By Nancy Mramor Kajuth Ph.D.
Can you recall a day when you felt good inside, in every cell of your being, and with your relationship with every part of your life? Because you tend to experience life through the awareness of your physical body, when you are feeling well, your perception of everything else gets better. And it works both ways: when you feel well physically, you have happier thoughts and when you have happy thoughts, you create a positive feeling in your body. But that is just the beginning!
Today the science of psychoneuroimmunology studies the mind-body interaction, especially the amazing cures that have resulted from the placebo effect. This effect occurs when patients heal from physical conditions when they are not given real medication, surgery, or treatment but believe they have. For example, a treatment may be given that is believed to be effective but is later discovered not to be. So why do one third of those taking the treatment improve? Belief and expectation create a result of the mind and body energies working together. They are intricately connected in such a way that when one is working well, the other can’t help but thrive!
How does it work? Carolyn Myss, Norman Sheely, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Robert Zapolsky, Herb Benson, and David Bohm are some of the names to check out if your mind needs some convincing about the connection between the mind and body. Bohm classified the outcome of the mind-body connection as related to energy, either invisible in the mind (“implicate”) or visible in the body (“explicate”). He has reported that mind and body are inextricably connected, an idea held by ancient tribal cultures. What they simply accepted is now being proven by the science that initially rejected the idea.
And there are definite types of thought patterns that make a bigger difference than others. Steven Cole, a professor of medicine and psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles references the two forms of happiness: hedonic well-being and eudaimonic well-being. “Hedonic well-being is the type of happiness that comes from experiencing lots of positive emotions,” while eudaimonic well-being “is our sense of purpose and direction in life, our involvement in something bigger than ourselves.” The latter is associated with more positive gene activity in immune cells, according to Cole.
That is the good and the bad news. The bad news is that we need to be aware of what both conscious and subconscious thoughts are telling us about health and happiness. Since the subconscious is what is driving the wheel of health, if we are subconsciously programmed to focus on the negative, the painful, what’s lacking in life, then we easily repeat patterns of physical and emotional pain, creating a state of dis-ease, because the false premise repeats itself.
The good news is that we can reprogram old thought patterns and revise them. We can consciously choose to reprogram our subconscious to be responsive and proactive in our lives by changing our focus. If we consider, act upon, and think about health, wellness, and energy in positive ways, the mind will gladly communicate our thoughts to the body. Even more exciting is that it can be done simply through meditation, hypnosis, exercise, creative visualization, tapping techniques, biofeedback, and both modern and ancient traditions that naturally create a mind-body balance. The result is a body that is purposely and consciously created and mindfully experienced so lifelong health is empowered from within!
Learn more at www.realconsciousliving.com