Why Imperfect Mind-Body Work is the Key to Healing

When you’re on a personal healing journey and you’re using mind-body work to move toward a new level of well-being, you might think that you have to shift your vibration through daily meditation and mindfulness and do a good job at your mind-body work in order to feel better. Actually, though, healing through mind-body work works best when you half-ass it.

Is daily meditation and mindfulness bad? No. It’s just that if you’re accidentally making it into another to-do on your task list, you’ll lose the benefits and add an extra layer of stress to your mind-body system.

Actually, you don’t have to have a formal meditation or mindfulness practice in order to heal on all sorts of levels, which can be a relief if you’re a busy parent or business owner.

I recently saw a program recommending an hour of meditation daily in order to get results, and I immediate felt a clench in my stomach. If I did all the things people tell me are useful for an hour a day, there would be no day left. Plus, I’m a mom.

One time, a meditation teacher told me to give my child a show to watch in the other room and then meditate for an hour.

This teacher did not know my child. My child lived in my lap for her first five years. 😂 Also, my daughter and I were not really into kids shows. She didn’t want to sit and watch them alone, or even at all. Which was, in my book, kind of a great thing.

This is when I invented my half-ass plan for everything. Because, prior to having a child, I did meditate and spend time on my mind-body work pretty regularly. I did this to heal chronic pain and stress, and to maintain well-being once I got there.

But, post childbirth, life was a totally different story.

If you’re in the same boat in your life and doing a formal meditation practice either feels impossible or simply stressful, the great news is that there are so many ways to work with your mind-body system that are quick, simple, and easy.

You could be in line at the grocery store and simply notice for a few seconds that you have feet, you’re wearing shoes, and you’re standing on your feet. Notice how your feet feel. Then notice what you’re feeling in your torso. Do you feel tense? Do you feel relaxed? Is there a warm spiral of joy in there? Is there a heavy dread?

That takes about thirty seconds to do, and now you have a TON of new information you didn’t have before about your mind-body system. Now you have a new awareness that you wouldn't have had if you thought you had to sit down and do a formal practice.

Now you know exactly how your feet are feeling. You know what your emotional state is. And, my guess is that you have several clues about what you need as well. Maybe you realized you need a little rest when you get home. Maybe you discovered that there’s an idea brewing for a new program. Or maybe you need to express something to someone in your life.

The secret to meditation and mindfulness practices is that they train you to be more aware of yourself on all levels.

You can do this on the fly, easy-peasy.

This will help you stop “living in your head” as they say and reconnect with your body, your needs, your emotions, and your spirit.

The only reason we start getting stress-induced illness (and about 80% of all illness is stress-related!) is that we’re disconnected from our bodies, aren’t aware of our emotions, and are missing vital information about how to care for ourselves to create well-being.

Don’t make the goal to do some sort of time-consuming mind-body practice in the hope that “doing a good job” with your mind-body work will somehow give you bonus points and create healing. Instead, focus on the goal at hand, which is to intimately know your own body sensations, signals, emotional energies, and needs. Think of your mind-body work as an information and awareness-gathering process, not a thing you “do right.”

Falling into the doing it right trap keeps you stressed out and sick because pressuring ourselves to do everything right is exactly how we get excessively stressed out in the first place. Don’t add pressure around your mind-body work to that list! Mind-body healing is about taking the layers of pressure and self-judgment off - regularly - on the fly - so that you aren’t accidentally stressing yourself the heck out on top of life’s already challenging moments.

This is why half-assing it is so healing. It radically shifts that pattern that sends us overthinkers into stress and mind-body meltdowns.

You learn, through half-assing it, that you can get so much stuff done without all that pressure. Without trying to do it right. Without thinking it has to be a certain way. Without planning every step.

Give ninety percent of it over to the universe and sit back and read a novel.

This will totally change how your body is reacting to daily life, your stress levels will drop, and you’ll find yourself accomplishing more while feeling a hell of a lot better in your body.

Honestly, I half-ass everything! You wouldn’t know, most likely, because you can’t tell from the outside. Once I learned I could heal through half-assing my mind-body work, I was off to the races with this concept. It’s the most freeing thing a perfectionist can ever discover.

If you need help half-assing your personal healing and aren’t sure where to start with mind-body work, I can show you exactly what to do in a way that will feel incredibly non-overwhelming and relaxing in my group program.

You can learn more about the program here.