Health Mind, Healthy Body: Tapping into our Potential for Health

In a world of constant and never-ending technological and medical advancement, why is the world of health still such a mystery?

Up until just over a hundred years ago, bloodletting was a common treatment for a number of medical conditions. We look back on this now and scoff because medicine has come a long way since then. But where will we be 100 years from now? Will we once again look back on today’s medical practices with disdain?

Traditional medicine dictates that the mind and body are separate, that illness is purely physical and that to cure disease we must treat the body through medication and other medical procedures. Yet despite the dominance of this approach, a new paradigm of medicine is emerging. Advances in the areas of quantum physics, psychoneuroimmunology and mind-body medicine have led many to rethink the mind-body connection.

As a result of the advancements of modern medicine, diseases which were once fatal can now be cured and injuries that were once critical can now be treated. We are living longer and many are living healthier... yet many are not. Despite a life in seeming health and well-being, illness can strike without warning. Pain, discomfort and other medical problems with no explanation are all too common and conditions for which there is still no treatment are not as rare as we would hope.

In a world of technological and scientific advancement there are still many unanswered questions. How do we explain sudden cases of cancer? What causes spontaneous remission, even when chances are slim? How is it possible that some societies certain diseases do not occur? How can a smoker who has smoked for years have healthy lungs while a non-smoker is suddenly diagnosed with lung cancer? There is no shortage of questions and here is one more: Is there more to our health than we have chosen to believe?

What if our thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and emotions can affect our physical health and well-being?

Medicine is not a closed science and it is clear that there is still a great deal we do not know. If we truly value science we can no longer adhere to an outdated model of medicine that does not have all the facts. We can no longer ignore the psychological side of health.

Most of us know of the placebo effect: give a number of patients a pill with no medicinal content and tell them it will have a certain effect. In the majority of cases they get what they expected – their beliefs and expectations produce a physical result. Research has clearly demonstrated that factors such as stress and depression worsen health conditions and it is known that beliefs and attitude can reduce the length of hospital stays. Most importantly, we all know of stories of miraculous recoveries from terminal illness, spontaneous remissions from cancer and other incredible feats of health. I was surprised to read about a study in the December 2007 issue of Men's Health in which participants were asked to visualize themselves doing bicep curls. They did no real weight lifting whatsoever and their bicep size increased by an average of 13%!

The body is enormously complex. Every moment, trillions of cells each carry out their functions in perfect harmony and with incredible precision. They work to digest your food, pump your blood, keep you breathing and produce an endless array of other effects that occur practically unnoticed in your body every day. At all times, our immune system protects us from millions of viruses and bacteria and our body heals cuts, burns and broken bones automatically. The body even knows precisely when to end the complex symphony of internal working that comprises healing. It is clear that our mind and body have amazing capacities and an extraordinary ability to heal. Healing is natural, but what goes wrong that allows illness to occur?

We know that illness can occur as a result of a number of factors; genetic background, exposure to toxins, bacteria and viruses, nutrition or lifestyle. But it is rare that any one of these factors is 100% responsible – each of these elements leads to a predisposition to develop a certain illness, not a certainty. And if psychological conditions such as depression and stress can worsen health, what effect will mental and emotional health have on the body?

I became interested in health when I stumbled upon an interesting case. While getting to know Jason, a neighbour of mine, I learned that he had been given 3 months to live when diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. Despite the news, he was determined to participate in a retreat that year and so he decided that his doctors were wrong. He couldn’t die, he had things to do! He began to use various methods of non-traditional healing such as meditation and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). That was nine years ago. He now lives happily and healthily in NDG.

Although we do not yet know to what extent our thoughts and emotions can affect our health, one thing is certain: our thoughts, perceptions and feelings lead behaviours that either enhance or impair our health. In our supersize me society health often takes second place. In a fast-paced world in which chronic dissatisfaction is the norm we find it easy to put health second to money, achievement and many other things. On an endless quest for more, more and more we choose convenience over health and we succumb so easily to the temptation of instant gratification. The quick fix is king and because long-term happiness is out of site, it’s out of mind too. After a day of work, work and work reminiscent of the Grand Prix, we choose to relax in front of the tube, twinky in hand, instead of getting some much needed exercise. Even though we know exercise it’s vital for our health, the tube and the twinky win.

Behind habits and behaviours are thoughts, perceptions and emotions. Our values, beliefs, thoughts and states of mind lead to actions in the world. What is behind the scenes in your mind translates into behaviours, habits and choices; choices that will help or hinder your health.

Throughout history and around the world countless cultures have believed that the mind and body are inherently connected. Why is our society so different? The reason is that according to the scientific model, we don’t believe anything until it has been proven. Why believe it if you haven’t seen it? It seems perfectly logical, but there is one problem; since we don’t believe it unless it has been proven, when it hasn’t been proven or studied (yet), we don’t believe it is true. To believe that modern medicine knows everything is foolish. There are constantly new procedures, treatments and discoveries being made every day. Clearly there is more exploration to be done.

Today, mind-body medicine combines ancient and modern practices to provide a more integral approach to health and healing. According to this paradigm, within each of us is a perfect blueprint of health, a wellspring of healing, which we can tap into to overcome disease, or rather, dis-ease. More and more people are turning to alternative practices to tap into their potential for health. Acupuncunture, meditation, yoga, and EFT are in vogue. The advocates of this approach do not claim, however, that traditional medicine is to be ignored. Mind-body medicine is not a substitute for medical attention. If you are ill, you want to make use of all the resources available. Medical attention is often both necessary and helpful in treating disease- it can improve the quality of your life or even save it. Your doctor will treat the physical aspects of your condition. It is up to you to ensure that the mental and emotional components of any illness are treated as well to support and encourage healing... or prevent health problems in the first place.

If the body is equipped with a perfect blueprint of health, how can we tap into it?

A step in the right direction may not be far away. This May in Montreal, a world expert in the workings of the mind and body will be in Montreal to help us actualize our health potentials. In a three day workshop entitled “Actualizing your Health Potentials: Neuro-Semantic Patterns for Wellness, Energy, Health, and Vitality,” Dr. L. Michael Hall, PhD in psychology, world renowned trainer of Neuro Linguistic Programming and author of over 40 books, will guide participants in exploring the effects of beliefs, perceptions and attitudes on our health through a new model of the mind-body connection. Far from an ordinary workshop, this seminar promises an interactive experience like no other. Replete with techniques and exercises from NLP and Neuro-Semantics to transform and empower, participants will explore the Neuro-Semantics of their own health and begin to choose new attitudes and perceptions that enhance health and well-being and lead naturally to healthy behaviours and choices. Through the experience of Neuro-Semantics participants will even be given the opportunity to resolve inner conflicts and negative emotions that may be causing physical symptoms.

Hall is the co-creator of Neuro Semantics, a system of psychology known as The New Psychology of Self-Actualization that combines the best of cognitive therapy, NLP and coaching methodologies with years of research into self-actualization psychology, mental health, resilience and excellence. Now Hall brings Neuro Semantics to health to help take control of health and live at our best. In Hall’s own words “health is still a mystery,” but with the tools of NLP and Neuro-Semantics we can tap into the potentials within all of us.

As the field of medicine evolves and new advances in neuroscience, psychology and mind-body medicine emerge, it is up to us to explore the possibilities for our own health. We don’t need to believe everything we hear, but we do need to explore for ourselves and find what works and what doesn’t. Scepticism is useful if it leads us to put things to the test and find out for ourselves, but doubt may keep us imprisoned in modes of thinking that hinder us from living fully. We don’t need to wait to tap into our potential for health and well-being. The secret may be in the mind.

For more information on Hall’s work visit www.neuro-semantics.com. For information about the upcoming seminars in Montreal contact IDCOM International at 514-815-5457
or visit www.idcominter.com.