The body-mind connection is a new idea, but it is simply naming experiences that we all have had. Babies and young children are almost always swimming blithely around in their own phenomenal developing body-mind connections, while we as adults go in and out of being connected within ourselves or not. Since we live with so many day to day stresses to which we react habitually, we often lose track of those feelings of being rooted in our body and clarity of mind.
There are a multitude of pathways to reconnect the body and mind. Some of us favor everyday activities like walking, swimming, a massage, or a hot bath as a way of finding release of the body and the mind into integration. At times we may choose to go more deeply into the body-mind connection, as we prepare for birth or work through the difficulties of pregnancy or birth. The somatic approach is profoundly integrating, as it based on the movement design for life implicit in fetal and baby development.
Exploring the body-mind connection, women can access their own internal resources for birth. Among these many internal resources are our physiological rhythms. Familiar rhythms like breath and pulse are direct ways to start finding the body-mind connection. Many relaxation and meditation practices draw on the calming power of noticing the breath.
To find the body-mind connection through the breath, just allow yourself to slow down and to observe the flow of breath in and out of the body. Notice the movement of the ribs and of your organs, your belly. Notice the length of the breath, without trying to force anything. Just notice it as it changes. It will always be changing. The rhythms of the body are not mechanical, they vary moment to moment.