http://www.care2.com/greenliving/healing-your-body-with-your-mind.html
Healing Your Body With Your Mind
Adapted from Super Healing: The Clinically Proven Plan to Maximize Recovery From Illness or Injury by Julie K. Silver, MD (Rodale, 2007).
Telling someone to simply think about healing an illness and it will happen may sound like magic or sorcery. But the mind-body connection isn’t just a clever illusion. What you think and feel really does elicit physical responses from your body. Three safe and easy mind-body therapies you can use to improve your health are meditation, imagery and progressive muscle relaxation.
Meditation
Meditation is easy to learn, though it does take practice. Many books, tapes, CDs and DVDs can guide you through a meditation session, but if you’d rather try it on your own here’s all you’ll need to do.
- Find a quiet location.
- Sit or lie down comfortably.
- Focus your attention on something—your breath, a word or phrase or an object.
- Keep an open mind, and let distractions come and go without stopping to think about them. As you are starting out, try meditating for just a few minutes. Increase your time as you get comfortable with the technique.
Imagery
As its name suggests, imagery involves using your mind to develop a mental image of something. The theory is that the mind is able to cure the body when a particular image evokes a sensory memory, strong emotions or fantasy.You can use any image you find appealing. In fact, you can change images each time you practice this technique. The point is to promote positive thoughts and encourage your parasympathetic nervous system to slow your heart and breathing rates and lower your blood pressure.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation involves tensing and then relaxing all of the muscles throughout your body in sequence. Sit or lie down in a comfortable place. Working from head to toe, start by grimacing and clenching your teeth for a count of 10. Then relax, inhaling and exhaling as you do. Let your face be as lax as if you were asleep. Next, tense the muscles in your neck and shoulders for a count of 10 and then relax. Repeat, using the muscles in your chest, abdomen, buttocks, arms, hands, legs and feet.
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11 comments
add your comment »As a matter of fact I've heard many times about healing everything through your mind.I have a problem I will be thankfil if naybody can help me.I am 18 and my menstruation stopped suddenly 8 months ago.Could anybody give me some more information about that topic?Please ...I have tried many things but nothing had helped
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The results are nearly the same with me but the method is different. I go to a place in my mind where I have no physical form. I learned how to do this several decades ago or longer. While in this state, I would locate pain and imagine it being drawn out of my body until it was gone. Now I just find the pain and it's instantly gone. About a year ago while entering into this state, I got a leg cramp. I should mention here that my leg cramps are extremely painful, requiring me to get up and walk for 5 - 8 minutes. All the while I do Lamaze breathing (I'm a guy) to get through the wave of pain.
When I felt the onslaught of the cramp while in my meditative state, I put my attention on the cramp and it immediately disappeared. Now I can stop it at any time and have successfully done so half a dozen times or more. This while not even in a meditative state.
I've had a lifetime fear of needles and getting shots. Last week I had to have blood drawn for my annual physical. This usually involves dealing with a wave of nausea and holding my head between my legs so I don't faint. I do this because I did faint one time from getting a flu shot. I've recently gotten rid of three phobias so I thought I should at least try getting rid of this one. I visualized just exactly was going on when the needle penetrates the skin and enters the vein. Later, when I did have my blood drawn, it wasn't one bit unpleasant and none of the old reactions manifested. I feel liberated and have some
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The easiest of all is simply noticing your breathing. Find a comfortable chair where you are well supported. Sit down and shut your eyes. Then just notice the flow of your breathing in and out. You don't need to try and control it, just notice it. If your mind wanders away you can bring it back again. Even a few breaths can make a difference to the whole day. Meditation doesn't have to be for very long to have a good effect and you can do it anywhere - even stuck in traffic
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Easier than PMR or visualisation is simple observation of the breath. Just sit in a comfortable chair, settle yourself, shut your eyes and notice your breath as it flows in and out. Amazingly relaxing and refreshing. If your mind wanders just bring it back again. Even half a dozen breaths can make a difference
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would also suggest checking out Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) - it is something you can learn yourself and it works very quickly. It helped me when I had breast cancer three years ago. Check out more at http://www.stuffbusters.co.za or http://www.emofree.com
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my attention span is negative 0 so it's hard to do the first two. but i actually did the progressive muscle relaxation and felt so relaxed. i'm going to attempt to actually use this as a routine because I have some health issues (serious) that will not be cured by a doctor but by myself. Thanks.
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This is too wonderful not to share.
There are rare times in our lives when we come across something (a book, a movie, a poem) that so deeply touches our heart and soul that our life is transformed. Such an event is viewing the Soul Masters Movie with Dr. Guo and Dr. Sha.
The film opens with a woman describing how, after massive operations and treatments for her stage 4 cancer, she was sent home to die. Instead she found her way to Dr. Guo’s clinic. She is now cancer free. You will meet many people in the film who, through the work of Dr. Guo and Dr. Sha, have beaten the odds of probability and regained their health and their life. What appear truly miraculous are everyday occurrences for these two living masters. And, what they are doing to heal and transform people’s lives is being taught now all over the world!
This is a film to share not only with your friends and loved ones, but with everyone you know. People are saying that just viewing this film has healing results. It is available at Amazon, or at www.DrSha.com, or www.soulmastersmovie.com website. With the current state of health and healthcare in the world this is a revelation and the kind of knowledge we all need to know. Open your heart and enjoy – and be prepared – this movie will change your life!
Do check out all the free offerings on the Dr. Sha site.
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I can only agree with this post. But I go even further: if we can manage to send out a pure positive thought, without any "but's" and "if"and "how" for just 7 seconds, then this will create an energy of a full working person for 2000 working hours. And if we are then able to hold this thought for 1 minue and 7 seconds, then this can manifest in the physical body. I had Leukemia and doctors told me I would have 6 month to live. But with my visualizations and positive thoughts, I managed to cure it. This is now 12 years ago. We are all able to do so much more, when it comes to health or any other desire.
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I have done all of the above but will do more of a meditation. PMR I used to do when I need to relax to sleep. (Having fibromyalgia makes it harder to control).
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I found the Progressive Muscle Relaxation
very easy to do even when I was suffering badly from depression' but I've never been able to visulise a scene or concentrate on one word for any length of time without other thoughts interrupting. so I can't meditate.Geranium.
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