Remember that old song about “Your back bone connected to your shoulder bone, Your shoulder bone connected to your neck bone, etc…“? We all got a little giggle from it, but it really is true, our body is a ripple of connections that come together to make up our physical structure. The song stopped a wee bit short of the final connection, because at the very top is how our body is linked to our inner mind. It’s the inner mind that sends impulses and commands to our body, on how to operate and behave in the way that it does. For example, when we are afraid or stressed, our inner mind sends a signal to release certain hormones into our body to deal with the potential danger at hand.
These hormones create a physical response that allows our body to properly respond to the threat at hand. We don’t have time to consciously think about this response to danger, which is why it is an automatic response. This is a wonderful system that allows us to quickly run from something that is trying to harm us. However, in today’s world our mind is exposed to repeated stresses that it interprets as real, things such as financial worries, relationship issues, negative news, social media negativity, phones and e-mails continually demanding our attention, and so many more stressors that we encounter on a daily basis. Our mind does not separate physical threats from nonphysical threats, therefore when exposed to mental or emotional threats it will respond as if there was a physical threat to our body. This causes our inner mind to repeatedly send an alarm to the body, releasing these stress response hormones. This can create an overdose of those types of hormones, which can wreak havoc on our body over time.
One night, about 10 years ago, my youngest son was in a bad car accident. The car was totaled, and he was in an ambulance on his way to the Emergency Room. I was 2 hours away when I got the call, and I instantly felt dizzy, sick to my stomach and nearly passed out. Was I sick? NO! I just received information that my inner mind translated to my body, that something was very wrong. It’s easy to make this connection when encountering an acutely stressful situation like I did, but it is not so easy when it comes to other physical issues. One of the most common ‘thoughts & feelings’ that we don’t easily connect to an undesirable physical issue, is anxiety and stress. However, the outbreak of health problems that can occur from anxiety and stress is almost endless. According to the MAYO Clinic, the top 10 stress related illnesses are: high blood pressure, asthma, fatigue, low sex drive, obesity, diabetes, headaches, digestive issues, substance abuse, and insomnia.
It makes sense that if ‘thoughts & feelings’ can cause this heightened level of harm, it can also cause a heightened level of wellbeing. The transformation lies in how the sub-conscious level of the mind interprets information and experiences. When our inner mind feels we are in danger, it will pull out all the stops to warn and protect us. The problem lies in what our inner mind perceives as a true threat. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a magic pill we could take to straighten out these misunderstandings? There isn’t, but there are things that you can do to train your inner mind to react more appropriately.
Saying positive affirmations, writing in a gratitude journal, and having a few minutes or more of quiet meditation daily are three of the easiest things to start doing. It is very easy for people to discount these simple things, but they are extremely effective. What have you got to lose? Why not start each day by writing down 3 thing that you are grateful for each day, write down a positive affirmation that you say aloud, and sit quietly (preferably outside) for a few minutes or more in quiet–breathing deeply in and out while you simply appreciate the world around you? It takes very little time to do these things and they have zero negative side effects. When these three things are done repeatedly you will notice that your inner mind is not as prone to overreact. Start doing these today!
Oftentimes people suffer from significant anxiety and/or stress and this is where hypnotherapy can be a great resource for you. By using the power of relaxation, suggestion, and repetition your inner mind can begin to understand information from a different perspective, automatically offering different impulses and commands to the body. By utilizing hypnotherapy it can fast track you to a place of relaxation and joy.
A client came to me for hypnotherapy after being referred to me by her doctor, due to the extreme stomach pains and debilitating fatigue she was experiencing. After a thorough consultation, it was clear that the root of her issue was stress and anxiety caused by several relationships gone wrong. Her inner mind had translated information from the breakups, that something was wrong with HER; i.e., she wasn’t important or valuable enough, and that was a threat to her inner mind. In ‘primal’ times, if someone wasn’t ‘valuable’ to the group, they could easily be discarded. This could be life-threatening during our early evolutionary days, and we still carry the weight of that idea in our DNA. Therefore, the idea of not being valuable can stir the inner mind to send out a ‘may-day’ signal to the body, causing the ‘flight and fight’ (stress response) hormones to get to work and stay at work.
Through a series of hypnotherapy sessions, my client’s inner mind began to see things in a new light. Her value and worth was not in the hands of a romantic suitor, it was in her ability to recognize it as her birthright, as a human being and a living creation. No one else was needed to complete her value or calculate her worth, she came fully loaded with the highest value in the universe the moment she was created. When her inner mind began to understand the truth about her importance and value, it wasn’t long before she began to report her stomach hardly bothered her at all anymore and she was beginning to have the energy to do the things she loved most and found herself exercising again, singing and learning to play an instrument and spending more time with her friends and family. In fact, the last time we had a session she seemed to float into my office with a smile on her face and a skip in her stride.
This is only one example of how issues within the inner mind can create physical issues and how resolving the issues within the inner mind resolve the physical issues. The mind body connection is powerful and anyone who lives a long and healthy life understands this connection and takes measures to address this connection.
Hypnotherapy is a great tool for creating harmony and wellbeing in your body, by first creating greater harmony and wellbeing in your mind. It doesn’t take very long and the process is comforting and relaxing. If you haven’t tried hypnotherapy for yourself, now may be the best time to write your own prescription for healing and achieving and call for a free consultation today to learn more about it and how it can help you.