Can I Use My Mind to Heal My Body
Dr. Joan Borysenko, who wrote Minding the Body, Mending the Mind says that: “We are entering a new level in the scientific understanding of mechanisms by which faith, belief and imagination can actually unlock the mysteries of healing.”
As doctors, scientists and neurologists now agree, the mind and body connection cannot be denied. Most of us are familiar with the “placebo effect” which clearly demonstrates that healing begins in the mind. There is also a “nocebo effect” which reveals that if a patient believes the pill or medicine won’t work, then it doesn’t. Our thoughts and emotions can facilitate healing; you can literally think yourself well, especially with the help of tools such as hypnosis, guided imagery, visualization and meditation.
When we have an emotion or thought, it produces a feeling, which in turn creates a physical sensation. Anxious people experience the “fight or flight” feeling where adrenaline production is elevated and respiration increases. Hypnosis, for example, uses positive suggestions and imagery to produce positive emotions which result in good sensations in the body to aid in self healing. When we are in these relaxed states our body goes into an alkaline state, and it has been discovered that disease can’t grow in an alkaline state.
Your thoughts and the way you perceive situations are recorded in every cell of your body. Every cell in your body thinks and at every moment of your life, your body becomes what you think. Therefore, you are what you think you are and you are also what you are greatly concerned with. So by focusing on and identifying with an illness we tend to create more of it. Fortunately, by changing the way we think and feel about our illness and moving away from any “victim” issues, we can change the unwanted pattern of illness in our bodies. Be aware of your own beliefs about the illness too. Sadly, a lot of my clients are told that they will be in pain or on a medication for the rest of their lives. What a life sentence that is! It’s just a belief and it can be changed.
In reality, whatever your age, your body is actually many years younger. Most of your body’s tissues are under constant renewal; old cells are discarded and new ones generated. Each kind of tissue has its own turnover time. The cells in the stomach last only five days. Every day 260 to 400 billion new blood cells are produced in the body. Knowing this, there is no reason to hang on to old thoughts about illness; your body isn’t! With guidance and personal belief, you can overcome any blocks or obstacles to your healing.