What if health as more than just an accumulation of our habits and forcing ourselves to eat well and move more? What if health was compromised of what’s inside your mind? In this post we’re breaking down the mind/body connection and how to achieve health by simply creating a healthy mindset.
The science world has been proving that the mind can heal the body for nearly 55 years. But we probably don’t need science to understand how deep the connection between our thoughts, feelings, emotions and our biology.
Stop and think about something you are scared of, do you instantly feel your heart start to race? Does your respiratory rate pick up and do you get stomach cramps?
How about getting embarrassed and the rush of blood to your face causes a flushness that makes it hard to deny?
There are many biological factors we can experience linked back to our emotions. Even more so is what’s called “the placebo effect.” When patients in clinical trials get nothing more than sugar pills, saline injections or fake surgeries and still see just as many if not more results than the actual experimental drug or procedure.
In fact, the placebo effect can account for healing up to 80% in some cases {1}.
Why?
That’s the power of the mind. The incredible, intricate, delicate and mind-boggling connection our body and mind have. Today we’re diving into just that.
On the podcast I have a special guest, Dr. Terri Cooper from Wholistic Wellness Clinic, to talk more about the mind/body connection and what we can do to foster a healthy relationship.
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Can you think yourself sick?
There is a lot of data to back this claim up, that you can think yourself sick, fat, depressed or whatever ails you. There are even quotes emerging that are a little different from, “you are what you eat” to “you are what you think you are.”
But how truthful is this?
Scientifically speaking, focusing your attention on illness has been proven to predispose the body to illness. And excessive knowledge about what can go wrong with the body can actually harm you.
In fact, any negative thought, even if it doesn’t stem from fear of getting sick is going to release the limbic brain to send out an alert that activates our stress response. The area of that is needed for survival, creating the flight-or-fight stress response.
While this surge in cortisol is good in the short-term, it’s not necessarily what we hope to see long-term. Which can happen easily with the constant flow of negativity some have running through their mind.
As described in the great book, Mind Over Medicine, when the nervous system is in its “flight-or-fight” response, the body’s self-repair mechanisms do not function properly and the body becomes predisposed to illness – all because you thought yourself here.”
the impact of the emotion
Whenever we have a thought, an emotion our body is reacting to it. Whether positive or negative our body sends a surge of neuropeptides and neurotransmitters to carry the signal that’s been translated all throughout the body.
When these emotions come in contact with each and every cell, they fill a receptor on the cell, specific to that emotion {peptide}. The neuropeptides then communicate with the cell to what it perceives is happening in our outward life based on the specific emotion and the genetic makeup is expressed accordingly.
The process of gene expression is called epigenetics. Which is remarkable up and coming field.
The gene expression, based on the neuropeptide, based on the emotion is deciphering the health of your body and what is expressed.
The good news is, we’re not defined by the genetics we were born with.
The better news is that we have great control over how our genes are expressed via epigenetics and this has everything to do with our emotions and thoughts.
the big idea
Thoughts are not just things but something that is tied to other things.
They don’t just come in and vanish, thoughts, emotions, feelings carry a weight that radiates throughout your body. And as you guessed it, positive thoughts and emotions have a more positive impact at the cellular level than negative ones.
Positive ones give more freedom and make room for your body to really thrive. This is because it’s not so concerned about keeping you alive. Negative ones, on the other hand, put your body in a tailspin of keeping you alive {even though in most cases we’re not living with life-or-death situation}.
The negative emotions cause your body to conserve energy and increase fat stores. Ultimately, diverting energy away from the immune system increasing your chances of illness.
As you can imagine, we end up heavier, more exhausted and sick.
Not what we’re going for.
a healthy mind = a healthy life
The moral of the story, the healthier and happier your mind, the healthier your body will be too.
In this podcast episode, Dr. Cooper breaks down the biological impact and includes some ways to help your body catch a break. Make sure you listen to the podcast to take a deeper dive into creating a healthier mind.
resources
Dr. Cooper mentioned many products in today’s show. Here are the resources and where you can find them.
- Molecules of Emotion
- EMF Wave Magnets
- Chips for cell phones
- Magnets for Laptops
- NET Therapy
- Thai Shin Acupuncture Device
Make sure you check out more on Dr. Cooper and her clinic on:
Website | Facebook
Speaking of EMF radiation, one thing we do every night is shut down our WIFI, which I would highly recommend. To keep it simple, we purchased this inexpensive timer to automatically shut down and turn on our WIFI. I’d highly recommend it.
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