The Mind-Body Connection

In the process of trying to heal ourselves, we often overlook the mental and emotional component of healing the body.  The medication we take to alleviate the symptoms do a fine job and we soon forget to ask why we became ill in the first place.  Many times it's easy to point to an outside source of the illness:  a virus, bacteria, or stress from the job.  Any of these may be the physical cause of the illness, but what allowed those things to overtake the immune system in the first place?  That's where the mind - body connection comes into play.

Norman Cousins first documented the power of laughter in healing in his book Anatomy of an Illness.  The idea that our thoughts and attitude play a role in healing is now increasingly accepted in the mainstream, so much so that UCLA researchers are currently studying the effect of laughter on the healing process.  But have you considered that the mind can help us get sick in the first place?  

To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, our thoughts create our words, our words create our beliefs, our beliefs create our habits, our habits create our destiny.  Take a moment and think of the habitual phrases you use every day that relate in some form to your health:  "she's a pain in the neck", "what's eating at you?", "he broke my heart", "I'm sick and tired of ....".  By the way we talk about it, you'd think some people enjoy bad health.

The beliefs that we form out of these words are usually based in the emotions of fear, guilt and anger.  When we live within these "fight or flight" types of emotions, the body releases a stress hormone called cortisol.  Elevated levels of cortisol has been shown to create tiny tears in the inner lining of the arteries to the heart.  If these arteries are damaged in this way, and our emotion prevents the needed repairs from taking place, an sudden bout of anger or fear could trigger a heart attack.

Dr. Redford Williams, author of the book Anger Kills, says that frequent anger induced arousals over time can reduce your resistance to infection and make you more susceptible to cancer.

Not only can the actual experience be detrimental to your health, lingering on the memory of it can be just as harmful.  In a recent study at Hope College, researchers asked participants to recall a situation with another person that was hurtful.  As they replayed the event in their minds, remembering how unfair it was to be hurt in this way, the participants heart rates and blood pressure jumped to above normal levels.

Conversely, when participants chose to empathize with the person who hurt them, their heart rates and blood pressure fell.

This research makes a strong point:  we have a choice about how we can feel about what ever is going on in our life.  Caroline Myss and Louise Hay are two authors who have written extensively about how our emotions, beliefs and words influence our well being.   Their advice centers around making the choice to take responsibility for how we feel and creating the words and beliefs that will enhance our wellness.

It's a pretty powerful notion that our thoughts and beliefs create our wellness (or lack of it).  It requires that you make a choice and that you assume responsibility for that choice.  For many people, it's easier to fill the prescription and have the symptoms go away for a couple of hours.  The responsibility is too great.  But if you want to achieve true wellness, the only medication that will do it is inside of you.

Sources

Hay, Louise   You Can Heal Your Life

ABCnews.com   Forgiveness Good for Your Health

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