through the neck, shoulders, face, and eyes can help release the muscles surrounding the cranial nerves. Try this simple practice:
- Sit tall in a chair or on the floor with your head stacked comfortably over your shoulders.
- Roll your neck gently in one direction, then the other.
- Massage the sides of your neck and the base of your skull.
- Inhale and lift your shoulders up toward your ears, squeezing your neck and face muscles. Exhale and release, dropping your shoulders down.
- With that tall posture, turn your head slowly to the left for a count of four breaths, then return to center. Do the same to the right, then look up and down.
- From neutral, close your eyes and move them as if tracing the hours on a clock — all the way around and back again.
- Open your mouth wide, stick out your tongue, and move it around. Scrunch your face up, then release.
(Yes, it feels weird — but so does stress! Sometimes the antidote to weird body tension is equally weird movement.) - Finish by taking a deep breath in and gently humming as you exhale. This vibration helps soothe and stimulate the cranial nerves.
Your body holds wisdom that talking alone can’t always reach. By learning to listen to its cues, you can begin to reconnect with your body, restore your mind, and reclaim harmony in your life.
If you’re curious to explore how yoga therapy can support your mental health journey — whether through one-on-one sessions, group classes, or workshops — I invite you to connect with me. Together, we can use body-based practices to help you get your mojo back and rediscover your natural state of ease.