Humans have One Body: Stop Separating Physical & Mental Health

We are perpetually talking about humans as if we are made of up uniquely distinct and separate parts that are simply operating together. We refer to the "brain" separate from the "body" and distinct from the "soul." We categorize and speak about mental health as being entirely apart from and different than physical health. 

But the truth is...

Humans have one body. Our neural networks (brains/intelligences) are part of our physical body. 

Our brains (intelligences, neural networks, nervous system) impact everything we think, feel, and do. But because we can’t see them, they seem less tangible than a broken bone.

Why are we so uncomfortable with considering the health of the whole human in our workplace practices?

In the 1930s and 1970s, workplaces were finally forced to take safety seriously in the U.S. when the government passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). These movements led organizations to implement huge changes in safety practices, documentation and training. 

But these safety practices fell short in their effectiveness because they applied only to physical health, not mental health.

Safety usually has a whole budget, training, leader or even department but rarely includes full physical embodied safety including within the human body. We basically ignore or downplay the effects of excess stress or residual and repeat trauma on the human body.

For example, health care professionals are typically provided PPE (personal protective equipment) but not the equivalent to support the impact of trauma on their brains and bodies. 

High stress professions have a history of negative health consequences and in large part remain completely unchanged.

• Lawyers have extremely high rates of addiction, depression, and suicide.
• The tech industry has high rates of burnout, anxiety, and imposter syndrome.
• Health care, social workers, and first responders experience high rates of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), vicarious trauma, anxiety, and burnout.
• Construction workers deal with high suicide rates, depression, and substance abuse.

The truth is...

We must wake up and realize that our workplaces fail to treat humans like human beings. 

No, I don’t mean just toxic practices (although they are also included), but the practices we rely upon are often in direct contradiction to human performance. Even the ones we think are supportive are sometimes causing more harm than good (e.g., performance reviews).

We have the scientific research and data that could inform everything we do more effectively. But rather than develop leaders who understand how the human body works, we keep doing the same outdated past practices over and over and over again.

It’s actually easy to learn and implement new practices but we are so stuck in our “familiar” patterns and systems that getting leaders to wake up and try something different is hard. It may be uncomfortable but in the discomfort is the discovery of expanded capacity.

Runner with a Broken Bone Analogy

If you are trying to win a race, you wouldn’t want your runner to be running on a broken leg, with the flu, and carrying a boulder. Right?

But this is exactly what almost everyone is doing everyday they go to work. The problem is we can’t see the broken leg, flu symptoms, or boulders people are carrying.

The human body is constantly scanning its environment and processing the data it takes in through its various senses. When we experience certain stressful challenges in our lives and our bodies process them, they create a pattern to protect us from that challenge in the future. They essentially learn from those early experiences what to do to best survive - to be loved, cared for, and successful in life.

When we experience certain stressful challenges in our lives and our bodies process them, they create a pattern to protect us from that challenge in the future.

These experiences, although we aren’t consciously thinking about them, are still embedded in our bodies. They are still a broken bone we’ve not healed but instead figured out how to live with. 

In some cases, we’ve even turned it into a survival strategy - I can keep running even when it hurts like hell... "Just persevere." "Be strong." "Don’t quit!" 

"I’m so great I can win the race with a broken bone look how amazing I am."

To keep going, we navigate around it, and it becomes a part of our ways of being, one we don’t even notice anymore.

Then, we start experiencing a ton of stressful things in life and work. It starts building up in our body because we don’t release it. We don’t outrun the threat of stress from work; we watch Netflix, scroll social media, or have a drink. 

With enough time, we end up carrying boulders of stress around. (And in today’s world, nearly everyone in these professions is carrying around boulders).

Then, we get sick with the flu. And we think it’s because of the season or our kids, but it’s also because our immune system is compromised by our broken bones and boulders. 

Our bodies are tired, and they are trying to tell us, but we’ve been taught to ignore them. 

They get sick, develop autoimmune conditions, headaches, and pain in the body.

Now, with that visual, imagine how difficult it is for that person to run the race or go to work every day and perform. We’ve lived with it so long and it happens so gradually, we don’t even notice it. But it’s all there right in front of us every day.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

• We know now how to fix the “broken bone”, or the trauma/stress imprint stored in the body.
• We know why it’s important to listen to the bodies wisdom and move stress out of the body.
• We know how to rewire the past patterns to create new more effective neural pathways that heal our hurt bodies and expand our capacity to perform and live.

Imagine how it would feel to go from being the runner with the broken leg, flu, and carrying a boulder to one fully healed and able to run unconstrained. Imagine how that human might be able to help those on their team heal and run faster.

Workplace Practices Perpetuate Pain

But instead of bringing the practices that would heal and help people free themselves from these constraints, we implement practices that often make it worse.

We create high-stress, tight-deadline cultures that trigger the nervous system's fight-flight-freeze response, impacting people’s ability to make coherent, conscious choices.

We fail to set clear expectations or give regular feedback, leaving people struggling to know if they are doing the right things and how well they are doing at them. This insecurity creates stress and often also triggers their already wounded bone (trauma).

We create policies that are based on ensuring compliance and maximum control or productivity but fail to consider that excess control undermines trust. Or that the impact or outcome is more important than an arbitrary productivity metric. One that would easily be surpassed if we weren’t trying to win the race with broken bones and flu symptoms.

Worse, we don’t develop leaders with this knowledge or capabilities, so they perpetuate the same problems.

I could go on and on with examples. 

A better way...

What if instead we implemented an approach to performance that:

1. Taught people how to identify their constraints, injuries, illnesses, and boulders that are impacting them every day at work.
2. Provided them with a solution that shifts their broken bones back into place, healing their bodies so they can change to better ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
3. Supported people in how to create new patterns that better serve them by rewiring their neural networks to expand their capacity and capabilities.

Can you imagine the result? 

How much healthier and happier people would be performing without such limitations? 

How much more would they be able to accomplish and achieve while also feeling better?

I can not only imagine it, but I am also working to actively change it! Will you join me?

For Reflection

How is your workplace or organization impacting people's performance? What past practices might be perpetuating pain and negatively impacting their ability to perform? Are people struggling under boulders of stress? Are people trying to work through illness and health issues? Are people having traumas triggered by new challenges and past practices? 

Conclusion

When we try to segment physical and mental health or prioritize one over the other, we do our people a disservice. Everywhere we go our bodies go with us. Which means, when people come to work, they bring all the challenges within their body - their traumas, their feelings, their stress, their struggles, their experiences. 

Ignoring this has led to practices that are perpetuating the pain rather than supporting the humans in ways to promote peak performance. Leaders need to be educated on the science of human performance and implement performance practices that enhance and expand human capabilities, capacity, and competence. 

Let's look at our humans holistically and identify practices that will contribute to human sustainability. The future will be shaped by the leaders in our workplaces willingness to tackle human sustainability as a critical strategic business imperative!