In this moment, there are millions of actions and reactions that are happening in your body. Some of them you may be aware of, while most of them you are not. You might be aware of your eyes blinking or your breathing, but you are not aware of your blood and lymphatics circulating throughout your body, your digestive enzymes being released and processing your breakfast or the hormones that woke you up this morning and will lead you to bed tonight.
For many, many years, we used to think that these “autonomic” processes that happen in the body were controlled by the central nervous system. That was a pretty easy assessment because we could see how the nervous system caused this and that to happen, but what we were not aware of was that the origin of the intention was not itself the central nervous system.
Imagine a computer system. It is hardwired to do certain things but it cannot or will not do these things without a software program to direct it. The body (central nervous system, et al.) is comparable to the hardwired body, but it requires a software program to direct it. So, what is the software program for the body? It is the mind.
In truth, the body is a sophisticated glob of organic material. It cannot function without direction. If you think linearly, then you can understand the cause and effect connection. For every cause, there is an effect. The body is the effect and since it is the effect, it cannot cause anything. It is the result of some other cause and that cause is the mind.
Let’s start at the beginning. When does life begin? This has been debatable as long as there has been two minds theorizing about life. Since we are focused on the body and health, I will only discuss the individual life and not life itself.
Life for an individual begins when the individual becomes aware of life. You witness this each morning when you wake up. Life once again expresses itself through you, the individual. You are alive. You see this in the baby’s expression before it can understand anything. You can see the awe of life in its eyes.
Even as a baby, there is a mind that is causing the body to function; for each cell to do its job. Suddenly, the essence of life is becoming more narrow focused for the individual in order for it to experience life. In time, over the years, the individual child creates its own personal mind derived from many things, particularly the influences of its parents. The individual mind, is still a creation of the mind that gave it life and it forms a sort of co-creative partnership.
Take a moment and watch your breath. Your breath is moving as it should every moment that you are alive. You might be watching a movie or driving your car and your breath is doing its thing, supplying you with the air (oxygen) that you need for your body to function. However, you can move your attention to your breathing and choose to alter its patterns. You might opt to hold your breath for a minute or so, or to take deeper breaths. You have that ability. However, the minute that you change your awareness to something else, the breath returns to its normal pattern. It has its own guidance but will surrender to your guidance when you desire. This is how the individual mind and the universal mind work together.
The universal mind that gave the body its life is perfect and its reflection is well being. The personal mind, with its control is subjective, and changes all the time. These changes, if they persist will reflect in the physical body, which is always under the influence of the mind. If you hold your breath too long, you will pass out. Fortunately, when you pass out, your personal mind stops, the universal mind continues its control and your body starts breathing again.
Everything in the physical body is a reflection of mind, whether it is normal health and well being or emotional, mental or physical disease. In health care, we call this the mind-body influence regarding health.
This has been a very slow acceptance because conventional health care here in the west is a narrow-focused approach that only deals with the physical body. It has never included the mind as a factor. Starting to see why it is so limited?
Deepak Chopra, the medical doctor and mystic from India, first introduced the mind-body perspective many years ago when he gave a talk at the Harvard Medical School, which, at the time, his brother was attending. Chopra tells the story that after he gave the presentation about the mind’s influence on the body, several professors asked his brother if he really believed this nonsense. Today, the mind-body perspective is taught at most medical schools throughout the world.
Let’s look at a great example of the mind’s influence on the body. We all know that there are people that have multiple personalities. They even have a medical term for these people; multiple personality disorder. Ouch. There are those people, when their mind is of one personality, they are perfectly healthy. However, when the mind is of another personality, their body responds as an insulin-dependent diabetic. The body responds exactly what the mind tells it to be. We see this with mystics who can stop their heartbeats, walk on nails or fire. These seem like bizarre incidences but they are not. Tony Robbins, the popular life coach, at his three day seminars, he concludes the even with a fire walking, where the people walk on beds of hot coals without burning themselves. These are not mystics, they are every day people who are open to the reality of the mind-body relationship.
This relationship between the mind (both universal and personal) and the physical body is real and you are doing it this very moment, whether you believe it or not. You are co-creating your body in every moment. When there is illness, your personal mind has created an obstruction or deviation in the universal mind’s influence; like your attempt to disrupt your breathing.
A colleague of mine once described the persona mind’s effect using a bipolar magnet. He said if you put a piece of paper over the magnet and sprinkle some metal filings over the paper, it will create a beautiful image of the underlying electromagnetic energy. Then, if you move your finger across the filings, they will get distorted and disrupted. But, if you remove your finger, they will return to their normal, glorious self.
Your body is like the metal filings and the universal mind that guides it is like the electromagnetic force. Your personal mind is like the finger, often distorting and obstructing its normal pattern. Notice your thoughts and the emotions that go with them. If they don’t make you feel good, you are dragging your finger across the filings. If they do feel good, you have removed the finger (personal mind) and have re-aligned with the universal mind and will return to its perfect reflection.
To cure your physical body, get your personal mind out of the way and allow it to do its natural thing. Take time, be still and quiet the mind. You don’t have to do anything. Then, begin to focus on those things in your life that you are grateful for; those things in your life that open your heart. This will create a vibrational pattern that is in alignment with universal energy, which is the source of all creation, your body, mind and life itself.
