Debbie Shapiro body and mind. Debbie Shapiro
Human health is the result of a complex, integrated interaction between the spiritual and physical “parts” of the body. The book explains in detail and clearly how their interaction occurs at different levels, what can and should be done in order to support or correct it, and therefore, ensure a happy longevity without illness or decrepitude.
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Chapter 1
THE CONTAINER OF GREAT WISDOM
Any persistent thought resonates in the human body.
Walt Whitman
In almost all excellent writings on medicine and healing, one basic concept is often omitted, apparently as irrelevant. It is a relationship between mind and body that may have a direct impact on our health and our ability to heal.
The fact that these relationships do exist and are very important is only now beginning to be recognized; We still have to learn and accept their deeper true meaning for humans.
Only when we explore the extraordinary relationships between all aspects of our personality (our needs, unconscious reactions, repressed emotions, desires and fears) and the functioning of the body's physiological systems, their ability to self-regulate, only then will we begin to clearly understand how great the wisdom of our body is.
With extremely complex systems and functions, the human body exhibits limitless intelligence and compassion, constantly providing us with the means to further self-knowledge, confront unexpected situations and move beyond the limits of our subjectivity.
The unconscious energies that underlie our every action manifest themselves in the same way as our conscious thoughts and feelings.
To understand this body-mind connection, we must first understand that the body and mind are one. We usually view our own body as something we carry around with us (often not exactly what we would like). This “something” is easily damaged, requires training, regular food and water intake, a certain amount of sleep and periodic checks.
When something goes wrong, it gets us into trouble, and we take our body to the doctor, believing that he or she can “fix” it faster and better. Something has broken - and we fix this “something” motionless, as if it were an inanimate object, devoid of intelligence.
When the body is functioning well, we feel happy, alert and energetic. If not, we become irritable, upset, depressed, filled with self-pity.
This view of the body seems frustratingly limited. He denies the complexity of the energies that determine the integrity of our body - energies that continuously communicate and flow into each other, depending on our thoughts, feelings and physiological functions of various parts of our being.
There is no difference between what happens in our minds and what happens in our bodies. Therefore, we cannot exist separately from the body in which our life is contained.
Please note: in English, to indicate someone significant, the word “somebody” is used, which means both “someone” and “important person”, while an insignificant person is defined by the word “nobody”, that is, “no one” or "nonentity".
Our bodies are us. Our state of being is the direct result of the interaction of multiple aspects of existence. The expression “My hand hurts” is equivalent to the expression “The pain inside me manifests itself in my hand.”
Expressing arm pain is no different than verbally expressing dysphoria or embarrassment. To say that there is a difference is to ignore an integral part of the whole human being.
Treating only the hand means ignoring the source of the pain that manifests itself in the hand. To deny the body-mind connection is to deny the opportunity that the body gives us to see, acknowledge and eliminate inner pain.
The effect of body-mind interaction is easy to demonstrate. It is known that feelings of anxiety or worry for any reason can lead to indigestion, constipation or headaches, and accidents.
It has been proven that stress can lead to stomach ulcers or heart attacks; that depression and sadness make our bodies heavy and sluggish - we have little energy, we lose our appetite or eat too much, we feel back pain or tension in our shoulders.
Conversely, a feeling of joy and happiness increases our vitality and energy: we need less sleep and feel alert, less susceptible to colds and other infectious diseases, since our bodies become healthy and therefore better able to resist them.
You can gain a deeper understanding of the "mind of the body" if you try to see all aspects of physical and psychological life.
We must learn to understand that everything that happens to our physical body must be controlled by us, that we are not just victims and should not suffer at all until the pain passes. Everything we experience within the body is an integral part of our total existence.
The concept of "mind body" is based on the belief in the unity and integrity of every human being. Although the integrity of the individual is determined by many different aspects, they cannot be isolated from each other.
They are in constant interaction with each other, knowing everything about each other at any moment. The "mind of the body" formula reflects psychological and somatic harmony: the body is simply a gross manifestation of the subtlety of the mind.
“The skin is inseparable from the emotions, the emotions are inseparable from the back, the back is inseparable from the kidneys, the kidneys are inseparable from the will and desires, the will and desires are inseparable from the spleen, and the spleen is inseparable from sexual intercourse,” wrote Diana Conelli in the book Traditional Acupuncture: The Law of Five elements"
(Dianne Connelly “Traditional Acupuncture: The Law of the Five Elements”).
The complete unity of body and mind is reflected in states of health and illness. Each of them is a means by which the “mind of the body” tells us what is happening under the corporeal shell.
For example, an illness or accident often coincides with significant changes in life: moving to a new apartment, new marriage or change of job. Internal conflicts during this period easily throw us off balance, resulting in a feeling of uncertainty and fear.
We become open and defenseless to any bacteria or viruses.
At the same time, illness gives us a respite, the time needed to rebuild and adapt to changed circumstances. Illness tells us that we must stop doing something: it gives us space in which we can reconnect with those parts of ourselves with which we have ceased to be in touch.
It also puts into perspective the meaning of our relationships and communication. This is how the wisdom of the mind of the body manifests itself in action, the mind and body constantly influencing each other and working together.
The transmission of signals from the mind to the body occurs through a complex system involving the bloodstream, nerves, and a variety of hormones produced by the endocrine glands.
This extremely complex process is regulated by the pituitary gland and hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a small region of the brain that controls many body functions, including thermoregulation and heart rate, as well as the activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
Numerous nerve fibers from throughout the brain converge in the hypothalamus, connecting psychological and emotional activity with bodily functions.
For example, the vagal nerve from the hypothalamus goes straight to the stomach - hence stomach problems caused by stress or anxiety. Other nerves extend to the thymus and spleen, the organs that produce immune cells and regulate their function.
The immune system has a huge potential for protection, rejecting everything that could be harmful to us, but it is also subordinate to the brain through the nervous system. Therefore, she directly suffers from mental stress.
When we are exposed to severe stress of any kind, the adrenal cortex releases hormones that disrupt the brain-immune communication system, suppressing the immune system and leaving us defenseless against disease.
Stress is not the only factor that can trigger this reaction. Negative emotions - suppressed or prolonged anger, hatred, bitterness or depression, as well as loneliness or bereavement - can also suppress the immune system, stimulating the hypersecretion of these hormones.
The brain contains the limbic system, which is represented by a set of structures, which includes the hypothalamus.
It performs two main functions: it regulates autonomic activity, for example, maintaining the body’s water balance, gastrointestinal activity and hormone secretion, and in addition, it unites human emotions: sometimes it is even called the “nest of emotions.”
Limbic activity connects our emotional state with the endocrine system, thus playing a leading role in the relationship between body and mind. Limbic activity and the functioning of the hypothalamus are directly regulated by the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for all forms of intellectual activity, including thinking, memory, perception and understanding.
It is the cerebral cortex that begins to “sound the alarm” in the event of perception of any life-threatening activity. (Perception does not always correspond to a true threat to life. For example, stress is perceived by the body as a mortal danger, even if we think that it is not.) The alarm signal affects the structures of the limbic system and hypothalamus, which, in turn, affect the secretion of hormones and the functioning of the immune and nervous systems.
Since all this warns of danger and prepares to meet it, it is not surprising that the body has no time to rest. All this leads to muscle tension, nervous confusion, spasms of blood vessels, and disruption of the functioning of organs and cells.
In order not to fall into a state of anxiety when reading these lines, you should remember that such a reaction is not caused by the event itself, but by our attitude towards it.
As Shakespeare said: “Things in themselves are neither good nor bad, but they are so in our imagination.” Stress is our psychological reaction to an event, but not the event itself. The anxiety system is not triggered by a quick and easily disappearing wave of anger or despair, but by the accumulating effect of constant or long-suppressed negative emotions.
The longer an unreacted mental state persists, the more harm it can cause, depleting the resistance of the “mind of the body” and continuously spreading streams of negative information.
However, it is always possible to change this state, because we can always work on ourselves and move from simple reactivity to conscious responsibility, from subjectivity to objectivity.
For example, if we are constantly exposed to noise at home or at work, we may respond with increased irritability, headaches and increased blood pressure; at the same time, we can, by objectively assessing the situation, try to find a positive solution.
The message we convey to our body - irritation or acceptance - is the signal to which it will respond. Repeating negative thought patterns and attitudes, such as worry, guilt, jealousy, anger, constant criticism, fear, etc., can cause us much more harm than any external situation.
Our nervous system is entirely under the control of the “central regulatory factor,” a control center that in humans is called personality.
In other words, all situations in our lives are neither negative nor positive - they exist on their own.And only our personal attitude determines their belonging to one category or another.
Our bodies reflect everything that has happened and experienced by us, all movements, satisfaction of needs and actions; we contain within ourselves everything that has happened to us. The body actually captures everything previously experienced: events, emotions, stress and pain are locked inside the body shell.
A good therapist who understands the mind of the body can read the entire history of a person's life by looking at his physique and posture, observing his free or constrained movements, noting areas of tension, and at the same time the characteristics of injuries and illnesses suffered.
Our bodies become a “walking autobiography”, our body features reflecting our experiences, traumas, worries, anxieties and relationships. The characteristic pose - when one stands, bent low, the other stands straight, ready to defend - is formed in early youth and is “built into” our primordial structure.
To consider that the body is an isolated mechanical system is to miss the point. This means denying yourself the source of great wisdom that is available at any time.
Just as the body reflects everything that happens in a person’s consciousness, so the consciousness experiences pain and discomfort when the body suffers. The universal law of karma about cause and effect cannot be avoided.
Every phenomenon in human life must have its own reason. Each manifestation of human physicality must be preceded by a certain way of thinking or emotional status. Paramahansa Yogananda says:
There is a natural connection between the mind and body. Whatever you hold in your mind will be reflected in your physical body. Any hostile feelings or cruelty towards another, strong passion, persistent envy, painful anxiety, outbursts of ardor - all this really destroys the cells of the body and causes the development of diseases of the heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, stomach, etc.
Anxiety and stress have led to new deadly diseases, high blood pressure, damage to the heart and nervous system, and cancer. Pains that torment the physical body are secondary diseases.
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Neck
At the level of the neck we enter from the abstract into physical conception; therefore, here we bring in breath and food, which support us and ensure physical existence.
The neck is a two-way bridge between body and mind, allowing the abstract to become form and form to express itself.
Through the neck, thoughts, ideas and concepts can move into action; at the same time, internal feelings, especially those coming from the heart, can be released here. Crossing this “bridge” at the neck level requires involvement and full participation in life; lack of engagement can lead to a severe separation of body and soul.
We “swallow” reality through our throats. Consequently, difficulties in this area may be associated with resistance or unwillingness to accept this reality and include oneself in it.
Food is what sustains us and keeps us alive; This is a symbol of nutrition in our world, which is often used to replace the manifestations corresponding to it. Weren’t we often told in childhood: “Swallow your words,” and thus swallow your own feelings? Serge King wrote in his book “Imagineering for Health”:
We tend to associate food with ideas, as manifested in expressions such as “food for the mind,” “do you think this can be digested?”, “served with sauce,” “this is an unappetizing idea,” or “he has been stuffed with false ideas.”
Therefore, when reactions to unacceptable ideas are suppressed, swelling and pain may appear in the throat, tonsils and adjacent organs.
A similar reaction can develop in response to the feelings of others or situations that we are offered to “swallow”, while we find them “inedible”.
Since the throat is a “two-way bridge,” problems in this area can equally reflect both resistance to the need to “swallow” unacceptable phenomena of reality and the inability to release emotions, be it love, passion, pain or anger.
If we believe that expressing these emotions is somehow unacceptable or we are afraid of the consequences of expressing them, we block them, and this leads to a buildup of energy in the throat. This “swallowing” of one’s own feelings can cause severe tension in the neck and tonsils located here.
There is an easy connection between the neck and the fifth chakra as the center of divine communications.
The neck also serves as a means of allowing us to look around, that is, to see all aspects of our world. When the neck becomes stiff and stiff, it limits its mobility, which in turn limits your vision.
This indicates that our views become narrow, that our thinking becomes narrow, that we recognize only our own point of view, see only what is right in front of us.
It also indicates self-centered stubbornness or rigidity. Such enslavement limits the flow of feelings: and communications between the mind and body. A blockage or tightness in the neck quite obviously separates us from experiencing the reactions and desires of our body, as well as from the influx of experience from the outside world.
Since the neck relates to conception, it also represents the feeling of having a right to be here, a sense of belonging, a sense of home. If this sensation is lost, the integral sense of confidence and presence is destroyed, which may result in a spasm or constriction of the throat.
In such cases, it can be very difficult to swallow something, the energy stops flowing to our physical being. This creates the “hippie syndrome” (“avoidance syndrome”), which is triggered by feelings of rejection and resentment.
As the energy moves down into the arms and hands, it moves away from the inner, personal aspects of action energy to more open and actively expressed ones, which manifests itself in a sense of strength and success already achieved. With the help of our hands we caress, hold, hug, give, reach, or vice versa, we hit, take, push away; We close and protect our heart.© Camille Corry
Thus, hands express our feelings and attitudes. They become a means of communication when we talk, waving our hands to better express what we want to say. Everything that is inside us, in our heart, can be expressed with our hands. With the help of our hands we receive impressions and information about the world around us.
Therefore, the gracefulness or clumsiness of our movements can speak about our management of ourselves and our affairs. A lack of confidence can be observed in the right hand, since it is this side that corresponds to the masculine principle. Difficulties in expressing tenderness and love will lie rather in the left hand, associated with feminine nature.
Elbows
Traditionally, this place expresses our clumsiness or ability to push through, which is reflected in the expression “to make our way with our elbows.” We can push someone with our elbow and feel pushed in the same way, we put out our elbows to look strong and in control because our elbows make our hands look like weapons. Elbows can also express doubt about our ability to respond or perform a job well.Joints give freedom and fluidity to our movements; in fact, they are responsible for movement itself. Awkward movements of our elbows indicate that we are constrained and clumsy in expressing ourselves or are completely unable to do so: try hugging someone with your elbows pressed to your body! Elbows also give us the opportunity to apply force to what we are doing (“elbowing”). If we have problems with our elbows, we are not able to stand up for our rights as well as we can or should.
Forearms
This is the scope: This is where we roll up our sleeves and get to work. The forearms are further from the inner and closer to the outer expression of the center of action. The tenderness of the skin on the inside of the forearms indicates our delicacy and the hesitation we experience before finally expressing something. It also indicates the moment when something private is about to become public but is still private, or when we do something in public, but deep down it makes us uneasy.Wrists
Like the elbows, the wrists are the joints that provide movement and the final entry point for the energy of action. The wrists give our actions great ease and freedom. When they are inactive, movements become abrupt and awkward. Thus, the wrists allow us to easily adapt to any actions, to manage our affairs, and to freely express our inner feelings. When energy flows freely through the wrists, we express ourselves with ease and do what we want. If the energy is held back (for example, with a dislocated joint or arthritis), this indicates a conflict in our actions: we act constrained, something interferes with our activity, or we ourselves resist what should be done.
HANDS
Being the most characteristic means of self-expression for a person, hands are like antennas emanating from us and conveying information. When we extend our hand, we convey a message of friendliness and safety, a “friendly handshake” is not only good as an expression in language, for the power of touch is much greater than the rational mind. We use our hands to draw, conduct an orchestra, write, drive a car, heal, chop wood, cultivate a garden, and so on. We become almost helpless if our hands are damaged, since it is with their help that we interact with the world around us.The entire period of maturation during pregnancy is reflected here, in particular in the spinal reflex, which runs along the side of the thumb. Even the past, present and future, unique to each person, are imprinted in the hands - these are patterns on the pads of the fingers. I remember that when I once had to do a lot of varied work, the skin on the pads of my thumbs became very tender and sensitive. It started to crack and peel, which reminded me of a snake shedding its old skin. It was quite painful. Later I realized that that moment corresponded to a new stage of my internal development, the formation of a new personality, as I freed myself from old habits and prejudices. Although I never checked to see if my fingerprints had changed!
Julie came to me with severe pain in her left thumb and left ankle. Her mother recently died, and soon after this the pain began. The death of our parents makes us aware of the fact that we are no longer children and that we are the “last link in the chain.” Therefore, subconsciously we turn to our ability to be adults, to take the place of the one we lost, because we ourselves now have to be adults. The pain that appeared in Julie's thumb was directly related to the loss of her mother and entry into adulthood (the left side is female). She told herself: “Okay, now I’m in charge, now it’s my turn. I'm the next generation." The thumb expressed that all responsibility and decisions fell on her.
The pain spread to ankle - the area that represents our support. The loss of her mother took away the support Julie had relied on for years. Since the pain was only on the left side, Julie immediately faced doubts and fears about her own femininity, because she had lost the main example of a woman in her life. Julie had to understand that it was more important for her to find her own, even if completely different, place in life, and not to take her mother’s place. This conflict arose as a result of the fact that she always wanted to go her own way, to be independent, but her mother never approved of this desire. Now that her mother had died, Julie felt doubly guilty for wanting to go her own way in life.
The hands can easily become stiff or deformed due to a condition such as arthritis. One of my patients had very severe arthritis in the fingers of her right hand, they even lost their normal shape. A woman told me that she had spent ten years in a job she didn't like, and now her arthritis was so bad that she could barely do it. She explained that the arthritis made her feel tense, as if she was being pulled from the inside. This is exactly what her body was telling her. It tried to show her that her resistance to the job had caused these feelings and had even caused her to become unable to do it. Fully realizing what she wanted to do and changing jobs provided an outlet for pent-up energy.
Since fluids are associated with our emotions, poor blood circulation, which is expressed in cold hands, indicates a withdrawal of emotional energy from the person what we do or participate in. It also indicates a reluctance to reach out to show love and care. On the contrary, sweaty palms indicate nervousness and anxiety, causing an overabundance of emotions in connection with our activities. The musculature of the hands is related to our ability to maintain control over things. If we feel like we are losing our grip, this can manifest itself in cramps, weakness and damage to our hands. they can also indicate lack of confidence in their abilities, fear of failure or inability to do what is required of us.
If we reach too far, stretch too far, or rush forward at the wrong time, our hands will inevitably end up with cuts, bruises, burns, and other finger injuries.
The hands also provide touch and connection with other people. Our touch says a lot about ourselves: it is a means of deep, wordless communication. Touch is essential for us to feel safe, secure, accepted and wanted. For a healthy and harmonious life, we simply need to caress, hold, hug, and stroke.
Without touch, we begin to feel alienated and insecure, rejected and unwanted. Deprived of touch, we can experience mental disorders. Through touch we can relieve another person's pain and suffering. Problems in the hands may indicate that we really want to touch or feel touched, but at the same time we are very afraid to show this desire.
Hesitation to touch speaks of a deep fear of opening up, showing who we really are, allowing the intimacy of a relationship to develop. This may be caused by past traumas or our innate tendency towards introversion. But this problem requires attention, otherwise, if neglected, it will cause even more harm.
Touch makes us open and vulnerable, but also gives us the opportunity to access deep feelings more, and all this happens through the hands. Damage to them may mean a desire to avoid conflicts with oneself. They can also indicate that the touch of another person causes us pain: they are unacceptable to us and cause pain. published
©Debbie Shapiro
The kidneys remove toxic waste products through urine, thus cleansing us of negative emotions. Therefore, kidney problems are associated with the fact that we are holding on to old or negative emotions that we do not give conscious release to.
The kidneys are also associated with fear, as seen in the adrenaline produced in extreme situations. Usually the kidneys release us from fear through urine, maintaining balance. Weakened or impaired kidney function indicates unexpressed or unacknowledged fear that accumulates within us.
Kidney stones correspond to all our unshed tears, fears or sadness that are thus ingrained in us, or they are the embodiment of old problems that we have never given up on but are still holding on to. Liberation from them means moving towards new levels of being.
Debbie Shapiro
Critical attitude towards life, disappointment, dissatisfaction with oneself.
Louise L. Hay
Liz Burbo
Kidneys are organs whose function is to remove metabolic end products from the body (urine, uric acid, bile pigments, etc.) and actively participate in the removal of foreign compounds from the body (in particular, drugs and toxic substances).
The kidneys play a major role in maintaining the volume and osmotic pressure of human body fluids. The kidneys have a very complex structure, so many problems of a diverse nature are associated with them.
Since the kidneys maintain the volume and pressure of fluids in the human body, problems with them indicate an imbalance in emotional balance. The person exhibits a lack of judgment or inability to make decisions in meeting his or her needs. Typically, this is a very emotional person who worries excessively about others.
Kidney problems also indicate that a person feels insufficiently capable or even powerless in his or her field of activity or in relationships with another person.
In difficult situations, he often has a feeling that what is happening is unfair. It could also be a person who is too influenced by others and neglects his own interests in an effort to help those people. He is generally not able to understand what is good for him and what is bad.
He tends to idealize situations and people, so he experiences great disappointment when his expectations are not met. In case of failure, he tends to criticize situations and other people, accusing them of injustice. The life of such a person very rarely turns out well, since he places too high hopes on other people.
The more serious the kidney problem, the faster and more decisively you must act. Your body wants to help you reconnect with your inner strength and tells you that you can handle difficult situations just as well as other people. Considering life unfair, you do not allow your inner strength to manifest itself. You spend too much energy comparing yourself to others and criticizing yourself.
You are not using your sensitivity well; active mental activity makes you experience a lot of emotions, deprives you of peace of mind and prudence, which are so necessary in difficult situations. Learn to see people as they are, without creating ideal images in your imagination. The fewer expectations you have, the less often you will experience feelings of injustice.
Liz Burbo
They symbolize the ability to free ourselves from what can “poison” our life. The kidneys cleanse the blood of toxins.
Sinelnikov Valery Vladimirovich
Kidney diseases
Kidney disease is caused by a combination of emotions such as criticism and condemnation, anger and anger, resentment and hatred with intense disappointment and a sense of failure. Such people think that they are eternal losers and do everything wrong. They often feel a sense of shame.
Fear of the future, for one’s financial situation, despondency and reluctance to live in this world always affect the kidneys.
Your illness is the result of an unwillingness to live in this world,” I tell the patient, a very young girl suffering from nephritis. You have a huge self-destruction program in your subconscious.
You know,” says the girl, “when I was still very little, my grandmother fell ill. So, I asked God to take a part of my life and give it to my grandmother so that we could die together. There were other moments. But where did I get this from?
Your self-destruction program is related to your mother's behavior during her pregnancy. For a long time she did not want to have children, but when she became pregnant, she finally resigned herself and gave birth. And the reluctance to have a child is already a wish for the soul of the unborn child to die. In addition, she has a strong resentment towards life. She conveyed all this to you in the form of a powerful self-destruction program. And it affected your kidneys.
One man had post-traumatic disease of the right kidney and liver. Pain and renal bleeding occurred periodically. The cause of the disease is strong resentment, hatred and revenge towards one’s brother. There was even a desire to kill him. But since this is his own brother, this program of wishing him death very quickly came back to him and literally “hit” his right kidney and liver.
In order for your kidneys to always be healthy, you need to monitor the purity of your thoughts. Eliminate anger from your life. Stop feeling like a victim.
Kidney stones
Kidney stones are materialized aggressive emotions that a person has suppressed and accumulated over the years. These are clots of unresolved anger, fears, feelings of disappointment and failure. An unpleasant aftertaste from some events. And renal colic is irritation, impatience and dissatisfaction with others that have reached their peak.
Doctor, what you are telling me is nonsense. Stones cannot grow from my thoughts and emotions.
An elderly man is sitting at my reception. He came to me with a cane, because he could not move freely due to severe pain in his left groin. A year ago, he was diagnosed with a large stone in his left kidney. Doctors suggested surgery.
“I believe,” he continued irritably, “that they grew up from bad water and improper nutrition. And you tell me about some fairy tale thoughts.
Throughout our hour-long conversation, he did not let me open my mouth. He was literally seething with anger. He irritably proved to me how hard life is, how bad our government is, what bastards these officials are who receive their salaries on time, but he hasn’t been paid for three months, how hard it is for him to care for his sick wife.
On this day, I realized that not everyone is ready to perceive new information. Probably, it was necessary to start treatment with herbs and homeopathy, and then gradually introduce new thoughts, bypassing consciousness.
Urinary tract inflammation, urethritis, cystitis
Irritation and anger towards the opposite sex or sex partner lead to inflammation of the urinary tract.
One of my patients complained to me that she had frequent bladder inflammations.
You know,” she tells me, “as soon as I cool my legs, pain immediately appears when urinating. At the same time, the ovaries are pulled.
As we found out, the cause of chronic cystitis is her irritation with her husband’s behavior.
How to thin thick blood without drugs
Treatment of stomach ulcers using the method of Marva Ohanyan
“I never thought about this,” the woman is surprised. But it looks like the truth. As soon as we quarrel with my husband, it immediately worsens. And the illness began after marriage. And before that I was completely healthy.
I also noticed that anxiety and worry can also affect the development of urinary tract diseases. published
Source: /users/15106
Cough by Liz Burbo:
Physical blocking. Coughing is a reflex action, an attempt to clear the airways of mucus or foreign objects that irritate them. The following description applies to coughs that occur for no apparent reason, but not to coughs caused by asthma, influenza, laryngitis, etc.
Emotional blockage
A more or less frequent cough for no apparent reason may occur in a person who is easily irritated. Such a person has an overdeveloped inner critic. He should show greater tolerance, especially towards himself.
Even if the cause of irritation is some external situation or another person, the internal critic still attacks him. If sneezing is associated with what is happening in the outside world, then coughing is associated with what is happening inside the person.
Mental block
Every time you start coughing for no apparent reason, try to stop and analyze what is going on in your head. Your thoughts replace each other automatically and so quickly that you don’t even have time to notice how you criticize yourself every now and then.
WHY did you get sick: NOT obvious reasons
Intrusive negative thoughts - WHAT TO DO
This criticism prevents you from living life to the fullest, the way you want. YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU THINK TO YOURSELF. YOU ARE MUCH BETTER. Once you become aware of your inner Irritation, become more tolerant of yourself. Treat yourself the way you would like others to treat you.
Laryngitis according to Debbie Shapiro:
Laryngitis occurs due to inflammation of the larynx affecting the vocal cords, so that we are unable to make sounds. Typically, laryngitis is the result of intense fear (such as stage fright) or that our expression is considered inappropriate (like a child who is seen but not heard). Then all our feelings, especially anger, are locked inside, and later it will be very difficult for us to express them.
Laryngitis can also develop due to feelings of shame or guilt about what we said, why we can no longer say everything or are afraid that someone will hear it. Laryngitis is an inflammation, that is, it is accompanied by a huge accumulation of “hot” emotional energy associated with the voice and self-expression. This disease also has to do with asserting one's creativity, free use of one's voice, and the ability to voice one's feelings. published
Source: /users/15106
The shoulders represent the deepest aspect of action energy, expressing our thoughts and feelings about what and how we do, whether we do what we want or do something reluctantly, and how others treat us.
The shoulders represent the transition from conception to embodiment, that is, action. Here we bear the weight of the world and responsibility for it, because now we have already acquired our physical form and must face all the features of life.
The shoulders are also where the emotional energy of the heart is expressed, which then manifests through the arms and hands (hugs and caresses). This is where our desire to create, express ourselves and create develops.
The closer we hold these feelings and conflicts to ourselves, the more tense and constrained our shoulders will be. How many of us do what we want in life?
Do we really express our love and care freely?
Are we hugging exactly who we want to hug?
Do we want to live a full life or would we rather close ourselves off and withdraw into ourselves?
Are we afraid to be ourselves, to act freely, to do what we want?
To justify holding ourselves back, we place even more internal stress on our shoulders, which manifests itself in feelings of guilt and fear.
As a result, adapting to these emotions, the muscles become deformed. This can be seen in the example of hunched shoulders who cannot bear the weight of life's problems or guilt for actions we have committed in the past.
We hold our tense shoulders high out of fear or anxiety.
If the shoulders are pulled back and the chest protrudes forward, it means we want to show ourselves from the outside. The back will be weak and crooked.
Muscles correspond to mental energy, and very often the energy gets “stuck” in the shoulder area, since this is where many of the desires that we hold back reside. Tension predominant in the left side will be associated with the feminine principle in our lives: perhaps we are not fully expressing ourselves as a woman or we are worried about our communication with women. It also reflects our feelings, our ability to express them, and the creative side of our lives. Tension on the right side is more associated with masculine nature, the manifestation of aggression and power. This is the managing and acting party that takes full responsibility. It will reflect our activities, as well as relationships with men.
Shoulders help express your attitude: we shrug our shoulders if we don’t know what to do, we turn away if we don’t want to communicate with someone, we move our shoulders, often as a sign of invitation, including to sex. A “frozen” shoulder can indicate someone’s coldness towards us or our own - emotions “freeze” before they even have time to be expressed.
A broken shoulder indicates a deeper conflict - a violation of deep energy, when the contradiction between what we plan or should do and what we actually want becomes unbearable. published
© Debbie Shapiro from the book “Body Mind. Workbook: How the Body and Mind Work Together"
P.S. And remember, just by changing your consciousness, we are changing the world together! ©
Source: /users/1077
© Diane Sciarretta
Since the liver has the function of absorbing nutrients from the blood, we can say that this also applies to emotions. In traditional Chinese acupuncture, the liver is associated with anger, meaning it absorbs this emotion, thus maintaining our emotional balance. If it did not perform this function, we would very quickly experience exhaustion and depression of emotions. On the other hand, the liver is a storehouse of nutrients, but anger will also accumulate in it, causing harm if we acknowledge its existence or do not give it an outlet. Anger directed against oneself can lead to depression, and as depression increases, the liver becomes sluggish. will start to work poorly.
This organ neutralizes poisons in the body, keeping us healthy and cheerful. But it can also become a repository for the harmful aspects of our life, because we do not always express or let go of grievances and bitter thoughts and feelings. The role of the liver in the immune system highlights how strong negative thoughts and feelings are linked to our health. As anger and bitterness accumulate in the liver, tension will increase., and she will not be able to work at full capacity. This will also affect the circulatory and immune systems, and therefore our ability to fight infections.
The liver is largely responsible for our behavior associated with addictions, such as addiction to food, alcohol and drugs, because it removes toxins from the blood, fights excess fat and monitors the intake of sugar. There is an emotional tension here that needs to be released through the satisfaction of the habit.
This tension can be based on anger and resentment (towards the world or towards specific people). Often, toxins that enter the body as a result of bad habits help hide from anger and disappointment, rage, powerlessness and self-loathing, pain, greed and the thirst for power, which also poison us. When we receive toxins from the outside, we may not recognize what is within us.
The liver is closely related to the third chakra, which represents our personality and its strength. By transforming it, we can rise to higher levels of existence. However, it is as easy to become a victim of this energy as it is difficult to transform it.
The liver reflects the anger and irritation that we may feel when trying to find ourselves and our purpose. published
© DEBBIE SHAPIRO from the book “BODY MIND. WORKBOOK: HOW THE BODY AND MIND WORK TOGETHER"
P.S. And remember, just by changing your consumption, we are changing the world together! ©
The liver literally gives us life and supports it. All blood from the stomach and intestines passes through the liver, which ensures complete and correct supply of nutrients. The liver absorbs and stores fats and proteins and helps maintain blood sugar levels. It plays a large role in neutralizing toxins that enter the body through the digestive system and is therefore important for the immune system. The liver can even repair its own tissue.
Since the liver has the function of absorbing nutrients from the blood, we can say that this also applies to emotions. In traditional Chinese acupuncture, the liver is associated with anger, meaning it absorbs this emotion, thus maintaining our emotional balance. If it did not perform this function, we would very quickly experience exhaustion and depression of emotions. On the other hand, the liver is a storehouse of nutrients, but anger will also accumulate in it, causing harm if we acknowledge its existence or do not give it an outlet. Anger directed against oneself can lead to depression, and as depression increases, the liver becomes sluggish. will start to work poorly.
This organ neutralizes poisons in the body, keeping us healthy and alert. But it can also become a repository for the harmful aspects of our lives, because we do not always express or let go of grievances and bitter thoughts and feelings. The role of the liver in the immune system highlights how strong negative thoughts and feelings are linked to our health. As anger and bitterness accumulate in the liver, tension will increase., and she will not be able to work at full capacity. This will also affect the circulatory and immune systems, and therefore our ability to fight infections.
The liver is largely responsible for our behavior associated with addictions, such as addiction to food, alcohol and drugs, because it removes toxins from the blood, fights excess fat and monitors the intake of sugar. There is an emotional tension here that needs to be released through the satisfaction of the habit.
This tension can be based on anger and resentment (towards the world or towards specific people). Often, toxins that enter the body as a result of bad habits help hide from anger and disappointment, rage, powerlessness and self-loathing, pain, greed and the thirst for power, which also poison us. When we receive toxins from the outside, we may not recognize what is within us.
The liver is closely related to the third chakra, which represents our personality and its strength. By transforming it, we can rise to higher levels of existence. However, it is as easy to become a victim of this energy as it is difficult to transform it.
The liver reflects the anger and irritation that we may feel when trying to find ourselves and our purpose.
© DEBBIE SHAPIRO from the book “BODY MIND. WORKBOOK: HOW THE BODY AND MIND WORK TOGETHER"
Encyclopedia of symbols
(any edition)
Genre – reference, educational literature, dictionary
Since ancient times, people have used symbolic language to talk about the secret or beautiful. Chroniclers and artists, famous poets and anonymous creators of cult texts - they all imbued their works with metaphors and images.
Psychologists have adopted this tradition. Freud, being a thoughtful researcher of the psyche, believed that the unconscious also uses allegory. Of course, the founder of psychoanalysis reduced all the symbolism of the unconscious to erotic images. But this fact does not negate the idea itself; it just designates the sphere of Freud’s professional interests and speaks of his limits as a scientist.
Having been practicing for many years, I am sure that the messages of the soul are encoded in images and symbols. It's not just about dreams. Metaphors of the Universe are everywhere - in bodily impulses, works of art, and the surrounding nature. And it is sometimes impossible to decipher them without special knowledge.
Even clients who consider themselves rationalists and pragmatists confirm this.
...Evgenia, one man said, I've been haunted by butterflies all week. It started when two of them flew into the office windows and got entangled in the blinds. The employees rushed to save them, while I watched with the usual irony. But I was relieved when they got out alive... Then, at a picnic, one brave one sat on my arm. Look, I was even able to take a photo... And yesterday, don’t laugh, when I was cleaning their colored remains from the windshield, I almost shed a tear... Damn it, what’s going on, I want to know!
That's why the list is an encyclopedia of symbols. Psychological thinking or vision is itself symbolic. By getting acquainted with the interpretation of images accepted in world culture, the psychologist not only expands his horizons, but also develops as a professional. Let me remind you that entire directions and methods of practical psychology are based on symbolic thinking (art therapy, symboldrama, psychodrama, body-oriented therapy).
“Reading” together with the client the drawings and texts created during the work, step by step we comprehend the secret code of the Soul, gradually learning to see the shades and specifics of our own images.
Our the butterfly flutters differently...
My personal affinity for metaphorical language was expressed in the creation parables You can read some of them on this site. A Wave Gymnastics allows me to comprehend the hidden messages of the body.
Everything is a sign. And only we can unravel the whisper of the Creator or ignore it.
Let the encyclopedia of symbols become your friend and assistant in professional excellence.
Collection of parables
(any edition)
Parables also serve the same purpose - the development of figurative, metaphorical thinking. Short stories that have passed through centuries, they contain answers to many questions in a condensed form. It is no coincidence that some psychologists consider parables to be a special type of “folk self-therapy.”
Parables are easy to use when working with a client. It is enough to remember a suitable story and offer it for discussion. And then analyze options for ideas that came up as you read. Amazing insights happen to people when they realize that a situation can be viewed in different ways. Discussing a parable can be a gentle way to approach a difficult topic. Or give feedback to the client.
Read parables, young colleagues, look for images and themes in them that are close to you personally. This will add to your skill set.
Ray Bradbury
Dandelion wine
Genre – fiction
Bradbury's work gives me a special awe. Ray - Teacher. Yes Yes. He influenced my development as a writer, from him I learned to see beauty in details, to love life in all its manifestations... Humanism - treating people as the highest value - is another lesson learned. 
For me, the best manifesto that embodied these and other values was the novel “Dandelion Wine.” A fairy-tale story, summer itself - warm, sparkling, multifaceted. I know that “Wine...” is loved by many, and every reading adds more fans to Ray’s work.
“...Some days it’s good to taste, and other days it’s good to touch. And there are times when there is everything at once. For example, today it smells as if one night there, behind the hills, out of nowhere, a huge orchard appeared, and everything up to the horizon is fragrant. There is a smell of rain in the air, but there is not a cloud in the sky..."
“...At first, in a thin stream, then more and more generously, the juice of the beautiful hot month ran along the gutter into clay jugs; they let it ferment, skim off the foam and pour it into clean ketchup bottles - and they lined up in rows on the shelves, glistening in the darkness of the cellar.
Dandelion wine.
These very words are like summer on the tongue. Dandelion wine is summer caught and corked in bottles... After all, this summer will certainly be a summer of unexpected miracles, and you need to save them all and put them aside somewhere for yourself, so that later, at any hour when you want, you can tiptoe into the humid darkness and extend your hand..."
Summer flavor is great. But there is something more that touches, and whatever it is, stirs the soul of each of us. Published more than half a century ago, the novel subtly and deeply, psychologically true and accurately depicts the inner world of a teenager. Or maybe this is too narrow? Gently and lovingly, Bradbury reminded us of how he grew, matured and was becoming any of us.
Friendship and separation, awareness of life and facing death, family values and loneliness, dreams and creativity...
And love, love, love, which, like the golden light of summer flowers, permeates every description, every phrase, the love that radiates from the entire novel. Love for people, your past, writing, for us, the readers.
“How can I thank Mr. Jonas? - thought Douglas. - How can I thank him, how can I repay him for everything he did for me? There is nothing, well, nothing to repay for this. There is no price for this. How to be? How? Maybe we need to repay someone else somehow? Pass gratitude around? Look around, find a person who needs help, and do something good for him. This is probably the only way..."
Of course, there are other books on the subject of growing up. For example, J. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye." And yet, “Wine...” is closer to me.
I will not reveal all the intrigue and describe the differences. I'll just encourage you again:
Read, for both books are worthy of being read and used in our noble cause - healing the human Soul. For both authors did the same thing - they loved us and treated us, each in their own way.
Debbie Shapiro
Bodymind: A Workbook (How the Body and Mind Work Together)
Genre – psychological guidance, workshop
Knowledge of psychosomatics, even basic knowledge, is necessary for a psychologist. As has been mentioned many times, our body speaks to us using metaphorical language. Any ailment, illness or accident is a message from the Soul.
Here is what D. Shapiro writes about this: 
“...The body is a walking book in which our experiences, traumas, worries, worries and relationships are recorded. Uncertain posture, a stooped or weak back, or, conversely, a strong and strong back, remain with us from an early age, becoming part of our essence. To believe that the body is only a separate, mechanically working organism means not to see the most important thing. To reject, thereby, the source of great wisdom, which is always at our disposal.”
Unfortunately, our ideas about psychosomatics are very superficial. The common phrase “all diseases are from nerves” has rather an ironic connotation, and for medical workers the term “psychosomatic” is often synonymous with the words “far-fetched”, “imaginary”, “imaginary”.
There is another, already personal reason why many deny the psychosomatic nature of diseases and, even more so, accidents:
“Do I want to harm myself?!” - the man exclaims.
I agree, in reality, no one consciously dreams of harming their health. However, the body, mind/thinking and Soul are connected by the finest, sometimes incomprehensible threads:
“...Just as the body reflects everything that happens to the consciousness, so the consciousness reacts to the pain and discomfort that the body experiences. There is no escaping the universal law of cause and effect... The messages we subconsciously send to the body are a factor in how we feel. Messages behind which there are failures, despair, anxiety are destructive in nature, they cause a malfunction in the functioning of defense mechanisms (the immune system). By weakening the body, they indirectly prepare it for illness. When we say our heart is broken, can the body recognize the difference between emotional and physical distress? It seems not, because the power of imagination has a very direct effect on our body...”
D. Shapiro’s short book contains in concentrated form both the mechanisms of occurrence of psychosomatic problems and methods of working with them. The book also contains a comprehensive dictionary of the most common diseases and their explanation from the perspective of psychosomatics.
Unlike other authors, D. Shapiro approaches the interpretation of ailments from different angles. It not only describes the relationship between a “damaged” organ or part of the body and its functionality, but also relies on the complexity of connections in the body:
“A lot of details matter. What part of the body is damaged? Where is it located - on the right or on the left? What tissues – soft, hard, liquid – does it consist of? What sphere of activity (action, movement) does it represent? What system (digestion, circulatory...) does it belong to?..”
In addition, the author points out, one should pay attention to “out-of-body” details, for example, events preceding illness, words and metaphors with which a person describes an illness, the attitude towards illness on the part of loved ones, personal perception of oneself, the patient...
At one time I was struck by a phrase from the book:
“Illness also has positive sides: it gives us the opportunity to temporarily free ourselves from responsibility and responsibilities and take time for ourselves. It’s as if we are on vacation and allow ourselves to do things that we forbid when we are healthy. Including, when we get sick, we more easily express feelings, for example, love or care. Especially if we are talking about a serious threat to life... Sometimes an illness hints that it’s time to take a break, tune in to changes, get used to them. Or, on the contrary, we need to stop doing something that weakens us..."
The book is full of examples, including personal ones.
“By studying body language, we learn what and how the Soul communicates to us. And we will soon realize that behind recurring illnesses lies something deeper... The transition from illness to healing and health requires great courage, strength and honesty. We must take an active part in our own healing. If we have participated in the disease (no matter how unconsciously), we are able to participate in its healing.”
On my own behalf, I will add that by learning to recognize the psychosomatic causes of your own illnesses, you will gain inner freedom, acceptance of both your capabilities/resources and your limitations.
Arnhild Lauveng
Tomorrow I was always a lion
Genre: biographical prose
Book by a Norwegian author. This unusual text was written by a woman who suffered from schizophrenia for nine years. Yes, I was exactly sick. Arnhild Lauveng is a former schizophrenic, a man who defeated the disease. 
I started reading this book three times. For the first time, having mastered several pages, I convinced myself that I would never have to work with like this clients; She slammed the book and returned it to her colleague. The second time I glanced through the text, snatching out passages... They say, I got an idea of what was written...
And only now, having postponed the creation of this article, I sat down to the book consciously - with a pencil, stopping, thinking. And the point is not at all that the text is replete with “terrible” pictures. rather, on the contrary, Arnhild spares us, the “healthy ones.”
Yes, the modern reader and viewer knows works on the topic of madness that are “more terrible” than the work of Arnhild Lauveng. Take at least some of Stephen King's novels or films, such as "Shutter Island", "Mom" and others...
Now I understand that before I was prevented from reading the book by my own fears. Many of us for the time being avoid confrontation with the beyond, be it death, madness or spirituality. Any kind of otherness frightens us.
However, a psychologist needs to take risks and expand his consciousness, leaving his comfort zone, touching on topics that are “scary” for most people. This is the only way we, psychologists, can feel what it is like to be Other.
That's why Arnhild Lauveng's book is on my list.
In detail, but at the same time with care for “healthy” readers, Arnhild describes the origin and course of the disease, focuses on the internal experiences and suffering of patients, insisting that a piece of “I” in a schizophrenic always remains intact. The book contains a lot of discussions about the diagnostic system and treatment methods for schizophrenia, problems of adaptation and relationships with loved ones, discrimination against mentally ill people in society...
And, of course, there are practical aspects that will be useful to a psychologist. For example, I took into work invaluable information about symptoms:
“Symptoms belong to the person who exhibits them. They appear during illness from within our personality, created on the basis of our interests and life experiences. At the same time, the person does not realize that he himself created his symptom... For example, I had many hallucinations. And hallucinations are not brought in from somewhere outside, they are not something that has nothing to do with the personality of a particular person. All my hallucinations contained important and correct truths, expressed in clumsy language, because I could not speak differently then. This is roughly what happens with dreams. Just like the dreams of healthy people, the hallucinations of patients with schizophrenia also need to be deciphered and interpreted.”
There is another theme in the book that resonates warmly with me. The author sincerely thanks those people who met along her path, helping her cope with the disease. She writes not only about doctors and nurses, but also about social service workers, random fellow travelers and neighbors, new colleagues, employers who gave not just a place, but a chance.
It is also therapeutic for me to realize that a person is capable of overcoming any obstacles, rising above any problems. Increase your awareness, accept responsibility for your choices and move towards your goal.
Filled with courage, love for people and faith in human capabilities, the book will bring hope and desire to overcome life’s difficulties into your world, young colleagues.
“The first thing you need to know when you start developing a plan is where you want to go. I wanted to become completely healthy and study to become a psychologist. This was my goal. But many of my assistants, seeing how bad I was, set more realistic goals in their work: to teach me to get along with the symptoms, to become independent. Of course, these were not bad goals, but they did not inspire me. Besides, those were their goals, not mine. I didn’t want to accept my illness, I wanted to defeat it.”
Good luck and prosperity,
Evgenia Oshchepkova
Any persistent thought resonates in the human body.
Walt Whitman
In almost all excellent writings on medicine and healing, one basic concept is often omitted, apparently as irrelevant. It is the relationship between mind and body, which may directly affect our health and our ability to recover.
The fact that these relationships do exist and are very important is only now beginning to be recognized; deeper we have yet to learn and accept their true meaning for humans.
Only when we explore the unusual relationships between all aspects of our personality (our needs, unconscious reactions, repressed emotions, desires and fears) and the functioning of the physiological systems of the body, their ability to self-regulate, only then will we begin clearly understand how great the wisdom of our body is.
With extremely complex systems and functions, the human body exhibits limitless intelligence and compassion, constantly providing us with the means to further self-knowledge, confront unexpected situations and move beyond the limits of our subjectivity.
The unconscious energies that underlie our every action manifest themselves in the same way as our conscious thoughts and feelings.
To understand this body-mind connection, we must first understand that the body and mind are one. We usually view our own body as something we carry around with us. (often not exactly what we would like).
This “something” is easily damaged, requires training, regular food and water intake, a certain amount of sleep and periodic checks.
When something goes wrong, it gets us into trouble, and we take our body to the doctor, believing that he or she can “fix” it faster and better. Something has broken - and we fix this “something” motionless, as if it were an inanimate object, devoid of intelligence.
When the body is functioning well, we feel happy, alert and energetic. If not, we become irritable, upset, depressed, filled with self-pity.
This view of the body seems frustratingly limited. He denies the complexity of the energies that determine the integrity of our body - energies that continuously communicate and flow into each other, depend on our thoughts, feelings and physiological functions of various parts of our being.
There is no difference between what happens in our minds and what happens in our bodies. Therefore, we cannot exist separately from the body in which our life is contained.
Please note : in English, to indicate someone significant, the word “somebody” is used, which means both “someone” and “important person”, while an insignificant person is defined by the word “nobody”, that is, “nobody”, or “ nonentity."
Our bodies are us. Our state of being is the direct result of the interaction of multiple aspects of existence. The expression “My hand hurts” is equivalent to the expression “The pain inside me manifests itself in my hand.”
Expressing arm pain is no different than verbally expressing dysphoria or embarrassment. To say that there is a difference is to ignore an integral part of the whole human being.
Treating only the hand means ignoring the source of the pain that manifests itself in the hand. To deny the body-mind connection is to deny the opportunity that the body gives us to see, acknowledge and eliminate inner pain.
The effect of body-mind interaction is easy to demonstrate. It is known that Feeling anxious or anxious about anything can lead to an upset stomach, constipation or headache, to accidents.
It has been proven that stress can lead to stomach ulcers or heart attacks; that depression and sadness make our bodies heavy and sluggish - we have little energy, we lose our appetite or eat too much, we feel back pain or tension in our shoulders.
AND on the contrary, the feeling of joy and happiness increases our vitality and energy: We need less sleep and feel alert, less susceptible to colds and other infectious diseases as our bodies become healthy and therefore better able to resist them.
You can gain a deeper understanding of the "mind of the body" if you try to see all aspects of physical and psychological life.
We must learn to understand that everything that happens to our physical body must be controlled by us, that we are not just victims and should not suffer at all until the pain passes. Everything we experience within the body is an integral part of our total existence.
The concept of "mind body" is based on the belief in the unity and integrity of every human being. Although the integrity of the individual is determined by many different aspects, they cannot be isolated from each other.
They are in constant interaction with each other, knowing everything about each other at any moment. The Mind-Body Formula Reflects Psychological and Somatic Harmony: The body is simply a gross manifestation of the subtlety of the mind.
“The skin is inseparable from the emotions, the emotions are inseparable from the back, the back is inseparable from the kidneys, the kidneys are inseparable from the will and desires, the will and desires are inseparable from the spleen, and the spleen is inseparable from sexual intercourse,” wrote Diana Conelli in the book Traditional Acupuncture: The Law of Five elements"
(Dianne Connelly “Traditional Acupuncture: The Law of the Five Elements”).
The complete unity of body and mind is reflected in states of health and illness. Each of them is a means by which the “mind of the body” tells us what is happening under the corporeal shell.
For example, an illness or accident often coincides with significant changes in life: moving to a new apartment, new marriage or change of job. Internal conflicts during this period easily throw us off balance., resulting in a feeling of uncertainty and fear.
We become open and defenseless to any bacteria or viruses.
In the same time illness gives us a break, the time required to rebuild and adapt to changed circumstances. Illness tells us that we must stop doing something: it gives us space in which we can reconnect with those parts of ourselves with which we have ceased to be in touch.
Moreover, she puts into perspective the meaning of our relationships and communication. This is how the wisdom of the mind of the body manifests itself in action, the mind and body constantly influencing each other and working together.
The transmission of signals from the mind to the body occurs through a complex system involving the bloodstream, nerves, and a variety of hormones produced by the endocrine glands.
This extremely complex process is regulated by the pituitary gland and hypothalamus.
The hypothalamus is a small area of the brain, which controls many body functions, including thermoregulation and heart rate, as well as the activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
Numerous nerve fibers from throughout the brain converge in the hypothalamus, connecting psychological and emotional activity with bodily functions.
For example, The vagal nerve from the hypothalamus goes directly to the stomach- hence stomach problems caused by stress or anxiety. Other nerves extend to the thymus and spleen, the organs that produce immune cells and regulate their function.
The immune system has enormous potential for protection, rejecting everything that could be harmful to us, but it also subordinated to the brain through the nervous system. Therefore, she directly suffers from mental stress.
When we are exposed to severe stress of any kind, the adrenal cortex releases hormones that disrupt the system brain-immune connections, suppressing the immune system and leaving us defenseless against disease.
Stress is not the only factor that can trigger this reaction.
Negative emotions- suppressed or prolonged anger, hatred, bitterness or depression, as well as loneliness or bereavement - may also suppress the immune system, stimulating the hypersecretion of these hormones.
The brain contains the limbic system, which is represented by a set of structures, which includes the hypothalamus.
It performs two main functions: it regulates autonomic activity, for example, maintaining the body’s water balance, gastrointestinal activity and hormone secretion, and in addition, it unites human emotions: sometimes it is even called the “nest of emotions.”
Limbic activity connects our emotional state with the endocrine system, thus playing a leading role in the relationship between body and mind.
Limbic activity and the functioning of the hypothalamus are directly regulated by the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for all forms of intellectual activity, including thinking, memory, perception and understanding.
It is the cerebral cortex that begins to “sound the alarm” in the event of perception of any life-threatening activity. (Perception does not always correspond to a true threat to life. For example, stress is perceived by the body as a mortal danger, even if we think that it is not.)
The alarm signal affects the structures of the limbic system and hypothalamus, which, in turn, affect the secretion of hormones and the functioning of the immune and nervous systems.
Since all this warns of danger and prepares to meet it, it is not surprising that the body has no time to rest. All this leads to muscle tension, nervous confusion, spasms of blood vessels, and disruption of the functioning of organs and cells.
In order not to fall into a state of anxiety when reading these lines, you should remember that such a reaction is not caused by the event itself, but by our attitude towards it.
As Shakespeare said: “Things in themselves are neither bad nor good, they are only like that in our minds.”
Stress is our psychological reaction to an event, but not the event itself. The anxiety system is not triggered by a quick and easily disappearing wave of anger or despair, but by the accumulating effect of constant or long-suppressed negative emotions.
The longer an unreacted mental state persists, the more harm it can cause, depleting the resistance of the “mind of the body” and continuously spreading streams of negative information.
However, it is always possible to change this state, because we can always work on ourselves and move from simple reactivity to conscious responsibility, from subjectivity to objectivity.
For example, if we are constantly exposed to noise at home or at work, we may respond with increased irritability, headaches and increased blood pressure; at the same time, we can, by objectively assessing the situation, try to find a positive solution.
The message we convey to our body - irritation or acceptance - is the signal to which it will respond.
Repetition of negative thought patterns and attitudes such as anxiety, guilt, jealousy, anger, constant criticism, fear, etc., can cause us much more harm than any external situation.
Our nervous system is entirely under the control of the “central regulatory factor,” a control center that in humans is called personality.
In other words, all situations in our lives are neither negative nor positive - they exist on their own.And only our personal attitude determines their belonging to one category or another.
Our bodies reflect everything that has happened and experienced by us, all movements, satisfaction of needs and actions; we contain within ourselves everything that has happened to us. The body actually captures everything previously experienced: events, emotions, stress and pain are locked inside the body shell.
A good therapist who understands the mind of the body can read the entire history of a person's life by looking at his physique and posture, observing his free or constrained movements, noting areas of tension, and at the same time the characteristics of injuries and illnesses suffered.
Our bodies become a “walking autobiography”, our body features reflecting our experiences, traumas, worries, anxieties and relationships. The characteristic pose - when one stands, bent low, the other stands straight, ready to defend - is formed in early youth and is “built into” our primordial structure.
Just as the body reflects everything that happens in a person’s consciousness, so the consciousness experiences pain and discomfort when the body suffers. The universal law of karma about cause and effect cannot be avoided.
Every phenomenon in human life must have its own reason. Each manifestation of human physicality must be preceded by a certain way of thinking or emotional status.
Paramahansa Yogananda says:
There is a natural connection between the mind and body. Whatever you hold in your mind will be reflected in your physical body. Any hostile feelings or cruelty towards another, strong passion, persistent envy, painful anxiety, outbursts of ardor - all this really destroys the cells of the body and causes the development of diseases of the heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, stomach, etc.
Anxiety and stress have led to new deadly diseases, high blood pressure, damage to the heart and nervous system, and cancer. Pains that torment the physical body are secondary diseases.
FROM THE BOOK “THE MIND HEALS THE BODY”
Human health is the result of a complex, integrated interaction between the spiritual and physical “parts” of the body. The book explains in detail and clearly how their interaction occurs at different levels, what can and should be done in order to support or correct it, and therefore, ensure a happy longevity without illness or decrepitude.
