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How To Benefit From
The Mind-Body Connection
by:
David Snape
Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of "Love,
Medicine and Miracles" was once
a distraught surgeon who fretted over his inability to effectively
serve his cancer patients. Dr. Siegel's recognition and growing
understanding of the mind-body connection eventually allowed him to
serve his patients and himself in a greater capacity.
Bernie writes in his book, "When a
doctor reports amazing
improvements in a patient's condition, he or she almost never mentions
that person's beliefs and lifestyle, but when I inquire, I find the
patient always has made some drastic change toward a more loving and
accepting outlook. The patient seldom tells an unreceptive doctor about
this, however."
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When the person's mind changed, the state of
their health changed. Hence, the importance of the mind- body
connection.
However, just covering up the surface with
positive thinking
isn't necessarily going to help. It's like cleaning out a house. The
dirt and filth has to be removed and the stale air replaced with fresh
air. There has to be a fundamental change for real healing to take
place. Surface level, 'positive thinking' isn't going to effect this
kind of change, just like lightly dusting our homes won't get the real
dirt out.
So what are the dirty and stale things in
our minds? Well,
they could be things like grudges, prejudices, anger, resentment and
hate. One spiritual principle from religion talks about "loving your
enemy". That can't be done without giving up hate. By giving up
something bad, we can make room for something good to come in and may,
as a result, see a corresponding change in our bodies.
The problem here is that many of these bad
things are buried
and hidden and we won't necessarily see them or recognize them in
ourselves. We can be certain that they are there though, it is a
virtually inevitable consequence of living in a world that is so
focused on selfishness and less concerned with "loving" others.
So in order to find these bad things and
eliminate them
requires introspection, it requires looking at oneself hard and long.
However, there is still a problem. When we are searching within our
minds, we have to have a standard to do the comparison with. Otherwise,
how will we find anything? How will it stand out?
Let's look to one of the greatest thinkers
of the Western
world, Socrates. What did Socrates do with is life? Didn't he teach
others about virtue? Interesting, isn't it? One of the most influential
people in western thinking emphasized virtue to his students. Socrates
talked about things like absolute goodness, beauty and truth.
If someone as great, as well loved and
respected as Socrates
thought these things were important, perhaps therein lies the key to
the mind-body connection. To live a truly healthy and worthwhile life,
maybe virtuous thoughts like truth and goodness are what our minds
should embrace rather than the negative things modern life finds us
clinging too.
Remember what Bernie said, "I find the
patient always has made
some drastic change toward a more loving and accepting outlook." When
we embrace truth and goodness, the beauty of life and this vast
universe that we live in becomes evident. That is when we can heal our
bodies. Real healing happens in the mind.
This article is for information purposes
only, it is not meant
to diagnose, prevent or treat any illness or health issue. If you have
or think you have a health condition, please visit your primary-care
physician immediately.
About The Author
Dave Snape is a health, fitness and wellness
enthusiast. He maintains a website on that theme: http://tobeinformed.com
Dave also practices Falun Dafa: falundafa.org.
david@tobeinformed.com
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