If you’re unwell, finding happiness in the moment is near impossible and just making it through the day can be challenging. Nowadays, health is more than just a physical condition, it’s mental and spiritual. Physics and psychological research has recognised that mental health is essential to physical health, because if the unconscious mind is working so hard dealing with the mental challenges, then the running of the ship (the body) comes in second at best.
However, health seems to be the one area we, as a modern society, seem to be struggling with the most. We rely upon the advice of doctors, nutrition experts and governments as to what is right for us in the area of our mental and physical health and yet, that advice seems to change or is contradicted almost weekly! This indicates that we still don’t know what’s right for us, why it’s going wrong and we don’t know how to change it.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the guide by which psychologists and psychiatrists determine what mental issue a person has. This guide alone has grown exponentially over the last 30 years, as have the pharmaceutical options for treatments. The DSM has gone from having just four known mental conditions to over 400, all provided with an over-the- counter drug solution. However, there are many cases where the pharmaceutical option has caused more problems with side effects or worse - death.
The modern western medical model has provided us with great improvements and a longer life, however it too, is to be questioned as it has almost enslaved us by our expectations that it can fix it all. Many doctors now are so afraid of getting a diagnosis wrong they are submitting their patients to expensive, extensive, invasive tests which can also cause complications and long term issues.
In addition to this, our modern way of living has increased obesity, heart disease, diabetes and autism. Prostrate and breast cancer seem to be thriving and as yet, we haven’t see the government or medical model provide any answers to the causes of the disease. Is it what we’re eating? Is it the chemicals we spray on our food? Genetic modification? Vaccinations? Or is it what we are feeding the animals that end up on our table? Is finding the causes of our diseases too hard because it would create a problem in the industry that is causing the problem? Why is the government and medical science only looking for solutions to the symptoms and not hunting down the cause?
This sounds really scary, doesn’t it! What is really scary is how reliant we are on the modern medical system, with the over-the-counter drugs and doctor and surgery treatment options. You may have even ventured into alternative health solutions. However, unless that solution is looking beyond treatment of the symptoms then we are really just looking at band-aid solutions, as the causes are never found that way. Ask any doctor the question “why have I got this?” and they can’t answer that. They don’t know why, they are only trained to treat the symptoms.
There is another option, but it involves something that most people have forgotten or have never had the thought or option to do and that is to take full responsibility for their own health – mental and physical and stop giving your power away to another person. You may even be questioning if that is even possible! Yes it is.
Am I telling you not to go to the doctor or hospital if you are ill? No, I am not. I do believe in the value of a good medical system and if you are sick then they can help you overcome the symptoms, but they can’t tell you why your body failed you. Each person is unique, there is no one size fits all system and the medical model is run by humans, which implies that it cannot be perfect. What you need to do is to work with the system but not surrender yourself to it (see the case example below).
Mental health is more than just taking a mental health day here and there. It’s a change of your mental approach to life, even under the most extreme circumstances. If you are prone to stress, anxiety, depression or mood swings then the chances are that you have had experiences in life that have taught you how to react in situations and those lessons have not been helpful.
Up to the age of six, we are like little mental sponges and we learn our beliefs and values by watching those around us and by our negative experiences. So if you have a belief as an adult that you’re not good enough and constantly have to perform to a perfect standard, which causes you to be stressed out, self-judgemental and anxious, then it’s highly likely you have learnt this belief from an incident in early childhood and it’s been repeated over your life-time. The result of negative belief systems can impact your mental and physical health. Your reaction to life can create stress which turns on the reptilian part of your brain’s fight, flight and freeze response and thus causes the other bodily functions (such as digestion, immune functions and hormone functioning) to take a back seat. If you look around you, how many people do you know who get stressed out easily and are constantly sick or have allergies, intolerances or other health problems? Stress is a killer. Stress is caused by our cognitive approach to the experiences in our life and can be experienced even in the womb (babies react to their mother’s stress).
Our unconscious mind is similar to a filing system, everything is stored away in it and we constantly refer to these files to determine how we react to every situation. You are programmed to respond automatically, which allows your brain to concentrate on your bodily functions. Can you change this? Yes, you can. There are simple techniques that can be used to help you reprogram how you respond and these techniques can be done by you. Some of these you already know, others you have yet to learn, but they are all available to you here, now.
- Exercise – it’s a fact that regular exercise helps reduce stress and create happy hormones in the body.
- Meditation – very good for relaxation and helping the body switch out of stress reaction. It requires regular application to be effective.
- Mindfulness – helps us recognize how and why we mis-take the actuality of things for some story we create, and then makes it possible to chart a path toward greater sanity, well-being, and purpose.
- Energy Psychology – is a combination of techniques which treat and relieve suffering from emotional challenges such as addictions & compulsions, anxiety, depression, limiting beliefs, personality disorders, phobias, stress, and trauma and also help maximize human performance in business, sports and the arts. One of the simple techniques is Meridian tapping which is simple to learn and to apply and a fantastic Self Help technique.
- BodyTalk Access – Developed by an Australian Dr John Veltiem and now supported by the International BodyTalk Association to be taught in developing countries to anyone where medical assistant and medicine is not readily available – 5 simple wellness techniques which help the body to invoke natural powerful immune responses for illness, allergies, intolerances, toxins and fungal conditions, restore the body’s natural tension and integrity between the muscles, tendons, ligaments and connective tissue and therefore reduce physical pain, balance the cortices of the brain allowing for more focus and mental response and lastly, to switch off the stress response in the brain and calm yourself down.
Now if you are prepared to take control of your emotional health by employing one of the above methods, then you will naturally start taking control of your physical health and seek more balance diet, drink less and stop sabotaging your exercise regime.
So now you know what you could do the next step is to find out how to do it. The first step is to find someone who can teach you how and then apply it for yourself. This can be done through the internet (EFT is freely available on the internet to learn) or you can attend a workshop locally that provides you with the ability to learn with others and experience the technique in an environment where you can ask questions and explore. Regular workshops for Meridian Tapping, meditation, mindfulness, stress reduction and BodyTalk Access are available in Coffs Harbour through the Mind and Body Institute (http://www.mindandbodyinstitute.com.au/Workshops.html – 1300 646 326) or Pam’s Studio (http://www.pamelamillican.com.au/ - 0423 214 320).
For more information about these techniques you can also attend free information evenings at the Coffs Harbour Cavanbah Centre (corner of Harbour Drive and Earl Street) 6-7pm on the following dates:
- Monday 19 July 2010
- Monday 16 August 2010
- Monday 13 September 2010
- Monday 8 October 2010
- Monday 11 November 2010
Case Example – Taking control of your cancer
A great example of taking control is Christine who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 48. After her initial shock and panic, she did her research, and discussed her treatment with her Oncologist. She told him she was happy to have the lump removed but not have any chemotherapy or radiation treatment as she knew they would greatly affect her quality of life. He agreed to that, based on the cancer not spreading to her lymph nodes. In fact, the cancer was found in two out of the three lymph nodes they removed for testing. However, again, Christine had done her research and could show him data from scientific journals that say that the maximum her life would be extended was 8.6% (maybe less) by radiation and at most 5% by chemotherapy - in fact the Oncologist said that overall chemotherapy only helps about 30% of patients, the rest get no benefit. He also agreed to her request for no mammograms or any other forms of ionising radiation, since they could increase a person’s risk of breast cancer (she showed him some scientific evidence to back this up). The treatment approach she put forward was to lose weight, walk 6-7kms per day, take a natural anti-oestrogen reducing supplement, avoid all plastics, eat organic food and take vitamin and herbal supplements. She of course, had the evidence to show him that this would help reduce the risk of the cancer returning. The Oncologist agreed to check her progress every 3 months and to have thermal imaging done (no radiation). So essentially, all Christine had done was to have the lump and 3 lymph nodes taken out (with a 78% chance that they got it all) and take full control of her health. She’s now getting on with her life and doing well.
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