We have separated our mental life from the body. We have come to think that both are separate entities and that each acts independently. The reality is quite different.Because the body and the mind are one. And when I talk about the mind, I mean what we think, the emotions we feel and the dialogue we have with ourselves.
All these things that happen in our minds are born as electrical impulses in our brain and are translated into chemical messages that travel through our body and that modify the way the different organs work.
The Power ofThe Power of the Mind-Body Connection the Mind-Body Connection
Humans have a great mental power that brings us positive things, but it can also bring less desired effects. I think that all of us at some point have thought that we were going to have a headache and finally we ended up with a headache.For me this is the great example of how we can cause physical problems only through what we think.
Moods of anxiety, sadness, depression or stress, have the ability to alter the way our heart beats or the way we breathe, which sends messages to the whole body that tell you that something is happening and that you should stay alert.
Promoting our health
Just as our thoughts can promote disease, they can also promote our health. When we have negative or catastrophic thoughts, full of hopelessness and darkness, we feel the body in a different way than when we have positive,optimistic and hopeful thoughts.
And this is not just sensations, it is the way our body responds to what we think and feel. Our thoughts and emotions are intimately linked to our body because they are born in it and are distributed through it.
So a deep feedback relationship occurs, where a thought is converted into chemical and hormonal messages and these signals, in turn, tell our emotional world how we feel and how we react.
The Role of Stress
I think the best example of the mind-body connection is found in the stress response. Stress is a physical response where our entire body is activated to fight against a certain threat.
But the interpretation of what is a threat to us comes from our mind. In this way, for some people a job promotion can be a great threat, while for others, the promotion is something desired and they do not react with stress.
The key is how we interpret what life brings to us and also the assessment we make of our abilities to face that threat. Once the stress response has developed, our body begins to function in a different way.
The immune system speeds up and works optimally for a couple of weeks, until it is exhausted and unable to cope with such activation.Our heart beats faster to be able to flee from what threatens us, but after a few weeks, the heart begins to work in a forced way.
Breathing changes when we are stressed, breathing faster and shallower than usual. And if we spend months stressed, this way of breathing becomes the habitual way we breathe, altering our heartbeat and other essential functions.
The same happens with our pancreas, which reduces the production of insulin to raise blood glucose, but if we spend months or years with that level of stress, we can have diabetes problems.
As you can see, something that comes from our mind (the interpretation of a threat) alters the way our entire body works. That’s why mental health doesn’t just happen in the mind, mental health is also physical health.
Remember that everything you think and feel translates into hormones that are distributed throughout your body. That is why thoughts and emotions have a lot to say about our physical health.
Take care of your thoughts, regulate your emotions, give yourself time to relax and you will see how your whole life changes.
