Health: The Mind-Body Connection

When people are healthy, friendships and relationship dynamics are easy. When people have health issues — physical, emotional, social or other — their illnesses manifest in their behavior and more clearly in their relationships. Tiffs happen. Feuds occur and break ups happen. If it sounds simple, that’s because it is. Health is not just the difference between not having cancer and having cancer. Getting enough sleep or eating well affects health on a short or long-term basis. The simplest way to see this is when a newborn baby doesn’t get what it needs, like sleep or food or comfort, it cries. Often new mothers have to figure out what the baby wants because it can’t tell the mother. This is the beginning of the babies relationships for the rest of its life.

If the baby is lucky enough to have a mother who does figure out what the baby wants, the baby will begin to know that if it is fed, it won’t feel bad. As children, some toddlers know they need a nap and ask for it. Others melt down until mom figures out that the child is just tired — not solely badly behaved. This simple formula continues into adulthood.

If, as adults, our needs are met — in other words, we have enough sleep and good food and comfort — we have a great start on our day and all the relationships we encounter in that day — from intimate ones to relationships with strangers on the bus or operators on the telephone. We snap or we let things roll off our backs depending on how healthy we are feeling at that particular moment.