Mental and Physical Wellness

Jamie Jefferson asked:


Losing weight is one of the most difficult (and one of the most rewarding) adventures you can embark on. Here are some tips that have helped me.

1. Talk to a doctor. It seems every diet gives this advice at the beginning. This time, instead of thinking of this advice as a mere disclaimer, see your doctor and find out what her thoughts are regarding your weight loss. Do you really need to lose weight? If so, how much? What would be the health benefits of doing so? Your doctor may be able to provide valuable advice and tips on following a weight loss program that are specific to your needs and lifestyle. Plus, there is a measure of accountability there as well. You’ll want to have progressed in your goals before your next appointment.

2. Think yourself thin. One of the most helpful things for me when I was losing weight was to imagine the way my body would look when I had reached my goal weight. I looked at a model in a catalog that looked the way I wanted to and I imagined that this was my body. When the going got tough, it really helped me to come back to that image. Make a collage of images and quotes that will prove inspirational to you on your weight loss journey.

3. Get past the notion that food that is healthy tastes bad. Admittedly, I’m not a big proponent of rice cakes or diet soda. Instead, eat delicious, healthy and real foods in moderate amounts. Fresh fruits and vegetables, grilled lean meats, and lean dairy products are delicious. If you get a craving for a cookie, eat one. (Just one.) And then distract yourself by doing something else. Make a phone call, walk around the block, sip some water with fresh lemon wedges, or read a chapter of an absorbing novel.

4. Get past the notion that exercise is a drag. Find something you love to do. If you look hard enough, you will find an exercise that you can look forward to. Think this out and try to match your personality with your exercise. If you love to savor the mind-body-connection, take a brisk walk in the great outdoors and follow it up with 30 minutes of yoga. If you crave competition, meet a friend for a game of basketball after work.

5. Get inspired with fitness magazines, as well as magazines that help you make low fat substitutions in your cooking. Cooking Light magazine, for example, has some great suggestions for spicing up low fat dishes with fresh, zesty herbs. Before long, you will learn how to naturally make healthy changes to your family’s favorite recipes.

6. Keep a Weight Loss Journal, in which you applaud your successes. Give yourself kudos for all the steps on your journey, to drinking your daily allotment of fresh water to getting out and moving each day to eating healthy foods.

By using the power of your mind, body and spirit - and continually patting yourself on the back, you’ll meet your weight loss goals and be able to maintain your new, healthy weight.



Nichole

Bruce Forciea asked:


Many of us know that there is a strong connection between what we think and how we feel, but just how can something as abstract as a thought have such a powerful affect on our bodies? Perhaps an answer can be found by looking at the mind and body as part of a complex information system.

First of all from a scientific perspective a thought consists of the transmission of electrochemical impulses throughout a network of brain cells called neurons. The neurons talk to each other by making connections with other neurons and secreting little packets of chemicals called neurotransmitters. The brain is so complex that it has been said to contain nearly ten billion neurons. Each of these ten billion neurons can connect with up to ten thousand other neurons. The possible connections actually exceed the number of known particles in the universe!

Each packet of neurotransmitter can be thought of as a tiny set of instructions telling another neuron what to do. The instructions can tell the next neuron to fire an impulse to another neuron or to hold the impulse back by inhibiting it. The billions of instructions going on in our brains represent a vast information network.

So how does the information network of the brain communicate with the body? Or to put it another way, where does the mind end and the body begin? This is a tough question to answer because depending on how you look at it there is no definitive dividing line between mind and body. Both are intimately interconnected. The body is also a complex information system.

The body has thousands of feedback systems that rely on a constant flow of information and these systems are connected to the nervous system. For example the nervous system constantly monitors blood pressure. The nervous system senses an increase or decrease in blood pressure and responds by sending information to the heart and blood vessels to stabilize the pressure.

This complex connection between mind and body not only keeps things working properly but can also have negative effects on your health. For example, in times of stress a part of the nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system takes over and secretes neurotransmitters such as adrenaline. Adrenaline causes your heart rate and blood pressure to increase as well as your digestion to shut down. The sympathetic nervous system is so interconnected with the organs in your body that the effects of stress can be profound. For example, prolonged periods of stress can affect the digestive system so much that an ulcer can develop.

Another pathway between mind and body is called the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. The hypothalamus is located deep in the brain and is affected by thoughts and emotions. It connects with the pituitary gland that secretes a number of hormones some that target the adrenal gland. One important hormone secreted by the adrenal gland in times of stress is cortisol. Cortisol increases blood sugar levels and blood pressure. High levels of cortisol can put stress on other organs and contribute to disease.

The important point is that the stress coming from the nervous system originates as a series of thoughts in the brain. These thoughts are physical things and can elicit a physical effect on the body. The thoughts come from our perceptions. Stress is something that is perceived. You can choose to perceive a certain situation as stressful or not.

This mind-body connection can be used to heal. The science of psychoneuroimmunology studies the effects of the mind on the body. Mind-body healing has been shown to be effective in a host of illnesses and diseases such as high blood pressure, stress, increased immunity, pain control, and many others.

One effective mind-body technique that anyone can do is called guided imagery. In guided imagery you are guided through a process of relaxation followed by creating an image of your pain or disease. The image is then replaced by an image of health or healing. The technique is performed frequently, often daily and lasts anywhere from ten minutes to an hour. Some people become very adept at imagery after practicing the technique and can experience benefits from just ten minutes a day.

Guided imagery is a simple yet effective tool in a healing regimen. I have used this technique frequently and found it to be very beneficial in helping with a variety of health problems. Mind-body healing is one way to help support your body’s many information systems and help you to heal by maintaining a positive flow of information.



Seth

Paul Phillips asked:


Like many folks at some time or another, I’ve witnessed some amazing events or been given incredible anecdotes suggesting a mind-body-spirit connection. What exactly is going on here?

I have seen somebody carry a 250-pound man on his back while he walked bare foot over a pathway laden with shards of broken glass. His feet were totally unscathed after the event.

When I was at university, my tutor studied psychosomatic affects on asthmatics. One day, one of his subjects was told of her father’s unexpected sudden death. Five minutes after hearing the terrible news, she died of a massive asthma attack.

Some of the most extraordinary phenomenon I’ve ever come across was that from studies conducted on multiple personality disorder (MPD) patients. These are individuals who had gone through traumatic and painful experiences (usually stemmed from child abuse). They had considered the experiences to be too painful to bear. So in order to cope with the situations, they somehow chose to switch off from being their normal selves and take on a different personality to deal with things. What makes this unique is that one personality may have no memory of the existence of the other.

As life goes by for an MPD, an increasing number of these amnesically compartmentalized personalities can develop. Each personality with its own unique trait develops usually to deal with the different traumatic and painful situations.

-Some of the things that have happened with these individuals are quite incredible. It could be said that their minds can affect their behaviour to such an extent that it defies the very nature of reality.

For examples, from studies, one MPD patient has been known to produce all the symptoms of type-2 diabetes. Then, when switching to another personality, become normal in blood glucose regulation.

Another MPD was known to have one personality that was belligerent in character, always making trouble and alcoholically intoxicated. However, he could quickly switch to a mild-mannered personality and become totally sober, completely unaffected by the drink.

Some MPD patients have been known to change eye colour during their different personalities….

It could be said that the mind-body-spirit connection has been shown from studies using the placebo effect: One group of subjects, not knowing that there was no medicine involved, only a sugar pill they had each taken, were then told that they would be made well. The outcome produced a significant number of subjects who got well. This contrasted with the other group who were actually told that the pill was only a sugar tablet: This group did not produce any significant results.

Why did the first group produce a significant number of well individuals, when both groups with the same ailment took exactly the same thing, an ineffective sugar pill? The subjects that soon got well from the first group demonstrated the power of the faith they had in this situation -Yet another example of the mind-body-spirit connection.

Indeed, the mind-body-spirit connection covers a wide range of subjects. Whether it’s related to the bio-psychological model which entails thoughts, emotions, behaviours and social factors that affect health, or the more far-reaching such as out-of-body or near-death experiences, it clearly shows that there is a whole lot more to the nature of reality than what we currently understand and we would do well to learn more from.



Sydney