The mind and body are not separate units, but one integrated system. How we act and what we think, eat, and feel are all related to our health. – Bernie Siegel, M.D.
Has the thought ever crossed your mind how you can better control your own health and mental well-being? Did you know that your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitude can positively or negatively affect your biological functioning?
An example of the mind-body connection is how your body responds to stress. Constant worry and stress over marriages, relationships, jobs, finances, or other problems can cause muscle pains, headaches, and stomach problems. On a heavier note, it can also lead to high blood pressure or other serious problems.
Stress also affects mental health, increasing symptoms of depression or anxiety, which can also increase risk for heart disease and stroke. Even though your body is engineered to handle stress on occasion, when you’re on constant red alert, the aftermath can be dangerous. When you are under chronic stress, you can see the damage throughout your body.
But you have a choice. Starting today, I invite you to prepare yourself for a healthy mind-body connection.
You, like everybody else, have a place in your mind that is free from stress and disease, a place where the limitations you accept cease to exist. You can visit it at any time, and for as long as you need to, and find your acceptance – your peace. It’s a place of profound transformation and healing in the mind-body connection, a place where assumptions disappear.
Some people are born with health that is less than perfect. (I know this firsthand!) Then, there are others who start their lives with a perfectly healthy body. In time, some ailment may rear its ugly head and it doesn’t take long to discover nothing is perfect in life. Additionally, the aging process does not discriminate, and unless you develop the awareness to care for your mind and body, they will break down sooner than you would like.
Think of it this way. If you were given only one car to last your entire life, how would you treat that car? Would you baby it, take extra care of that magnificent body right from the beginning? Of course you would!
So, whichever body you are given, the healthy or not-so-healthy, neither is a permanent state. The same is true for your mind. Each moment is different from the last. So, while you can believe the diagnosis, you needn’t believe the prognosis. You are the controller of your own physiology.
You can take steps to restore health and vitality with techniques, practices, and well-being lifestyles. Train your brain to think in a new way, change old habits, and choose nourishing positive habits. Make your brain an ally by nourishing beneficial beliefs versus detrimental ones.
The brain stores beliefs and your beliefs are made up of your childhood and early-life experiences. This sets up the foundation for how you see yourself and the world. Think of it as your emotional DNA. This essential part of how you see yourself can encourage negative thoughts.
Since your mind and body are so connected, your beliefs must become your allies to shift away from the negative. As you do this, you become more open to breakthrough thinking, and you raise your expectations. When this happens, everything changes.
To foster creative and nourishing visions is to take your first step to living healthy. Examine your current beliefs and create fresh perceptions so you can live a more vibrant and rewarding life. As you begin your journey toward better mental health, a better being, you form new pathways in the brain and move from living the problem to living the solution.
