Bodymind: Just One Big Chemical Soup

"A basic emotion such as fear can be described as an abstract feeling or as a tangible molecule of the hormone adrenaline," writes Deepak Chopra in Ageless Body, Timeless Mind. "Without the feeling there is no hormone; without the hormone there is no feeling . . . The revolution we call mind-body medicine was based on this simple discovery: wherever thought goes, a chemical goes with it."

In other words, we are little more than a chemistry set. All our thoughts and feelings get translated into chemicals that fire off throughout our body, altering the chemical composition and behavior of our cells. Hence a sad feeling will influence the cells of our tear ducts and make them produce tears, and a scary feeling will give us goose bumps or make our hair stand on end.

During the past ten years there has been a growing body of research showing how the mind and body respond to each other, how emotional and psychological states translate into altered responses in the chemical balance of the body.

Neuroscientists have known for some time that the limbic system is the emotional center of the brain, translating emotions into physical responses, as well as controlling the appetite, blood sugar level, body temperature and the automatic functioning of the heart, lungs, digestive and circulatory systems. This indicates the intimate relationship between how we feel and how we behave, between our emotions and our physical state.

"We can no longer think of the emotions as having less validity than physical or material substance," writes Candace Pert in Molecules of Emotion, "but instead must see them as cellular signals that are involved in the process of translating information into physical reality, literally transforming mind into matter."

So can we honestly say there is any real difference between one part of our being and another? Is the only difference the means of expression? H2O exists as water, steam, rain, sea, cloud or ice, yet is still H2O; in the same way our feelings are expressed through our behavior and actions, or through different chemicals and physical systems within our body.

As Dianne Connelly writes in Traditional Acupuncture: The Law of the Five Elements: "The skin is not separate from the emotions, or the emotions separate from the back, or the back separate from the kidneys, or the kidneys separate from will and ambition, or will and ambition separate from the spleen, or the spleen separate from sexual confidence."

Thoughts have energy; emotions have energy. They make us do and say things, act in certain ways, they make us jump up and down or lie prone in bed, they determine what we eat and who we love. The energy behind what we think and feel does not just disappear if it is held back or repressed. When we cannot, or do not, express what is happening on an emotional or psychological level, that energy becomes embodied, we take it deeper within, until it manifests through the physical body.

For instance, when I was eight years old I was sent to boarding school, an experience I was not too thrilled about. A few weeks after I got there I had tonsillitis. In those days having your tonsils removed meant staying in hospital for a week followed by a week at home, eating nothing but mashed potatoes and ice cream--good comfort foods!

What those two weeks really did was reconnect me with home, security and a sense of belonging. I can now see that the nature of the illness--inflamed glands and a sore throat--indicated that I was having a very hard time swallowing my reality. Boarding school was not a reality I wanted to accept. The time at home and the eating of baby-type foods was the healing I needed to be able to accept what was happening.

To apply this to yourself, think back over times of illness and see if the sickness followed a time of crisis, stress or emotional difficulty. If it did, then ask yourself if there are any issues, such as anger or grief, that need to be acknowledged and released.

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Deb Shapiro is the bestselling author of Your Body Speaks Your Mind. Read more at www.EdandDebShapiro.com

Comments

[yoyo22]

Hi Deb,loved this article it helped me realize how our body and mind work as one.I look forward to reading more of your woks. Thanks again Yvonne

[OurLadyofWeightLoss]

Hi Deb, I am so into the mind, neurotransmitters and soup! What a winning article. I am going to slowing ingest every chemical. YUM!!!! Janice