What is Mindbody Science?
Avoiding wormholes and giving the kid sister a break
Artist's illustration of a supermassive black hole in the middle of the ultradense galaxy M60-UCD1. Credit: NASA and ESA.
My Ultimate Stress Relief Cheat Sheets, published last July, kicked off with a timeline of answers to the question:
Why didn’t I know that anxiety was behind my pain?
2015: I don’t care why I didn’t know. I want to know why the therapists I saw didn’t know.
2017: Seems like, in the field of mental health, you need to know what’s wrong with you for people to be able to help you. At least I have Lexapro now.
2019: I guess I hid it so well that I unintentionally hid it from myself? I still have physical symptoms. I continue to be grateful for Lexapro, which helps me turn down the thermostat on my internal environment, especially on anxious mornings.
2021: I am still really sick—nausea, muscle aches, migraines, lightheadedness. Is anxiety connected to the physical pain I am in? I still don’t get it. COVID hasn’t helped.
2023: After a year spent in bed, something finally helped: I had a hysterectomy. I’m grateful to see a decrease in my physical symptoms, but I am still in pain. I don’t know what to do next. I suspect my nervous system plays a role here.
2024: I finally get it —I have spent a lifetime in a state of nervous system dysregulation. I believe I can improve my physical and mental health by regulating my nervous system. My pain is diminishing. It’s a daily practice, but I am healing.
In this article, I’ll be digging into the mechanism that, in the last two years, has helped me change my relationship with both pain and anxiety to the point where I’m no longer even asking that question about anxiety (because I no longer care). Here’s what my new timeline of thinking sounds like:
How do my thoughts, beliefs, and emotions affect my life?
2015: (scrunching forehead) Well, I just learned that an anxiety disorder appears to be at the root of my issue, so I guess in my case they are negatively affecting my life.
2017: I’ve been writing about the perils of overthinking for two years and have learned that without conscious effort to change, my thoughts, beliefs, and emotions will negatively impact my life.
2019: Some of us need medication, meditation, and communication to successfully navigate our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions.
2021: (forefinger raised) I am reading a lot of books and learning a lot about emotions. Want me to tell you some stuff? Let’s go.
Early 2023: I finally believe I can heal my mind and body. I have no idea how I will do it.
Late 2023: Wait, what’s the role of the nervous system here?
Early 2024: (highligher in hand) Out of sheer desperation I’ve discovered Sarah Warren’s Pain Relief Secret and begun her online clinical somatics program. My mind is being blown by what I’m experiencing.
Mid 2024: (Headphones on) I’m completely bought in that the nervous system is the answer to the question listed above. I’m listening to Sarno acolyte Nicole Sach’s podcast, learning about pain reprocessing (described here as the third leg of my tripod of healing).
Late 2024: Every day I am seeing how thoughts, beliefs, and emotions show up in my body, which, in turn, affects every part of my life. I’m learning to regulate my nervous system in order to be able to show up for people I love (and myself).
Early 2025: I’m so lucky to live in a time where I can live the answer thanks to the work of early mindbody science pioneers.1
“All of this is fine and good, Meredith,” you might be saying to yourself, “But I still don’t understand exactly what mindbody science is. It barely comes up when I google it. Why is that?”2
What is Mindbody Science?
Great question, skeptical reader, and one that quickly leads us down a deep philosophical wormhole.3 When it comes to this question, it’s easy to get real big, real fast. That’s my theory for why it barely comes up when you google it. No one — including me!—wants to wade into open-ended questions on the nature of consciousness online. We all know that once you’ve opened that can of worms, wormholes will follow.
So I’ll just share that in 1641, in a turning point for Western philosophy, Rene Descartes introduced the concept of Mind-Body Dualism. This foundational understanding of the mind and physical body as separate entities shaped much of the thinking that followed it4 including, sadly, modern medical practice.5
From Biomedical to Biopsychosocial
Biomedical science is that confident guy who strides forward to shake your hand, clear about who he is and what he’s doing.
Nice to meet you, I’m biomedical science.
Nice to meet you, I’m biomedical science.
Biomedical science is the study of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and statistics to understand how the body's organs, cells, and systems function. This is what most people think of when we talk about medicine and the physical body, and for good reason. Biomedical science is what led humans to the discovery of penicillin, anesthesia, medical imaging, germ theory, and the discovery of the DNA structure. Biomedical science, with his straight teeth and bright smile, has the confidence of a winner.
Mindbody science, on the other hand, is a bit more complex.
Oh hey, nice to meet you. Sorry, I’m distracted. Got a lot going on over here. I’m mindbody science.
Oh hey, nice to meet you. Sorry, I’m distracted. Got a lot going on over here. I’m mindbody science.
Biopsychosocial medicine, the broader model that mindbody science falls under, focuses on the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors in the study of health and illness. It encompasses various disciplines inc neuroscience and psychoneuroimmunology, or the study of the interaction between psychological factors and the nervous and immune systems. For example, the biopsychosocial model might examine how a psychological factor like stress can influence a biological factor like cardiovascular disease, or how a social factor like support can affect recovery from illness.
An often-overlooked subset of biopsychosocial medicine, mindbody science focuses on improving wellbeing by studying how thoughts and emotions influence physical health. Mindbody scientific research, for example, might investigate how mindfulness practices affect immune function or how stress reduction techniques can impact cardiovascular health.
The obstacles to widespread adoption of mindbody science are many. This July 2005 paper, Barriers to the Integration of Mind-Body Medicine, explored those obstacles in medical training. Physicians, residents, and medical students listed the following reasons that mindbody science isn’t widely embraced:
the common perception that psychosocial factors are beyond a doctor’s capacity to control
the common perception that patients do not want to address their psychosocial/lifestyle issues
the cultural beliefs (perhaps rooted in Cartesian dualism?) that addressing psychosocial issues is not within the purview of physicians
the lack of knowledge about existing research due to insufficient monetary incentives
a larger cultural ethos that favors the “quick-fix” over the more difficult task of examining the role of psychosocial factors
In other words, mindbody science is a kid sister who’s shouting to be heard, wanting to be appreciated for her unique skills while being overshadowed by her big brother, biomedical science.
What’s the good news?
The good news is that the tides are turning. I’m not the only person getting fascinated by the healing potential for mindbody science at scale. In the same way that I got a lower back tattoo two years before everyone else did,6 I am convinced that the next few years will see an explosion of interest in mindbody science.7 I’ll be the first one in line to cheer new discoveries while working to share them with you all here in my newsletter. So if you’ve haven’t subscribed yet…
What comes to mind when you hear the words “mindbody science”? Share in the comments below!
Footnotes
A particular thank you to those pioneers in the study of somatics, polyvagal theory, EMDR therapy, and pain reprocessing.
I have so much love for my skeptical readers because I. am. you.
I opened this post with an artist’s rendering of a black hole. Black holes are real. They are made of strong gravity that nothing, not even light, can escape. A wormhole, meanwhile, is a hypothetical tunnel that connects two different points in space. It is not real.
Note: After reading this piece, a smart fellow Voyager wrote me to say that while it's easy to center Descartes as the launching pad of mind/body dualism, it's important to acknowledge the role of technological changes that enabled him to do so. He says, “The moveable type printing press, for example, enabled the extension of human will far beyond the reach of the human hand, as well as the inclination towards a need for refined measurement, which did much more to set the stage for Descartes than Descartes lighting a fuse. I am not confident that a simple philosophical shift restores something in a significant way when so much of the modern world is built on these foundations.” Thank you, friend, for making sure this piece acknowledges the complexity of our shared human history.
In this paper, Mind-body Dualism: A critique from a Health Perspective, clinical psychologist Dr Neeta Mehta argues that Cartesian dualism has led to a crisis in modern medical practice due to biological reductionism.
Let’s just throw into a footnote that once it hit mainstream it was called a tramp stamp, shall we? Doesn’t really need to go into the main body of the text, does it?
Another reason to trust me: I was one of the first people to start writing about mental health in 2015, just a few years before it started to get trendy. Mark my words, I’m always just one tiny step ahead.
