The Body-Mind Connection: Part One

Heal the mind, heal the body. Heal the body, heal the mind.

We have all heard of the mind-body connection and how our thoughts affect the health of our body. It is true that our thoughts and beliefs are extremely powerful and can affect our body in many ways. But the reverse is also true: what we do to our body has a profound effect on our brain. That cup of coffee in the morning that perks us up, the sugary treat to counteract that afternoon ‘slump,’ the big meal that leaves us sleepy, the glass of wine at the end of the day to help us relax and unwind; all of these are perfect examples of how our fundamental physiology is immediately affected by what we’re putting into our bodies.

The body directly and powerfully influences the brain; everything is connected. Your mind and body is one single energetic collaborative system. What you do to one has a huge effect on the other. What you do to your body, you do to your brain.

With the onslaught of consistent levels of stress along with toxic chemical and environmental exposure, it’s no wonder that our bodily systems are challenged and that our brain function is not what it should be. So many of the foods we eat are genetically modified or grown in soil that is nutrient-depleted. Our grocery store shelves are filled with processed, chemically enhanced products that bear little resemblance to ‘real’ food. Food intolerances and allergies abound, and digestive, immune and hormonal imbalances result, which clearly influence mood, behavior, attention and attitude as well as physical illness and disease.

Broken Brains

When our brains don’t work well, we can suffer from many problems, including depression, fears that don’t make rational sense, chronic stress, disease and pain. And often, instead of going to the cause of distress and the relationship between the problem and what we’re putting into our bodies, we turn to drugs and/or therapy to resolve the disorders. We’re a society of the ‘quick fix.’ And yet drugs don’t provide a cure; they merely mask the symptoms. Rationally speaking, we know that depression is not caused by a Prozac deficiency, anxiety does not occur due to a lack of Xanax, and ADHD is not triggered by an absence of Ritalin. So rather than subscribing to the widespread belief that we need to match a drug to the disorder to feel better, in order to heal we need to ask some questions and do some investigative work. With these and other disorders, clearly a chemical imbalance in the body has occurred. Why?

Brain function is directly affected by what we put into our bodies. The foods we eat, beverages we drink and medicines we take unequivocally influence brain activity. When our bodies are dealing with nutritional deficiencies, toxins, stress, infections and food, drug and environmental allergies, the brain is naturally affected. And even though this breakdown in brain function may manifest in completely different ways from person to person, all of these seemingly separate problems share some common core causes. By addressing the full body-mind connection and bringing it back into balance, many issues can be resolved, including:

Depression
Stress
Anxiety
Eating disorders
Addiction
Parkinson’s
Alzheimer’s
Brain fog
Anger
Dementia
Learning difficulties
Bipolar disease
ADD / ADHD
Autism
Memory loss

While the traditional approach to these disorders is to alter the brain chemistry with drugs, a holistic healing approach first deals with the source: what are we putting into our bodies and what changes do we need to make to balance the mind and body?

Return to Menu of Articles

photo: unsplash-Mark Boss