The mind/body connection explained
I’ve mentioned that one of my main goals in speaking to the logically-minded person is to bring the facts and the science that work without the “woo woo” explanations. The personal development process for our mental and emotional selves is tangible and specific. I don’t want those of you like me to miss out on that because the way you have been hearing about it is not presented to your logical nature.
For example, you don’t have to have an imaginary conversation with yourself as a child in order to get to the root of some of your limiting beliefs. You can, and there is a tangible and logical reason why that helps some people, but you don’t have to do it that way. And if you are like me, that’s not the way that really comes naturally to you. You respond to clear connections and concrete thoughts. I do too.
Today I want to talk about one of the phrases that gets a reputation as being pretty “woo woo,” and that is “the mind/body connection.” Many of you know that I am a scientist by nature and an engineer by career. I started down this path myself trying to make sense of the world that went beyond the physical reality that we experience. I was not fulfilled in my life even though I had all the “successes” one was told to have to bring happiness. I went down the path of yoga and Ayurveda, and along the way my way of approaching it all was to find the tangible logic behind it – to break down phrases that were esoteric and to find the specific idea those phrases were trying to communicate. I did the same with this phrase “mind/body connection,” and my desire today is to explain to you what that means. With a specific understanding of what it means, you have the ability to effect change because you understand the variables and relationships.
There are two main points that this phrase speaks to. First is the way you use your mind forms tangible neural networks. The thoughts you have in your mind form the neural nets in your brain. The more you think the same thoughts, the more easily you continue to think them because the neural paths are already there. So one aspect of the mind body connection is simply to say that your mind’s activity is creating your brain’s structure.
The second important scientific aspect of this mind/body connection is the fact that there is a structure in your brain where the neural signals turn into chemicals that then go out and create effects at the cellular level. Depending on the emotions you experience, different chemicals are formed. Different chemicals lead to different cellular effects, so the emotion you are experiencing leads to different results in your body.
Literally this is the mind/body connection – the specific thoughts you think wire your brain and the specific emotions you feel create specific cellular effects. These electrical and chemical signals reaching cells are what operate the organs, glands, muscles in your body. So through different chemicals and signals, you literally create different effects on the body! I was astounded to realize that the mind/body connection was a specific, literal, and tangible process.
Based on these scientific facts, here are three practical ideas to take away based on this information:
- Know what you are rehearsing – you form your brain’s structure by the thoughts you rehearse.
- Practice the thought patterns you want to get better at. Rehearse them.
- Take command of your emotional life.
I have strategies for all these ideas, available if you opt in at my website. I’m also releasing online courses later this year that I’ll be sure to let you know about.
Here are a couple resources I found very helpful when I was discovering this connection for myself:
- Clip from What the Bleep Do We Know? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jibikFphyl8
- Book (Molecules of Emotion) that explains the scientific details of emotions and the body: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003L77V74/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1