Superhealing: Engaging Your Mind, Body, and Spirit to Create Optimal Health and Well-Being (ARC) (13 page)

ings even though it may seem that you’re at the whim of your moods and particularly the “voice” in your head. The same applies if your inner state veers toward the negative when you’re under pressure or confronting difficult circumstances such as a disaster or an illness.

Emotions follow thoughts, and there is much you can do to trans-

form your thoughts to be more positive. The best place to begin is by making the conscious decision to do whatever is necessary to feel better than you do.

Do you remember the last time you felt anxious or angry? Did

this feeling come on suddenly or grow in intensity? Was there a moment just beforehand in which something happened or was said that

triggered you to have this experience? We can often sense ourselves 73

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beginning to shift moods, and such moments are opportunities to

pause and intervene. Make a decision that you will deliberately respond to the stresses and emotional triggers in your life in as self-nurturing a manner as possible and as soon as you can, and you’ll

be more resilient. As the evidence presented to you in the last two chapters indicates, this is a key to health.

We’re healthier when we regularly engage in relaxation and laugh-

ter, condition our minds to seek and focus on positive outcomes, and find nondestructive ways to express our challenging emotions. None of the techniques shared in this chapter are hard to do. If anything, the hardest part of engaging your superhealing mind, at least initial-ly, is making it a habit to do so. Feeling better than you do right now is not an all-or-nothing proposition. It’s a process for responding to life that moves you incremental y toward optimal wellness.

The more you practice engaging your superhealing mind, the better

you will feel. The better you feel, the more the habit will be reinforced.

MAKING THE DECISION TO SUPERHEAL

Remarkable changes can occur, physiological y and psychologi-

cal y, when you make a decision to engage your superhealing mind.

These changes include everything from better sleep, fewer aches and pains, increased mental clarity, and improved memory to weight loss, lower blood pressure, more energy and stamina, and the reversal of chronic or life-threatening diseases. The mind regulates the brain and the nervous system, the endocrine system, the digestive system, the cardiovascular system, and every other system in the body.

By engaging your mind in specific ways to reduce its perception of stress and the physiological affect it has on those systems, you can expand your capacity to heal and move toward optimal well-being.

In 1993, when I was teaching mind-body medicine to graduate

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students in the Foundations of Holistic Health Program at DePaul

University, southern Illinois was ravaged by floods that cut a wide swath across the state as the Mississippi River and other rivers over-flowed. A state of emergency was declared. The assignment I gave

my students was as follows: You are a volunteer on a mission to help the people affected by the floods—in particular, those who have lost their homes and livelihoods. You have no resources other than those you carry within your mind. Devise a program that will help them to effectively cope with this devastating experience. (Hint: Mind-body techniques are the key.) They created programs primarily composed

of mind-body techniques that addressed the trauma of the experi-

ence and the emotional and spiritual needs of the affected people.

A decade later, I was pleased to discover that James Gordon the director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine at the Georgetown Uni-

versity School of Medicine, was operating on the same wavelength.

In 2007, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, he and other volunteers trained healthcare-professional survivors in several mind-body techniques to help them overcome the post-traumatic stress symptoms

caused by these storms. The healthcare workers experienced compas-

sion fatigue from helping others while they were coping with their own symptoms, which included insomnia, hyperalertness, and difficulty focusing. Ninety days later, the participants had improved: their symptoms were reduced, and their exhaustion, anxiety, anger, and

depression had diminished. Dr. Gordon has also shared these tech-

niques in conflict zones and other disaster areas around the globe.1

Mind-body techniques are growing in popularity and gaining a

foothold in medical practice as the research conducted in the last forty years allows doctors to better understand their benefits. The techniques are powerful yet easy to do, inexpensive, and cost-effective, and they require little in the way of equipment. Furthermore, 76

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if you select several techniques and use them frequently, they will have a synergistic affect on your health. I myself now use mind-body techniques so often that they no longer even seem like special techniques to me; they are simply part of my daily routine.

THE POWER OF CONSCIOUS DECISION MAKING

There is a difference between responding to life by making choices, a mental process that requires us to expend energy, and making decisions, which saves energy. In a 2011 study of high-level cognitive processes, such as setting intentions and making decisions, the brains of the participants were scanned by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

as they planned, previewed, and then executed one of three possible hand actions. In the planning phase, electromagnetic brain activity was significantly higher than it was after a decision was reached.2 This indicates that the decision on how to pursue an intention brings a kind of ease in its wake. The internal resolution of making a conscious decision about our behavior sets us on course to pursue that intention without the need to expend time or energy revisiting or debating the issue.

Your first step in engaging your superhealing mind is to make a

decision. The second step is to set an intention of how to do so. The techniques in this chapter can form the basis of your low-stress lifestyle once you decide to use them. At the end of the book, I will take you through the process—decide, intend, focus, and act—of creating your personalized superhealing action plan.

SUPERHEALING MIND ENGAGEMENT

TECHNIQUE #1: LAUGHTER

Are you surprised that I’m beginning with laughter? I am doing so

because it is one of the easiest and yet most potent things you can do to enhance your well-being. “Always remember to laugh,” Lord By-

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ron once said. “It is the cheapest medicine.” A hearty laugh, the kind that sends a stream of tears from your eyes, does more than warm

the soul: it heals your body. Research has shown that laughter causes the lining of blood vessel wal s, the endothelium, to relax, increasing blood flow for up to forty-five minutes after you laugh. Damage to the endothelium can lead to the narrowing of blood vessels and

eventual y the development of cardiovascular disease (atheroscle-

rosis, the hardening of the arteries). That’s no laughing matter—or maybe it is, since laughter prevents and even reverses this dangerous condition.3

When was the last time you had a real y good, thigh-slapping bel-

ly laugh? Awhile back, I had too much to do. I was becoming more

and more stressed, and I didn’t have the time to take care of myself.

When I did, I would go to sleep. One day, my stress got the better of me. While preoccupied with stressful thoughts, I failed to pay attention to where I was walking and inadvertently sprained my ankle.

That evening, I laughed for a good solid hour, if not longer, while watching a funny movie at home with my husband, Victor. When the

movie was over, my swollen and aching ankle didn’t hurt anymore. I hadn’t noticed it for the entire duration of the film. This experience was a powerful reminder of the role that laughter can play in superhealing. Since then, I’ve threatened to become a comedian for my

next career! I’ve always enjoyed a good laugh.

A continual y expanding body of medical research recognizes

the benefits of laughter in preventing and reversing disease caused by the effect of stressful events on our lives. The medical world has studied humor and found that mirthful laughter, the type of laughter associated with humor, positively affects most of the body’s major systems: circulatory, respiratory, muscular, nervous (including the brain), endocrine, and immune.4

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The stimulation that laughter provides improves circulation be-

cause of its effects on the heart and the blood pressure. It helps the lungs to process oxygen more efficiently and improves the conditioning of the heart muscle. It also decreases the level of stress hormones circulating in the bloodstream and reduces muscle tension

and pain. William Fry, now a professor emeritus at Stanford Uni-

versity, has conducted extensive research on the effects of laughter and concluded that several minutes of intense mirthful laughter is comparable to exercising for ten to fifteen minutes on a stationary bike or a rowing machine. 5

Laughter is a happy, pleasant experience that alters our emotional response to stress. It temporarily shifts our attention, allowing us to experience the lighter side of life even in the face of adversity or il -

ness. It enables us to release painful emotions like anger, fear, and boredom. Through laughter, we can leave behind crying and feeling like a victim, instead moving toward health and feeling like a survivor.

The ability to appreciate humor can reduce the mood disturbances

that are the response to negative life events. Psychological y, it somehow gives us a greater sense of control over our lives.6 Although we cannot control the outside world and the things that happen in it, we do have the ability to control how we view these events and how we respond to them emotional y.

There is an interesting difference between the effects on our health of appropriate and inappropriate humor. The basic rule is that appropriate humor is inclusive: it brings people together. Any humor that is exclusive—that separates, offends, or lacks consideration of the feelings of others—is inappropriate. Therefore, it’s no surprise to me that medical research has determined that appropriate humor is

beneficial, whereas inappropriate humor is not.7

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Superhealing Laughter Engagement Suggestions

The Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor defines

therapeutic humor as “any intervention that promotes health and

wellness by stimulating a playful discovery, expression, or appreciation of the absurdity or incongruity of life’s situations.”8

Laughter is an effective self-care tool. It improves the body’s function. Yet it is not merely a tool to be employed when you’re stressed or unwell; it a gift of your humanity to be thoroughly enjoyed every day of your life. We’re born laughing. Babies begin to laugh during the first few months of life. On average, children laugh about 150 times a day, whereas most adults laugh only 15 times a day. 9 Laughing wil help you to stay young at heart.

Stronger social bonds are formed when laughter is shared.10 Have

you ever “caught” someone else’s boisterous laughter? Surely you

have! Nothing beats the feeling that comes from being “infected” like this. Laughter definitely helps us raise our happiness quotient.

To bring more smiles and laughter into your life, try one of these humor strategies:

1. Consciously intend to laugh.

2. Identify what types of things you find funny.

3. Cultivate a playful attitude.

4. Learn to tell jokes.

5. Create your own verbal humor.

6. Look for humor in your daily life.

7. Laugh at the sil y things you do.

8. Purposeful y find humor in the midst of stress.

9. Hang out with people who make you laugh.

Let’s start laughing!

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SUPERHEALING MIND ENGAGEMENT

TECHNIQUE #2: MEDITATION

Like laughing, many of the techniques I am sharing with you in

this book come natural y to us as children. For instance, I used to meditate in my closet as a child—although I didn’t call it that back then. My parents gave me and my sister, Denise, a cartoon slide projector when I was six or seven years old. We soon discovered that

the darkest space in our house was the closet in our bedroom. One

day, after we had completed our viewing, I remained behind. For

some reason, the enveloping darkness caught my attention once I

had turned off the projector. I loved it. I sat still in the velvety darkness and quiet, and it brought me peace. Hiding out in the closet

became a routine after that. Whenever I emerged from my “escape

pod,” I felt refreshed.

The word
meditation
is derived from the Latin verb
meditari,
meaning “to think over, contemplate, reflect, consider, or ponder.”

The root of this Latin verb,
med,
which means “to measure,” is also the root of the English word
medical
.11 Until recently, the practice of meditation has been almost exclusively limited to the confines of the world’s major religions. However, meditation doesn’t necessarily have to be tied to any religious practice. It is currently one of the most popular mind-body techniques in the United States. In 2007,

nearly 9.4 percent of adults, more than 20 million people, reported meditating within the past year.12

In general, meditation is any conscious mental process that in-