As in it gives you increased flexibility, endurance, and strength. It’s really quite that simple.

When our bodies lose flexibility, strength or endurance, we tend to want to do something about that. Some loss happens with age, but exercise can slow much of that. The same thing happens to us emotionally and cognitively, but since we can’t “see” it so easily it gets less cheerleading. When our thoughts and our emotions lose their capacity for flexibility, for endurance and strength—when we start to resort to black and white thinking, reactionary impulses and a lack of empathy—then chances are your life is going to be more difficulty, happiness is going to be harder to achieve, and you will feel worse about yourself or those around you. And you need help. And asking for help is what civilization is about. Not capitalism. Or greed. Or whatever. Right?

(And welcome to the last blog post of 2014 from Therapy is Dandy—I have been rather reticent, I know. Life. And work. And exercise. And video games.)

So, any questions about counseling as yoga for your brain?

I am going to beat this analogy to death because it is quite simple and rather clever (And it’s the end of the year and I have to get this thing written). Practitioners of yoga have much better spatial awareness of their own bodies. They are more “in” their bodies than not. Their bodies have strength and resilience that is different than someone who is just mindlessly pumping iron. Their strength comes from the core and from the spine. That makes them quite solid and grounded. That is admirable and it is a trait we should all be so lucky to have ourselves.

Now this is where I veer off into a tangent, a thing, something very important but also optional to consider. There is no difference between the mind and the body. They are absolutely connected and react/playoff/distract/resemble/resonate/frustrate/ all the time. I won’t even try to convince you if you don’t agree. Chances are you wouldn’t read a blog called Therapy is Dandy if you had a rigid and atrophied perspective on life. Or maybe that’s precisely why you are here. Either way, I just want you to consider what I am suggesting. Do you let yourself laugh? Do you let yourself cry, when needed? Do you express anger and frustration without becoming the Incredible Hulk? Are you able to explain to yourself or those around you what you are feeling and why—without an intervention style procedure? A lot of this is related to the idea of armor—an idea from Reich I have mentioned more than once before. Our bodies, and the way we carry them, are directly connected to our thoughts and our life experience—how could they not be?

What does your body carry for you?

And what is your body telling you about your emotions and your life experience?

Do you even listen?

I hope you have had an excellent 2014, and that 2015 is amazing and challenging and fulfilling for you and yours.

Thank you very much for showing up here and reading. It boggles my mind that I get web traffic at all.