What the Mind Can Learn From the Body

I’ve had my knee immobilized for the past week, to aid recovery.

Allowing the knee to heal is important, but I’m starting to notice the effects on other parts of the chain.

The body is a complex system of systems, each of which is dependent on the other. You can’t immobilize a knee without causing effects on the hip, ankles, back, and shoulder.

Immobilizing one joint will impact everything else.

The Path of Least Resistance

The body will always take the path of least resistance. If it meets a sticking point, it finds a way around. When the body understands the goal, it finds a way to get there.

When one part of the system gets stuck, other pieces pick up the slack.

In theory, it’s good teamwork. In practice, it’s not always ideal.

By finding a workaround, the body can end up defaulting to compensation patterns that lead to overusing some muscles or overloading some joints. The body’s “team members” do jobs they aren’t designed to do, which eventually leads to injury.

The Path of Greatest Resistance

On the other hand, when the mind encounters an obstacle, it will attempt to plow through it. I notice my mind can get more rigid than my muscles; once I get set on a way of doing something, it’s hard to let that go and try another way.

At times, it can feel to me like my mind seems to favor the path of most resistance — finding value only in the hardest version of a thing.

While overcoming obstacles can feel rewarding, the mental effort of navigating resistance takes its toll over time, leading to fatigue and burnout.

Finding a Middle Ground

Somewhere between those extremes, for both the mind and body, there is a middle ground. A way to navigate the obstacles without falling into compensation patterns.

In the body, the solution comes from training proper alignment and improving functionality of each part, so that the parts are individually strong and stronger together.

The solution for the mind is similar: when our outcomes are aligned with our values, we find fewer obstacles to navigate and it’s easier to navigate those that do arise.

For the mind, the path of least resistance can be a good thing.