Seven Self-Healing Secrets HOW THE MIND CAN HELP YOU HEAL KNOWING THE FOLLOWING SELF-HEALING SECRETS CAN HELP YOU TO ACCESS YOUR OWN SELF-HEALING CAPABILITIES. The secrets, (called "secrets" because few people know them), explain why physical problems don''t necessarily have purely physical causes, how your emotional well-being and your physical wellness are inextricably linked and why it is possible to heal your body and your life by changing your mind. Working in accordance with these self-healing secrets has been instrumental in helping me to develop the right mindset for help- ing others. I believe they can help you to take control of your phys- ical and emotional destiny, be free from chronic stress and enjoy a more fulfilling life. Ready to learn the first secret? Let''s begin! SECRET NO.1 Your Body Is Your Mind What your mind believes, perceives and experiences has the potential to be sent to your entire body and cause physical responses. A commonly held misconception in the western world is that the mind and body are separate entities: that there are physical problems and then there are mental or emotional problems. However, the mind and body is very much one entity.
Mental stress and unresolved emotional unease has the potential to impact on many aspects of the physical body, and often shows up as physical conditions. The mind-body connection has been known about for centuries, but it is only in recent years that so many scientific studies have been able to prove how thoughts and emotions affect the body: IF YOU''RE GRATEFUL. then you almost double certain aspects of your immune system, heal more quickly due to higher oxygenation of the tissues and positively impact the "coherence" of your heart rhythms, which can have a positive knock-on effect with many of the other essential organs too. IF YOU''RE ANGRY. then researchers at Ohio State University found you get a surge in cytokines, the immune molecules that trigger inflammation. High levels of cytokines are linked with arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. IF YOU''RE JEALOUS. then your body ends up suffering from increased blood pressure, heart rate, adrenalin levels and a weakened immunity.
IF YOU''RE IN LOVE. then you increase the levels of nerve-growth factor, according to research at the University of Pavia in Italy. Enhanced nerve growth helps restore the nervous system and improves memory. Love has also been linked with pain relief, healthier hearts and living longer. IF YOU''RE STRESSED OUT. then a harmful concoction of stress hormones, including adrenalin and norepinephrine, can end up circulating through your body. Over time, stress hormones like these have been found to compromise the immune system, weaken organs, cause the body to turn off long-term building-and-repair projects, speed up the aging process and make the body more prone to developing chronic ill- ness. And the list goes on and on.
Your mind is linked with your autonomic nervous system (ANS), which regulates your heartbeat, blood pressure, digestion and metabolism, along with many more of the "automatic" bodily functions. Obvious autonomic mind-body connection responses include getting a red face when embarrassed, your mouth watering when you think of a food you love and experi-encing butterflies in your stomach when you''re feeling nervous or excited. Even sexual arousal requires the mind and body to communicate! Although we generally take these common physical reactions for granted, it''s useful to take a moment to appreciate what''s actually happening. Your embarrassed red face requires thousands of chemical reactions to take place within your body along with the diversion of blood flow to your skin. That sensation of nervousness in your stomach is the blood draining from the stomach lining as it heads to the outer regions of the body to help you resist or run from the perceived external threat. When it comes to sexual arousal - well, we all know that a range of physical responses can happen if certain thoughts occur! Chemical Messengers of the Mind Many of these examples of the mind-body connection are known due to evidence of the mind being found to exist in the cells of your body. Neuropeptides (also known as "the molecules of emotion") are released into your bloodstream, which in turn can affect the functioning of your entire body by communicating with your individual cells. Now there are very few places on your body that you can cut yourself where you wouldn''t bleed.
Similarly, there are few places in your body where you don''t find neuropeptides. The body is literally riddled with the chemical messengers of your thoughts; so much so that it is scientifically accurate to say the state of your body is quite literally a physical manifestation of your mind. Yes, that''s right. Your body is a physical manifestation of your mind. Stop to consider all the physical reactions that happen as a result of what''s happening in your thoughts and emotions, and you can''t help but begin to question whether your chronic back pain, skin condition or digestive disorder is the result of a purely physical phenomenon. The implications of the mind-body connection are massive when it comes to understanding why people end up with physical problems.This is especially so when you explore the extent to which your beliefs are not only known by the cells of your body but are also constantly actually causing physical changes to occur. More about this soon, but first.
LET''S PLAY A GAME Monitoring the Mind-Body For the next 24 hours, be highly vigilant about the physical reactions that occur in your body when you''re thinking about different things, or when you''re experiencing different situations. Notice what happens within your body when you: * Think about certain memories; * Think about someone you dislike compared to someone you love dearly; * Think about different future scenarios that you are excited about compared to ones you''re worried about; * Find something funny and laugh; * Find something sad and cry; * Criticize someone/something; * Praise and appreciate someone/something; * Experience different external situations - like being stuck in traffic, being hugged or watching a movie. A Vital First Step in Self-Healing The first step in intentionally self-healing (I say intentionally, be- cause you are unintentionally self-healing all the time!) is to notice first-hand, in your own personal life experience, that your thoughts and emotions are impacting on your body. Becoming aware of this means you move from being oblivious to the ongoing, behind-the-scenes impact of the mind-body con- nection to a simple appreciation that it is happening. Although it may sound like a simple step, believe it or not this is a massive leap towards taking charge of your physical destiny. When you fully appreciate that your thoughts and emotions impact upon what happens within your body, you naturally find yourself in a far better position to actively influence your physical health and well-being. SECRET NO. 2 Your Beliefs Become Your Body Unhealthy beliefs can manifest physically as an unhealthy body.
The Biological Impact of Your Beliefs Beliefs can impact biology due to the interconnection of the mind and body. Your beliefs are the conclusions that you''ve come to throughout your life about your body, your personality, your capabilities, self-worth, loveability, safety and so on. Beliefs have been found to have the power to influence many aspects of a person''s physical functioning, including digestion, immune system, blood pressure and even DNA. The impacts of the belief-body connection range from everyday physical responses to more life-threatening results; in a very real way, your beliefs become your biology. Recognizing the impact of your beliefs can help you to increase confidence in your own self- healing capabilities. The Miracle in Your Mouth When you think about a food you like your body gets ready to eat it. Your salivary glands immediately go to work producing a fluid composed of water, mucus, proteins, mineral salts and amylase, an enzyme that breaks down starches. Incredibly, your body can react differently towards foods you like and to foods you dislike.
When you think about a food you don''t like your body produces less saliva, making it more difficult to swal- low the food you believe you don''t like.Two very different physical responses, yet the only way the body knows to respond differently is via the beliefs you have about the different foods. Amazing! Clockwork Orange Perhaps even more amazing are the experiences of some people with multiple-personality disorders. There are documented cases of the same person having different physical conditions depend- ing on which personality is prominent at any given time. In a particular case, one personality was highly allergic to oranges and the other could eat them with no allergic reaction whatsoever. In another case, one personality needed glasses to see, whereas the other had perfect 20-20 vision. In both cases, the cause of the differences between the personalities existed in the mind, not the body. Placebo Power More evidence of how beliefs impact the body is the global phenomenon of the placebo effect.
The placebo effect happens when, for example, a person takes a fake pill believing it is the real pill, but ends up getting better anyway. In the thousands of documented cases worldwide, it is clearly the person''s belief that the fake pill will work, not the ingredients of the pill, that causes healing to occur. Just as powerful though is the harmful effe.