by Peter Winslow
We’ve all heard the old saying – use it or lose it. It’s true for both mind and body.
In fact, physical exercise is necessary to keep your brain sharp. It may sound odd, but neuroscientists tell us that physical exercise is absolutely critical for preventing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
There are many types and degrees of exercise and movement, but they all share a common outcome: exercise creates a state of inner balance and harmony by connecting body, mind and spirit.
Hatha Yoga is well known for developing balance and harmony between body and mind. Posture, body mechanics, and correct breathing are the fundamental tenets. So too for Pilates, which incorporates teachings about spinal flexibility, physical education, and the laws of natural exercise.
Tai Chi and Qi Gung are Eastern movement practices that incorporate a series of gentle movements and soothing flow, making these techniques a good choice at any age. Many studies have proven that these simple practices produce a number of benefits for health and longevity.
Weight bearing exercises are essential for bone density and muscle tone. Dancing, gardening, and other hobbies are excellent choices for cardio-vascular health and emotional wellbeing.
Research has shown that walking 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week may be the best exercise of all. Just taking a walk can benefit you in many ways.
The key is to find the activities you like and stick with them. Consult your doctor before you start an exercise program.
Peter
by Peter Winslow
In order to feel my best I find it helpful to think of healing not in terms of medical science, but as a natural philosophy.
Philosophy means the love and pursuit of wisdom. The philosophy of healing entails a deeper experience of inner wisdom, and the awareness of an aspect of mind and body that protects us and keeps us well.
I know it can be difficult or controversial for some to think of healing this way. Some people just don’t buy the idea of a meaningful connection between the mind and the body. This may be due in part to the fact that western medical schools do not promote mind-body approaches to treatment.
For years, these schools taught their students that the mind had little or no effect at all on the body. They believed that something as nebulous as stress, which is a mental and emotional state, couldn’t possibly affect the complex anatomy and chemistry of a human being.
Many prominent medical professionals have admitted that they just didn’t see how it could be that simple. Now, many practitioners are changing their beliefs and practices to include mind-body protocols for stress relief as they recognize the benefits of these powerful techniques.
It is interesting to note that when we speak of healing, we’re talking about something that can’t be accurately quantified by scientific control groups and empirical data. Statistics for it are uncertain and variable; our practitioners are at best able to state the probabilities for any particular outcome.
The healing essence within you is rarely discussed in western medicine. They are focused on the physical sciences that govern matter and molecules, the tissues they can observe with the tools of technology. They discover ways to interact with those materials and they translate their findings into methods of treatment.
Healing on the other hand, is what you do. You own the healing essence free and clear; the doctor doesn’t prescribe it and nobody can sell it to you. As such, healing is something that ultimately depends upon the individual.
The power of healing is with you now and it will never leave until you die and your body no longer needs it. Cut the finger on a cadaver and the wound cannot heal. Why not? The healing essence has departed the body along with the life force. At this point, no amount of medical treatment will make any difference.
This means that the healing essence in living tissue is linked to the source of life within us. It has never been conclusively defined by medical science or agreed upon by world cultures, and the essence that does the healing in our bodies hasn’t been seen under a microscope. That’s why mechanical medicine can’t focus on it directly.
To maximize healing, we must be willing to incorporate the linear left-brain treatments of modern science with the right-brain mind-body functions of attitude and philosophy. In doing so, we can expect far-reaching results that rise above and go beyond the expectations of either option alone.
Next time we’ll discuss your healing presence, and how internal beliefs affect it.
Peter
by Peter Winslow
What makes us sick, and who, or what, can make us well?
In a very real sense, our thoughts and emotions hold the key.
Think about it—when you suppress your guilt, shame, anger, resentment, and other negative emotions… can they make you sick? Recent medical findings overwhelmingly conclude that in fact, they do.
We now know beyond a shadow of doubt that toxic emotions significantly compromise immune function, the internal defense system that helps to protect us from premature aging and disease.
This is the mind-body connection in action. It’s a natural phenomenon that surprisingly, many people still cannot grasp. Yet studies continue to prove that what you think and feel very definitely impacts your health, especially when what you think and feel causes stress.
Today, stress and stress-related illnesses account for the overwhelming majority of complaints that patients in the U.S. report to their doctors. Here’s an example you may be familiar with:
Studies show that mental stress can disrupt the normal function of the human digestive system. Mental and emotional stress can create loss of appetite or ravenous eating binges, and alter the proper absorption of nutrients. Mental stress is also cited as causing a host of problems with elimination and excretion of waste.
This is hard evidence that mental stress causes symptoms in the physical body. Is there anyone reading this post who is still unsure about that?
Your doctor knows that alleviating the mental stress that causes the problems will usually result in restoration of proper bodily function. The doctor often prescribes medications for treatment, but there are other options available, and many without harmful side-effects.
For example, moderate exercise goes a long way toward neutralizing the havoc that troubling emotions wreak on your health and longevity. There are also a variety of easy mind-body techniques and self-treatments you can use to help heal your body and add years to your life.
The incredible thing is, you don’t have to know how the mind-body connection works to get great results. Think of it this way: you don’t need to know how to manufacture a Ferrari to start one up and drive it away, do you?
The automobile—your body—has been designed and built to function smoothly. Your job is to get into the driver’s seat and steer your body toward wellness.
Again, you don’t need to understand the mind-body connection to use it productively. Consider this: how does your body digest and assimilate what you eat and then eliminate the waste without you even knowing how it works?
The answer is that you don’t have to know because the work is done by an instinctive “inner intelligence.” Call it what you want—nature, instinct, higher awareness—it’s there right now, directing your bodily functions without you paying any attention to it.
But what’s fascinating is that your inner intelligence pays close attention to you. It constantly responds to your thoughts and emotions, and for better or worse, you are communicating with it all the time.
Let’s use this information to get a better understanding of what healing is. Your inner intelligence directs a complex healing system that constantly moves you into balance with the environment. It is beautifully designed to take you in the direction of proper bodily function, tissue repair and rejuvenation, regardless of your circumstances.
For instance, if you cut your finger, you can watch as the wound seals itself back together over time, without you having to do anything at all. It’s a routine job for the healing intelligence within you. This remarkable asset is ever vigilant, always at work in you and through you regardless of the medical treatments you take.
A fundamental tool of survival, the mechanism we call “healing” exists in all forms of life on the planet, both plant and animal. By looking at the healing essence from this perspective, you open yourself to a larger and richer concept of what true and total healing really means.
Drop your limiting beliefs, expand your awareness and begin to think of the healing essence within you as a form of higher consciousness. It’s an inner intelligence that literally watches over you with an intention of good health and wellness.
It’s the spirit that directs an incredibly complex and delicate balance of the physical and subtle energy systems in your body that maintain intricate relationships with each other and work together for the greater good of the whole organism—you.
Now let’s capitalize on this information. Your part in directing the mind-body connection for positive results is first to determine what outcome you’d like to experience. Then you will learn to believe and behave in accordance with that outcome, and observe with confidence as the body follows the mind.
Let’s begin by meditating on this quote from Norman Cousins, the famous writer who healed from Ankylosing Spondylitis: “The personal belief system is often the activator for the healing system.”
You’d better believe it.
Peter
by Peter Winslow
It’s a vicious cycle: Ankylosing Spondylitis sufferers feel pain, which creates stress. When stress hits the body, it creates more pain. That’s why controlling stress helps you to control the pain.
Stress causes physical damage in the body, and meditation can reverse the stress and the physical damage caused by it. Meditation creates a calming environment for the body, enabling rejuvenation and repair, and preventing ongoing damage.
Clinical research comparing meditating and non-meditating groups shows that non-meditators suffer with more high blood pressure, elevated pain levels and higher susceptibility to illness. Researchers have concluded that every condition caused or exacerbated by stress can be alleviated with meditation.
Meditation is often attributed as a superior method for pain control. There are many way to use meditation for pain, depending on the condition, symptoms, pain level, lifestyle and other factors of the user. For example, one method aims to bring the mind to a clear and calm state. It is then trained to focus on a specific part of the body that has pain; then to shift the focus away from the pain and into other parts of the body that feel fine. As the technique progresses, the pain appears to vanish as attention is drawn away from it.
Other customized and in-depth approaches used by experienced practitioners involve training the mind to erase or block out the pain completely. I used these forms of meditation when I had symptoms of Ankylosing Spondylitis, to alleviate pain and retrain my body and mind for better health and healing.
Peter
by Peter Winslow
Recent clinical studies funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document the impact of childhood stress on inflammatory responses later in life. These studies link a specific type of stress with autoimmune diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis. Researchers call it an “Adverse Childhood Experience” or ACE.
Examples of ACE’s include physical, emotional and sexual abuse, alcohol and substance abuse, exposure to family members with mental illnesses, and other household dysfunctions.
Did you have an “adverse childhood experience”? Were you exposed to emotional or physical abuse, substance abuse, mental illness or other family dysfunction? Are you aware that buried stress from your childhood is root factor which may be central to your illness?
If you have AS, you probably had an ACE when you were a kid, and the buried stress you carry is still damaging your body. Sadly, there is no pill to cure ACE’s, and there’s not much your physicians can do to help you.
To solve the problem, effective stress relief is imperative. Proper relief from buried stress is a primary key to recovery from autoimmune disorders like Ankylosing Spondylitis.
Peter
