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“The greatest wealth is health.” Virgil
Amazing Health Benefits of Hypnotherapy and Meditation:Can the mind heal?
The mind has an incredible power. We see it as we go through our everyday activities, constantly displaying the wonders of logic, thought, memory and creativity. Yet, can the mind be more powerful than we know? Is it possible to reduce or even eliminate pain, illness and disease by using the natural powers it possesses? Can the mind heal?
Many of our finest researchers and scientists have explored that question, and while the exact answer still eludes us, the facts seem to bear out that the mind does have the power to assist in both healing, and conversely, bringing on “disease” as well. Two such examples of mind and body healing are hypnotherapy and meditation. There are others such as ionization, which focuses on thinking positive instead of negative. But first, I will describe the reasoning behind the mind-body connection.
Psychoneuroimmunology is the name for the study of the min-body connection, or PNI for short. PNI has been around for the last 20 years or so and has revolutionized the way we look at health and wellness. There was a point in human existence when the connection between the mind and the body was taken for granted. A couple of centuries ago, science had grown to understand the “mechanical universe” concept. The laws of Sir Newton and the science of physics had begun to infiltrate the science of medicine. If the universe followed mechanical laws, so might the body. To prove this theory, scientists needed to open a body up to observe how it worked. The Church was very adamant about the body being the temple of the soul and could never be desecrated. After much haggling and several smoke-filled back room discussions, an agreement was reached. The Church would maintain it’s jurisdiction over “the mind” for that is were the personality and soul “truly” resides and science could have the body, which is just a “machine for the mind” and upon death, would become simply an empty vessel.
Furthering the rift, more recent science has discovered that specific diseases can be “cured” through specific medicinal formulas or drugs. This “magic bullet” mentality spread throughout medicine and science. Truly the body was a mechanical thing that responded to specific stimulus and could be counted on to respond the same way every time. Wonderful news, the body did not respond as intended. Science has tried to brush aside or explain away this phenomenon y saying, “Oh, it’s just the placebo effect” or “It’s spontaneous remission” as well as other innocuous terms seemingly to lessen it’s importance. It is human nature when something is not understood to either dismiss it, diminish it or ignore it all together. This search to seek out answers to this reoccurring phenomenon is the basis for PNI, the way the mind-body connection is made and how we can utilize it for greater health and well-being.
Over the past decade, we have come a long way in understanding the psycho-biology of mind-body communication and the mental/emotional processes involved. To begin with, most of us have a basic understanding of how psycho-biology communication occurs through the nervous system. Messages are transmitted through electrical impulses along a system of nerves that connect the brain to every system, organ, gland, muscle, etc.. When we want to lift our arm, the specific signals race along the nerves to the required muscles, ligaments, etc., in order to accomplish the task. There is, also, the “autonomic” nervous system that sends the electrical impulses automatically, without conscious thought, to such parts as the heart, lungs, digestive tract, etc.. That way we don’t have to worry about things like forgetting to have our heart beat.
There is another facet to this seemingly automatic activity. The “autonomic immune system”. The immune system cells, which free-float throughout our bodies, act all on their own, automatically. When you get an infection, the immune system kicks in and takes care of the problem. How do they know when to go into action? New research is pointing that there is another open line of communication. A biochemical, molecular code that is transmitted to each cell. This code is in the form of hormones or neuroceptides. Each cell of the body has receptors for these neuroceptides. The code contained in the peptide is then communicated to the cell. The cell then acts according to this communication, just like a muscle acts according to the signals it receives. The cell then sends biochemical responses back into the system. This allows for the two-way communication not only between itself and the brain, but also between itself and other cells. This shows itself openly the well coordinated immune cells attacking an invading bacteria. Communication is paramount to a successful immune system defense. This biochemical connection must also have a direct link to the mind. Researchers have found that link. If you were to draw a line through your head starting just behind your ear going to just behind the other ear, at the middle of that line you would find a clumping of glands and blood vessels called the Limbic-Hypothalamic System which consists of the limbic system, hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. The connection works this way. A mental/emotional state exits within the mind; the mind transmits the image of that state through the nervous system and to the Limbic-Hypothalamic system. Every system, organ, gland, fiber and cell of the body receives the message. Then they each act according to the message. To illustrate a point, a university study was done on the immune system of persons whose long-term partner had recently died. Having factored out all other affecting stimulus but grief, it was discovered that the immune system in the state of deep grief operated at 70% decrease of activity. In other words, the immune system was running at only 30%. That can explain why the widowed spouse, who was never sick in their life, would die of pneumonia or such related disease, 6 months after their spouse’s death. You know yourself, how emotions can boost your energy level or drain it to almost nothing. The images and experiences that we fill our mind with get communicated and then translated physically. This is how stress operates. The major stressors (like job loss, death, divorce and etc.) while having a significant effect, are not the major culprit of stress related health problems. It seems that the little stressors (like being late for work, a car cutting you off on the expressway, etc.) have more effect on us physically. The theory is that the little stressors are judged to be of little or no importance, so we tend to ignore their effect. All those little frustrations unconsciously remain frustrations even when they are forgotten long ago to our conscious awareness. They linger on and their effects never diminish. All the images we carry with us are communicated to all parts of our body all the time. You tell yourself something often enough, you will start believing it. The body hears that you “don’t have a leg to stand on” or you’re dying of cancer”, or that argument you had with your parents twenty years ago is still eating away at you. It will then respond to that communication. If you have an internal image of “I only seem to take time off when I’m sick”, your body will make you sick when you need that time off. You can be sure your body will give you what you expect. Think negative and bad things can happen, think positive and good things can happen. It’s all within the mind and body connection. Now we understand the communication between the mind and body, let’s go back to how the mind can assist the body in healing. One method of accomplishing that is through hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy is the reconditioning of certain sensory reactions to the stimuli of anxiety so that physiological symptoms such as ulcers and headaches will not be produced. Habitual reactions of the patient are altered under hypnosis. After the therapist has changed the patient’s anxiety-producing sensation system, the subject is trained in the use of the new responses in life outside therapy. The problems that hypnotherapy is best placed to help with, fall into thoughts and ideas, feelings and habits. People can suffer from thoughts of low self-esteem, or obsessive thoughts about someone or something. They may not be able to get out of their minds the idea that they are suffering from an illness.
Hypnotherapy can help the person to change such ideas; sort of like altering the mind. Other people can suffer from a wide range of distressing feelings, such as panic attacks, anxiety, jealousy, guilt, anger and inadequacy. Whatever the problem feeling, hypnotherapy can deal with it more specifically than can a drug and without side effects. On the other hand, people can find themselves in the grip of many habits that they seem unable to control, from something like nail-biting or smoking to more deep-seated compulsions. Hypnotherapy, using hypnotic techniques, can help to remove habits with precision and a freedom from side effects. There is of course, a considerable variation in the difficulty of the various problems, and there is no general rule which makes it possible to say how much improvement can be achieved and in how much time. The simpler problems can at times be overcome completely in one session; hypnosis can be extremely effective. More deeply rooted problems may take longer.
On the contrary, meditation is taking the time to get in touch with our true nature. It is a simple effort that becomes effortless as we do it more and more. True effort comes in simply taking the time out of our hectic lives. The rest is easy. When we first begin to meditate, our minds resist. We are used to a constant chatter in our minds. Our thoughts are often uncontrolled. We worry about our jobs, finances, relationships, out “to do” list, and the list goes on. All of this belongs to the physical world. The practice of meditation helps us temporarily let the physical world go so we can begin to see ourselves as we truly are – spiritual beings. Meditation helps us in many ways. You will begin to notice some benefits right away, while others will occur gradually. Beyond the purely physical benefits, which have been scientifically proven, meditators receive emotional and mental benefits as well as spiritual enrichment. When we meditate, we are focused only on the experience of meditation. We are living “in the moment.” There is no room for our worries or fears. The stresses and tensions we have been carrying around are suspended. We become relaxed and are able to experience inner peace and joy. Some of the results of meditation show we gain: increased clarity of mind, improved emotional well-being, increased happiness, increased intelligence, increased creativity, improved memory and improved relationships. Meditation has been used successfully in the treatment and prevention of high blood pressure, heart disease, migraine headaches, and autoimmune diseases such as diabetes and arthritis. It has proved helpful in reducing obsessive thinking, anxiety, depression and hostility. Learning to meditate takes only a few minutes and your body will immediately start to respond. However, regular meditation is needed to gain the full benefits of meditation. With practice your level of relaxation will deepen. Your attention span will increase. You’ll become more skilled at living in the present moment. Many of the mental and spiritual aspects of meditating will become apparent over time.
This ability to heal ourselves lies within each of us. It is just a matter of learning to tap to this incredible resource, to make the mind-body connection, to reach within ourselves and discover how much power we have over our bodies and ourselves. This is what will ultimately lead us all to a higher quality of life, true health, and wellness. I think the future of the mind-body connection is gaining a lot more respect than it used to. Conventional physicians want to learn a great deal on this phenomenon. Doctors and practitioners are becoming aware that we, the patients, just don’t want conventional medicine anymore. We want to heal ourselves. To be able to use our mind and body to prevent disease and become a lot more aware of how our bodies function. There is always something that can be done to help us improve the quality of our life. Maybe even make strides toward ending the condition. By studying the self-images, understanding the way we think and feel about the world and how we fit into it, we can adjust them and change the outcomes, both mentally and physically. By understanding the process, we can take the necessary action to change what we don’t want and create what we do want.
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