From body signals to brain science: reset body & mind for busy lives

In today’s always-on work culture, most of us treat stress like something to suppress rather than notice. However, recent research shows that our body and brain are close partners in maintaining our physical and emotional health. In this post, we will

• examine somatic healing, the practice of tuning into physical sensations to release stress
• explore the latest research in neuroscience research, from Lisa Feldman Barrett’s constructed emotion theory to the SCAN network and gene-level effects
• start practicing mind-body awareness with simple, five-minute rituals that can be integrated into morning, midday and evening schedule

Somatic healing: the body as emotional archive

Unlike conventional talk therapies that focus primarily on thoughts and beliefs, somatic healing attempts to regulate emotion via the body. It works by increasing awareness of physical sensations and releasing stress held in the body. As Amanda Baker, a clinical psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, explains:

“Somatic therapies posit that our body holds and expresses experiences and emotions, and traumatic events or unresolved emotional issues can become ‘trapped’ inside.”

Key points of somatic healing include:

• Cultivating body awareness to notice tension hotspots (e.g., tight shoulders or clenched jaw).
• Aiming to release stored stress, pain, and trauma physically, instead of only reframing thoughts mentally.
• Core techniques in somatic practices:
  • Body Scan: Systematically noticing tension from feet to scalp
  • Breathwork : Pacing inhales and exhales to regulate the nervous system
  • Pendulation : Oscillating attention between safe (calm) and activation (stress) to expand tolerance
  • Resourcing: Recalling a supportive memory to build internal safety

From soma to sense: research in mind-body connection

Somatic healing suggests that the body carries emotional memory, an idea once considered unconventional but are now explored in neuroscience research. Rather than being a passive shell for the mind, our body is a dynamic partner in how we feel, think, and even predict what’s about to happen emotionally.

That brings us to recent research on neuroscience that attempts to map emotion with physiology.

Barrett’s Theory of Constructed Emotion

Psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett’s Theory of Constructed Emotion challenges the idea of hard-wired “basic emotions” as a reflex. Instead, she argues that the brain constructs emotions in real time based on bodily sensations (a racing heart, knotted gut) using learned concepts (anger, joy, fear) and current context (where you are, whom you are with):

“In every waking moment, your brain uses past experience, organized as concepts, to guide your actions and give your sensations meaning. When the concepts involved are emotion concepts, your brain constructs instances of emotion ….. Your brain is constantly guessing what’s going on inside your body, and these guesses are what you experience as emotion.” — Lisa Feldman Barrett

Three pillars of this theory are:

1. Interoception: the brain’s ability to sense, track, and predict internal bodily states (heart rate, gut tension).
2. Emotion concepts and Social reality: culturally learned categories (anger, fear, joy), as well as shared language and norms that give emotion labels meaning.
3. Predictions: based on previous experience guide your reactions

Just as our perception of color emerges from continuous wavelengths interpreted through color concepts, emotions arise when the brain classifies fluctuating bodily signals via learned emotion concepts.

Somato-Cognitive Action Network (SCAN)

In 2023, Washington University researchers identified a direct link between movement regions and emotional/autonomic centers of the brain. Called SCAN, this wiring explains why even a few slow breaths or gentle stretches can immediately shift how you feel and think.

“We found the place where the goal-driven mind connects to the parts of the brain controlling heart rate and breathing. If you calm one down, it absolutely should have feedback effects on the other.” — Dr. Evan Gordon

Emotional genomics & psychoneuroimmunology

Decades of work from Dr. Candace Pert and others confirms that emotion regulation influences gene expression, affecting inflammation, immune response, and cellular aging. Specifically, Pert’s research centered on neuropeptides, which are short amino-acid messengers that bind G-protein-coupled receptors to fine-tune processes like pain, appetite and stress. She found these receptors all over the body. That discovery showed emotions don’t live just in our heads but play out throughout our entire body, challenging the old biomedical divide between mind and body and revealing we’re a seamless unity where thoughts, feelings and physical processes continuously interact.

In other words, stress held in the body can age cells faster; whereas positive movement, breathwork, and emotional release can reverse the damage.

“Molecules of emotion travel through every cell, linking mind and body in profound ways.” — Candace Pert

Why this matters?

The scientific research on mind-body connection is the very mechanism somatic healing operates on. It reframes emotional intelligence: to change how we feel, we can start by recalibrating our bodily predictions. On the other hand, our emotion can also affect our physiological makeup tremendously.

Here’s why an intentional mind-body practice is worth our time:

1. Stress Resilience: Somatic micro-practices (e.g., a two-minute shoulder roll) recalibrate our nervous system, preventing chronic fight/flight tension and burnout.
2. Emotional Agility: By labeling physical sensations, we gain language for subtle mood changes (“That tightening in my chest means I’m anxious”), empowering us to choose response strategies before automatic emotional reactions.
3. Mental Sharpness: Mind-body practices improve attention and working memory, similar to a mental decluttering. Even a brief qigong routine can sharpen clarity and focus for our upcoming to-do task.
4. Postural Recovery: A consistent practice of Tai chi or qigong improves our posture, balance, and reduces musculoskeletal pain from prolonged seating.

Practice throughout the day

Next, let’s turn these insights into fast, effective routines that can be incorporated seamlessly into our daily life.

7 micro somatic practices

Here are quick, effective practices to regulate stress and reconnect to our body between meetings and errands:

integrate into daily schedules

Here’s how we can integrate the micro practices into our day

how to make these stick

• Start with only two habits, to ramp up consistency
• Link to existing habits: use existing habits as a hook. For example, after morning coffee, do the body-scan; before each meeting, box-breathe; at lunch, tai chi.
• Journaling: For example, “noticed tension in shoulders this morning—pendulation helped soften it”. Tracking builds self-awareness.
• Use habit apps (e.g., Streaks), phone reminders, or accountability buddies to stay on track.

Reference

Below are pivotal studies and online resources to explore further:

• Mind-body connection study by Washington University: Recent research identified an embedded link between body and mind in the structure of human brains, and expressed in people’s physiology, movements, behaviour, and thinking.
• Lisa Feldman Barrett – How Emotions Are Made: A must-read that overturns the classical view of hard-wired emotions, showing emotion as a predictive brain process informed by culture and experience
• Candace Pert - Molecules of Emotion: Emotion is a whole-body experience.
• Harvard Health – What is somatic therapy? - Explores how unresolved emotions get “trapped” in the body and outlines somatic techniques like titration and pendulation
• NewYork-Presbyterian – Qigong & Tai Chi Evidence: Highlights specific clinical outcomes, from improved sleep and mood to reduced chronic pain and lowered blood pressure
• Mayo Clinic – Mayo Guide to Holistic Health (2024): Confirms that tai chi, qigong, and yoga reduce inflammation and rewire autonomic responses—offering lasting benefits for resilience and energy.
• WebMD on Tai Chi & Qigong: Reviews how these practices enhance circulation, balance and alignment, emphasizing low-impact joint-friendly movement
• Harvard Health on Tai Chi: Summarizes evidence for tai chi as “medication in motion,” with robust trials showing benefits across age groups and conditions

Conclusion

In this blog post, we’ve seen how somatic healing feels, why modern neuroscience proves it, and exactly how to practice it in bite-sized rituals.

By acknowledging that emotions are partly predictions born of bodily sensations (Barrett), we empower ourselves to proactively shape our stress responses. Combining science with mind-body awareness and movement offer more than physical wellness. They can also improve our mental wellbeing to prevent chronic tension, elevate mood, and sharpen our cognitive edge.