Mind-Body Connection - Essay Example

Another similar type of exercise, very like that of yoga, is pilates. Both exercises emphasize the mental aspect of exercise that requires focus and strong discipline to gain good results. In yoga, which is an Eastern cultural practice, meditation is utilized to relax the mind and relieve the body of stress caused by worry, anxiety, depression, grief, and other negative emotions. A number of physical ailments have been linked to stress such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma and even certain types of cancer.

Yoga is one popular method of mind-body awareness that in a way helps to heal the body because the mind and the body are only one unit (Siegel 60). While yoga is spiritual in nature, pilates is more on flexibility and strengthening the muscles of the body, especially the torso (core of the body), the back muscles and also on the abdominal muscles, that greatly improves lung capacity and results in better blood circulation. Pilates was originally developed to rehabilitate immobilized or wounded soldiers; it is made up some 500 different exercises divided into two general types: mat exercises and resistance exercises using some special equipment.

Both yoga and pilates offer the same benefits of the mind-body awareness due to connection of nerves, molecules, antibodies and hormones.