A neuroscience-informed perspective for holistic health
As a holistic chiropractic and integrative health clinic, we often work with people who are doing everything right, exercising regularly, stretching diligently, eating well, yet still experiencing persistent pain, tension, stress, or a sense of being stuck.
At the start of a new year, many people understandably look for solutions framed around improvement: more effort, more discipline, more control.
Insight mindfulness invites something different and, perhaps surprisingly, something deeply supportive for both physical and psychological wellbeing.
The hidden effort most of us don’t realise we’re making
When people begin mindfulness practice with us, many notice something quite specific:
a sense that they are located behind their eyes, somewhere in the head, acting as the driver of consciousness, watching, monitoring, managing what’s happening.
From a neuroscience perspective, this is completely normal.
The brain integrates:
- visual perspective (we see the world from the eyes),
- proprioceptive input from the head and neck,
- and executive functions involved in planning and self-monitoring.
Together, these processes create the experience of a central “observer” or “controller”. This is closely associated with activity in what neuroscientists call the default mode network, a network involved in self-referential thinking, rumination, and our ongoing internal narrative.
The difficulty is not that this system exists, it’s that we often identify with it without realising.
How this contributes to pain and stress
When attention is habitually organised around this head-centred sense of self:
- thoughts feel personal and urgent,
- bodily sensations are quickly judged or resisted,
- pain feels threatening and must be managed,
- the nervous system remains subtly activated.
This constant internal monitoring increases mental effort and physiological tension. In musculoskeletal terms, this often shows up as:
- persistent muscle guarding,
- reduced movement variability,
- heightened pain sensitivity,
- slower recovery.
Ironically, the harder the system tries to control experience, the more strain it creates, both mentally and physically.
What Insight Mindfulness actually trains
Insight mindfulness training, traditionally known as Vipassanā, is often misunderstood as a technique that adds something new to the mind.
In reality, it does the opposite.
Rather than trying to fix, suppress, or improve experience, insight mindfulness gently reveals that:
- sensations arise on their own,
- thoughts appear and disappear without being commanded,
- emotions move naturally when not interfered with.
From a neurological point of view, this practice is associated with:
- reduced dominance of self-referential processing,
- quieter default mode activity,
- improved regulation of the nervous system,
- greater tolerance of bodily sensation without reactivity.
This is why the practice can feel like doing less, not more.
Why the relief can feel profound
When the brain stops constantly checking, narrating, and correcting experience, a background layer of effort drops away. Nothing special has been added, instead, a chronic, invisible tension has been removed.
Many people describe:
- less reactivity to pain,
- improved sleep,
- easier breathing,
- greater emotional resilience,
- a sense of being more at home in their body.
This relief can feel disproportionate because it comes from ceasing an unnecessary habit, rather than achieving a new state.
How this supports chiropractic and integrative care
From a holistic perspective, physical healing is never purely mechanical.
The nervous system plays a central role in:
- muscle tone,
- joint protection,
- pain perception,
- recovery capacity.
When insight mindfulness reduces unnecessary mental effort and reactivity, the body often becomes more receptive to:
- chiropractic adjustments,
- movement retraining,
- rehabilitation exercises,
- tissue healing.
Rather than forcing change, the system is allowed to reorganise itself more naturally.
A different kind of New Year resolution
At this time of year, many resolutions focus on becoming a better version of ourselves.
Insight mindfulness offers a quieter, more sustainable alternative:
stepping out of the struggle to manage experience altogether.
Not by switching off from life, but by no longer being distracted by the illusion that everything needs to be controlled from the mind.
For many people, this shift supports not only mental wellbeing, but physical healing in ways that are hard to exaggerate.
If you’re interested in learning how insight mindfulness can complement your chiropractic or integrative care, we’re happy to discuss this as part of your treatment journey.
Sometimes the most meaningful change doesn’t come from doing more, but from finally allowing the system to do what it already knows how to do.