Improved health and well-being during PhD
Pursuing a PhD is a cognitive feat. We read, summarise, paraphrase, process, question, discuss, analyse and interpret an endless amount of literature and data. At the end of a long day working on your PhD, it's no wonder that your head is spinning and and you have hardly any energy left to continue reading your favourite novel, learn a new language or answer that eternally long messages from your best friend. What remains at the end of such a day is either the desire to simply lie on the couch and dully scroll through Instagram, sleep or go out and give your body a good workout. Whatever you choose to do, it calls for switching off your brain.
During my PhD, I was in my head a lot. So much so that I completely lost touch with my body. Of course, I can't blame the PhD for me losing touch with my body, as this started much earlier due to very different reasons and past experiences. But the PhD definitely increased the strong focus on my mind. Losing touch with my body meant that I stopped listening to my body's signals - the stiffness, the exhaustion, the pain. I stopped paying attention to my intuition, to the inner feeling that tells you to slow down, to do less, to be gentler with yourself. Instead, I kept having the same circling thoughts about past or future events, about my research, about what wasn't going well, about what others might think of me, about … The same worries and doubts over and over again.
But what happened as I learnt to come back into my body more and more was truly remarkable. When I started practising more yoga, meditating, breathing consciously, sitting in nature or just taking a cold shower, I felt alive and enough. I felt that I am not just my thoughts, but much more than that. My ideas and creativity just bubbled over. I invited gratitude and ease into my life.
When was the last time you listened to your body?
When was the last time you took a break because your body was signalling signs of overexertion and distress?
Unfortunately, many of us don't listen carefully to what our body is trying to tell us*. We push ourselves beyond our limits until it's too late and we are ill or burnt out. Listening to the body also means connecting with our intuition, "the inner knowing", and recognising, allowing and letting go of the emotions that arise. All these signals have a message for us and serve a higher purpose. They want to tell us, "Take a break" or "This is scary, but it will help you learn and grow" or "Even if it makes rational sense, it's not true to you”. Sometimes these signals reach us with a thunderous noise, but most of the time, they are just a soft, faint whisper. Given that our minds are often much louder, we must listen with particular care.
So how can you get started?
You can start right now, at this very moment.
Find a comfortable place.
Close your eyes for a moment.
Place your feet firmly on the floor and feel the surface on which the soles of your feet are resting. How does the surface feel? Warm? Cold? Smooth? Rough?
Feel your breath as the air flows in and out through your nose. Feel how the incoming air is colder than the outgoing air. How your chest rises with each inhalation and falls with each exhalation. How your belly rises and falls with each breath.
Start to feel your body. Do you feel tension or tightness? See if breathing into these areas can help release the tension.
Keep breathing.
In and out. In and out.
And when you're ready, slowly open your eyes.
How do you feel?
If you want to connect even more deeply with your body, I have a little gift for you:
A 10-minute progressive muscle relaxation to help you connect with the different parts of your body, release tension in your body and relax your mind and body.
*In this context, I highly recommend everyone to read the book "When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress" by Gabor Maté.
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