The Link Between Mental and Physical Health

If you’re reading books about your challenges with diet, exercise, changing your mindset, your relationship with food or similar topics, you’re most likely looking to improve your health or that of someone you love.

Chances are you’ve tried everything. But you may not really understand why it is that you can’t seem to get it together.

While important to your health, the answer isn’t always completely related to diet or exercise. Did you also know mental health correlates directly to your physical health?

In laymen’s terms, you can’t fix what’s broken until you address the root cause. For many people, there is a trauma that needs to be addressed. When you are traumatized, your brain sends signals that protect you, which in turn can create chaos.

Our Good Read for the month of October is the New York Times bestseller “The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma” by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk.

Van der Kolk has more than 30 years of research and clinical practice in his toolbelt and dives into why traumatized people experience intense anxiety, numbing and rage, as well as how trauma affects the control they have in life. The book helps the reader understand what trauma does to the body and how one can truly heal through a range of therapeutic interventions.

The book is available in hard copy or as an audiobook. For more information, visit besselvanderkolk.com/resources/the-body-keeps-the-score.

At the very least, it can get you started on the path to better mental health and help even the score.