The Mind Body Mystery

The Mind/Body Mystery

Mind over Matter
The united force of your body, mind and spirit continually seeks to provide you with nourishment, vitality and happiness. The body uses food, water and air to renew and sustain
itself, the mind chooses a task that keeps it creative and active, and the spirit looks for ways to expand by generating waves of love, peace and freedom and to share happiness with the world as a means of gaining fulfillment.
A delicious meal prepared by a loving parent or spouse can serve all three parts of you alike. Enjoying one's food can be a spiritual experience just as much as it can be a physical and a mental one. Being totally “present” while eating does not only trigger powerful pleasure hormones but also a sense of union between you, the food you eat and the process of eating. A beautiful piece of music soothes not only the spirit but also relaxes the mind and satisfies the body.
Everything that you experience, physically, mentally or emotionally, has a profound bearing on your entire being. Each one of your thoughts, feelings and emotions causes profound changes in your body, mind and spirit. Think of the consoling and loving words you once received from a dear friend while you felt desolate and low in yourself. Did you feel encouraged and uplifted by your friend's presence and his words? Did you notice how our body, first bent over, tired and tight, suddenly began to elongate and feel more relaxed and energized? The depressed look on your face turned into a grateful smile and you said: “Thank you, I feel so much better now.” On the other hand, can you think of an instance in your life when you anticipated bad news of some kind, such as a loved one being involved in an accident? The fear that gripped you may have had a paralyzing effect on you. But then, seconds later, a friend brings you the blessed information that your loved one escaped unscathed and is well and healthy. All of a sudden, your paralyzed tense condition ceases and is replaced by a deep sense of relaxation, joy and increased physical strength. The sudden good news elevated your feelings and brought the smile back to your face. One split second was enough to trigger a profound internal transformation that changed everything from within you.
For a brief moment you experienced a state of perfect health.
The calm and reassuring words and loving care by a friend can trigger such powerful biochemical responses in your body that your posture changes, your physical expression relaxes and your mood improves. Research informs us that all of our thoughts, feelings, emotions, desires, intentions, beliefs, realizations and recognitions are instantly translated into neuropeptides or neurotransmitters in the brain.
These hormones serve as chemical messengers of information.
Scientists have already located over a hundred different neuropeptides and many more are believed to exist. A nerve cell or neuron produces and uses these peptides to transmit information to another neuron. This form of transmission, which often is referred to as “firing,” magically occurs in each of the millions of neurons in our brain, and at the exact same moment. Immediately after the transmission ends, the peptides are neutralized by enzymes, erasing all physical evidence of that thought or feeling. Yet we have stored the information in our memory bank. If need be, we are able to recall or remember it.
This simple example shows that our brain is not the ultimate authority of our body. How do the millions of neurons know which type of neurotransmitter they need to make for each specific thought, right at the moment of its occurrence? What causes their simultaneous “firing” throughout the brain? And more stunning, how does one neuron know what the other neuron thinks when there is no direct physical connection between the two? The mystery is now becoming even more perplexing. In recent years, scientists have discovered that these chemical messengers are not only made by brain cells, but also by all the other cells in the body. This raises the question whether we think only with our brain cells or also with other cells in the body. There is indeed enough scientific evidence to show that skin cells, liver cells, heart cells, immune cells, etc. all have the same remarkable ability to think, emote and make decisions as brain cells.
The cells of our body are equipped with receptor sites for these peptides, which explains why every cell knows what every other cell does or thinks. There cannot be any secrets between cells. Every impulse somewhere is an impulse everywhere. By utilizing these biochemical pathways, the body can translate a strong emotion of fear into chemical messages that order your adrenal glands to trigger the secretion of the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol. Once these hormones are released into your blood stream in sufficient amounts, your heart starts pounding and the blood vessels that supply your muscles with blood begin to dilate. This preprogrammed defense strategy of the body makes it physically possible for you to run away from a perilous situation or to avoid, for example, being run over by a car. However, this effect, known as the fight or flight response, constricts other important blood vessels in the body such as the major arteries in the internal organs and elevates the blood pressure. If such stress responses occur on a regular basis, they can cause considerable damage to the entire body.
Most people assume that only the adrenal glands secrete adrenalin, but this is not so. Each cell in the body produces this stress hormone, although in proportionally lesser quantities. After the initial burst of energy and physical strength resulting from an adrenalin shot, the cells may suddenly turn “jittery” and your body starts shaking. You may feel as if you have lost all your energy in the process. Without your conscious control you have actually practiced “mind over matter.”