Healing Through Talking to Your Mat: Using Your Body to Heal Your Mind

Your physical health affects your mental wellness, but the connection is a two-way street. Just as illness or injury can affect your spirits, taking good care of your “machinery” or physiological needs can make a big difference in your overall mood and mindset. 

Establishing healthy physical habits can be a powerful act of self-compassion, the first step on your journey to mental wellness. You might even think of it as pouring a foundation on which you can build a house of joy. Here are four simple habits that use your body to heal your mind. 

As a reminder, the Only in Sedona crew — my partner, Ed, and I — are not doctors, therapists or scientists. We are fellow travelers on a wellness journey, sharing what we have learned to help others. Please consult with a licensed health professional before taking medical advice from the internet, a chatbot, or other electronic sources. 

1. Regular Physical Activity 

Although I’m diagnosed as autistic, I often wonder how much ADHD I have in my neurospicy mix. Ever since I was a child, I have used physical movement to regulate overwhelming anxiety. Science agrees. The National Institutes of Health credits exercise with everything from reduced blood pressure and better sleep to lower rates of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. [1] 

Exercise harnesses your body – and brain’s – innate fight-or-flight reflex to mitigate stress hormone levels. [2] It also increases your body’s production of feel-good chemicals, like serotonin and endocannabinoids. [3] Recent research also suggests it may raise the amount of brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), which aids in the recovery of brain cells and improves connectivity between brain regions, making emotional regulation and stress management easier. [4]

What’s the best exercise? My highly unscientific opinion is that whatever form of movement makes you smile is the best. Enjoying exercise helps you stick with it if you aren’t like me and don’t take to the walking track like a Siberian husky takes to a dog sledge, at least at first. Pick something free and fun, like walking in the park if you live near a pretty natural area or dancing around your room to your favorite tunes. 

2. A Healthy Diet (That Doesn’t Cost a Mint)

The right diet can go a long way toward improving your mental health. Your gut produces many of the feel-good chemicals your brain needs, including 95% of your serotonin. To function at its best, it needs the right raw materials. 

Start with probiotics from fermented foods like yogurt, kefir and kombucha, and prebiotic fiber from sources like apples and whole grains. Probiotics are healthy bacteria that aid digestion and help you manufacture happy brain chemicals, while prebiotics are the food these critters thrive upon. Be consistent. A recent study showed the effects of this approach increase over time as your gut heals along with your mood. [5]

Strive to get three or more colors on your plate at every meal, as the different shades in plant-based foods correlate to differing nutrient profiles. Consuming a variety goes a long way toward ensuring you meet all your needs. Pay attention to specific deficiencies, like magnesium, that can adversely affect mental health. If you eat meat, adding fish to your diet two or more times per week can give you a brain boost from the omega-3s. 

3. Routine Stress Reduction Activities 

Although you can’t see your nerves, I like to think of them as chemically-directed guitar strings. Continuing to play them hard and fast when they’re all out of tune results not in harmonious music but an ungodly, clamorous noise. It often sounds like broken relationships, lost jobs and opportunities, and shattered lives. 

Think of routine stress reduction as keeping your central nervous system in tune. Tread carefully here, though. Doom-scrolling does not count as relaxation, not if you come away from the screen feeling more keyed up and despondent than you did before you logged on. Neither does binge-watching an entire season while devouring a bag of chips and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with either behavior, anything that leaves you feeling worse doesn’t count as relaxation, sorry. 

As with anything, what works for you is as unique as your personality. Some folks might enjoy chatting with a friend over coffee. For me, socializing equals anxiety, so I prefer solitary activities, like hiking and, of course, yoga. It’s how Only in Sedona Yoga’s “Sober Saturday” livestream came to be. Other suggestions include working on a favorite hobby, playing a game with people you love, or losing yourself in a good book. 

Although I have no basis for this claim, I strongly suspect that consistency matters more than how long you spend on stress reduction each day. Some days you might get by with ten minutes, while others may require an hour. The important thing is to make a daily commitment to yourself to keep your central nervous system running smoothly. 

4. A Good Night’s Sleep

The pesky thing about sleep is that the more you need it, the more elusive it seems to become. While it's unfortunately impossible for many to force themselves into dreamland, a gentle approach can ease the pathway there and encourage your body to get the rest it needs. 

Some folks swear by the 10–3-2-1-0 sleep rule pioneered by Dr Jess Andrade. [6] This method focuses on when to quit certain activities. For example, you should consume your last daily dose of caffeine no more than 10 hours before your typical bedtime, and log out of work at least two hours before you turn down your sheets. 

Personally, I’m a huge fan of yoga nidra. This ancient technique incorporates various visualization techniques to alter your brain waves and induce a deep state of relaxation. It’s completely passive and performed in your favorite resting pose, either savasana or your preferred sleeping position. 

General tips for inviting a good night’s sleep include: 

• Setting the mood. Whenever possible, make your sleeping space as quiet, comfortable and conducive to rest as possible, tuning into your senses to create a place that fits you like Baby Bear’s chair. Yes. That means if you want rainbow unicorn sheets as a 42-year-old adult, you get rainbow unicorn sheets, budget permitting, of course.
• Cool it down: Part of attending to your senses includes the right temperature, and research suggests cool temperatures improve slumber. [7]
• Create a sense of safety: I’ve yet to see this tip in any other self-help sleep article, but it matters a lot, especially if you have a trauma history. This tip doesn’t necessarily mean keeping your Red Ryder on your bedside table. It can also mean bringing your baby’s crib into your room instead of leaving them with a cold monitor, adding a secondary lock to your bedroom or replacing the door with a solid-core model if you live with roommates, or investing in screechers for your windows and doors if you live alone. Few things make it harder to sleep than feeling unsafe. 

Use Your Body to Heal Your Mind 

Think of it this way: Adding a new roof to your home won’t help much if the foundation is still crumbling. Likewise, trying to sort out your mental mess while you’re still poisoning yourself with unhealthy foods and neglecting your body through a lack of exercise, proper relaxation and sleep can feel like an exercise in futility. Your body and mind work together, and both function more efficiently when tended to with gentle TLC. 

A bottom-up approach is what I used when I first commenced on my own healing journey after recognizing the role I played in many of my own problems. I’ll be honest — I’m still learning, still growing, and still doing the work. However, taking care of the physical end of things helped a lot. Getting sober was only one step. It provided the firm foundation I needed, and helped ease many of my chronic aches and pains that admittedly dour my mood. 

Make your first step on your mental health journey one of self-compassion by resolving to improve at least one of the four above physical wellness areas. You might be surprised by what you discover about your own mind-body link. If you do, please share your experience with us in the comments! With love and hope for healing, always. ~ J. 

References: 

1. “Health Benefits of Exercise and Physical Activity.” National Institute on Aging. N.D. Retrieved December 8, 2025, from: https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/exercise-and-physical-activity/health-benefits-exercise-and-physical-activity

2. Ershad, M. Javad, MD. “How Exercise Balances Cortisol Levels.” Stanford Lifestyle Medicine. April 23, 2025. Retrieved December 8, 2025, from: https://lifestylemedicine.stanford.edu/how-exercise-balances-cortisol-levels/

3. Buculei, Ioaa, et. al. “The Endocannabinoid System and Physical Exercise.” PubMed Central. January 19, 2023. Retrieved December 8, 2025, from: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9916354/

4. Kong, Jianda and Zhang, Tianyu. “How does exercise regulate the physiological responses of post-traumatic stress disorder? The crosstalk between oxidative stress and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis.” PubMed Central. September 12, 2025. Retrieved December 8, 2025, from: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12466154/

5. Johnson, Katarina V. and Steenbergen, Laura. “Probiotics reduce negative moods over time: The value of daily self-reports in detecting effects.” Nature. October, 2025. Retrieved December 8, 2025, from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-025-00123-z

6. Mutchler, Cristina. “Follow the 10-3-2-1-0 Sleep Rule for a Better Night’s Rest.” Health. November 2, 2025. Retrieved December 8, 2025, from: https://www.health.com/10-3-2-1-0-sleep-rule-8763555