The body as a sensing instrument for systemic change
Originally published 20-03-2026 on Substack
A daily yoga app notification pinged on my phone during lunch. Attracting my attention, I turned towards my phone to read a quote by the late Thich Nhat Hanh.
"Our own life has to be our message”
It makes sense. I don’t believe we can truly develop ourselves by only focusing our attention outwards. And that we cannot ultimately change our behavior if we don’t look inwards to what is unconsciously (or consciously) holding us back. But, on this particular day, when I read this quote, I felt a fear creep up in me. What is the message that my life, and my body are trying to tell me - one I might not want to hear?
The question that came blurting into my mind was something along the lines of “If I was truly listening to myself now, would I be doing what I’m doing now?”
Not a small question for a quick lunch break reflection. All-encompassing, completely vague, and somewhat frightening to have to sit with over my quinoa salad.
Going back to work that afternoon, the question lingered with me. Crept into a few meetings, a few Claude Code sessions, and certainly into the way I was vocalizing my day to my fiancé later that evening.
What I’d like to explore is this combination between the knowing in our body and the knowing in our mind. I’d like to experiment and try to understand how a thought can lead to a feeling, and vice versa. And how if we can continue to learn how to control (but not in a negative way) our mind, how does our body react? And then, how does our life continue to unfold?
When I sit in meditation, deep breathing creates a sense of calm in my body, which often (not always) translates to a sense of calm in my mood. When I’ve just received great feedback on an idea or created a gorgeous excel spreadsheet (yeah, I’m like that), I feel satisfied and happy, resulting in higher energy. There is an undeniable connection between our body and mind. Which one do we let lead?
As a yoga teacher, I’m trained to understand that the practice of yoga, is not just a physical practice, but it’s a greater practice of learning to ‘control the mind’ through the body. Through asanas (physical postures), pranayama (breathing), and meditation we are learning to become more aware of this connection. Seeing the ripples that occur in our mind arise, and rather than immediately reacting to it, we watch it, sit with it, and ultimately try to learn from it. The practice then becomes an awareness practice. And we lean on this practice, discipline and rituals to help us calm these ripples.
But sometimes, that feels like a lot. Practice feels heavy, discipline feels hard and the ‘reward’ feels, well, not so rewarding. I get it. And especially these days, we’re holding a lot. There is a duality to the privileged life of those of us who are not living in a constant state of fear or worry from factors that are out of our control. We are asked to hold both the fact that there is devastating pain and suffering happening in war zones, and also the day-to-day tasks that our own life asks from us.
I actually feel that this moment calls for greater body and mind connection, because when I feel connected to my body, I feel my mind is clearer. I feel my connections are more genuine. I feel more purposeful. I feel more human.
And, what I feel that this moment calls for, more than ever, is more humanity. The understanding that we’re all — despite our place in the world, and despite our view of the world — going through this moment together. I want to feel more human, I want to feel more purposeful and I want to feel more genuine connections. And to do that, I have the feeling that our bodies know better than we do, that our minds could learn a bit from our bodies, but only if the path is clean enough for us to see.
We cannot see the sky through the reflection of a busy body of water, only through a crystal clear reflection can we see the sky.
I’m still sitting with this question. With my quinoa salad, in meetings, in the quiet dawn during meditation, and during my Claude Code sessions, and maybe that’s the point. This is my attempt at my brain reacting to a feeling in my body, telling me that these words and feelings inside of me want to be heard.
This is the first article that I’m writing from a place of not-knowing-yet. In this threshold moment: where we’re no longer who we were, but not yet who we’re becoming.
And I’d like to invite you along with me. To explore the ways in which our two worlds; one in our head and one in our body live consistently simultaneously together, and yet sometimes on different planets. And to explore and begin to understand how that shows up in our friendships, our leadership, our relationships, basically in all of our ‘ships.
Let’s set sail together!