You are What you Feel
by Mary Desaulniers
www.GreatBodyat50.com
Posted Feb 4th 2007, Read 337 times since then. Similar ArticlesWhat is Sleep Sleep is the regular state of natural unconsciousness observed in all mammals, birds, and fish. It is heavily influenced by circadian rhythms and by hormonal and environmental factors as well. Sleep appears to perform a restorative function for the brain and body, as evidenced by the myriad symptoms that result when an individual is deprived of… Moving to a Waterbed The vast majority of us still sleep on a regular spring mattress at home, despite the wealth of choice now on the markets relating to mattresses, new materials, ergonomic and orthopaedic sleeping solutions. The waterbed is perhaps the most recognised of those alternatives, but also the one that raises the most doubt in prospective buyers minds.… Anxiety and What to Do About It Anxiety Disorders Defined There are several subgroups of Anxiety Disorders, with different causes and treatement. Anxiety disorders are a serious social and financial concern to American business, since they cost the country more than $42 billion a year in healthcare costs and lost productivity, according to "The Economic Burden of Anxiety… You Better Sleep! “If only I could get to sleep…,” is a phrase all too familiar to anyone who has ever struggled with poor sleep quality. While tossing and turning, quite often we discover that the harder we try to get to sleep, the farther we seem to push it away. Sleep and the lack thereof has been getting more media attention lately since as Americans we are… A Sleep Study — What to Expect When sleep apnea is suspected a sleep study is recommended in most cases. It is a very good tool to collect comprehensive information about somebody’s sleep pattern. Multiple data channels will record certain physiological parameters taken from your sleeping body. These are: blood oxygen saturation, airflow through your nose, chest effort, muscle…
When Wordsworth described the Romantic mind as an ”Orphean lyre” played upon by the wind, he used an image that struck a chord in the Romantic Imagination, an image that unleashed a century of political, literary and social rebellion.
Why did the image of the lyre speak so dramatically to the people 300 years ago? Can we see in our current research on emotions and the body concrete evidence that what was once a poetic metaphor is an actual physiological truth?
By calling the mind a lyre played upon by the wind, Wordsworth made a bold departure from Descartes whose assertion,”I think, therefore I am” completely dismissed the importance of the body in the psychological and intellectual scheme of things. This Mind versus Body dualism haunted Western Imagination until the Romantics made an impassioned claim for the importance of breath, inspiration and feelings in language and poetry. “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,” wrote Wordsworth. And in claiming a place for feelings, Wordsworth made an equally bold claim for the disconnected, the disenchanted and the disgruntled of his social universe; those exiles who inhabit his poetic landscape are reminders of what we have lost: connection with kin, the land and God. And by reclaiming them, he not only restored the importance of feelings, sound and movement to the “body” of poetry, he also called for a more egalitarian and compassionate “body politic” where everyone had a place in the social network of connections.
Thanks to the work of Dr. Candace Pert (Molecules of Emotion: The Science behind BodyMind 1997), we can see now how Wordsworth’s metaphor is played out in our real and actual bodies. Emotions and thoughts do not reside solely in the head; as a matter of fact, the body functions like a vast neural network of reactions to thoughts and feelings. Think of the body as a huge limbic Web where messages are transmitted and received back and forth in an unending chain of interactions.
And the central sources of this transmission are emotions—emotions that release specific neuropeptides that are attached to specific receptive cells (receptors) all over the body. The emotional circuitry of the brain is connected to every organ of the body, says Mona Lisa Schulz M.D. Ph.D in The New Feminine Brain 2005. This means that our emotions create definite and specific changes to the cells of the body. The circuitry works in an interactive manner: chronic moodiness can trigger chemical imbalances that cause depression which in turn increases the body’s chances of developing illness and pain. And illness or pain can also influence the dynamics of the cells to produce deeper and more intense depression. Physical symptoms can have their first cause in the emotional dynamics of the body.
Current research in cell biology suggests that each cell has the ability to change its constitution and program according to its response to the external environment. Like a lyre that is played upon by the wind, our cells are altered by the waves of feelings and emotions that move through our bodies, influencing our perceptions and experiences of the world.
Such a fluid and porous connection between mind and body suggests that the material nature of our body ( and indeed of the world) can be seriously questioned. To what extent are our bodies solid? To what extent can our own receptivity alter our experiences of the world? To what extent can we, by switching our perception and feelings, change the course of events in our lives? To what extent would this Brave New World of ours be a matter of survival—survival of the most malleable and most porous?
Perhaps a look at some of the documented physiological reactions to negative emotions can persuade us of the direction we need to take with our thoughts and feelings.
Negative emotions like fear, anger, sadness can bring about Fatigue, Apathy, Shortness of breath, Insomnia, Depression,Dysfunction of the immune system, Increased susceptibility to infections, Autoimmune disorders, Cancer.
Positive emotions like love and joy can bring about Increased body temperature, Feeling of strength in the body or Empowerment, Enhanced immune system, Change in appetite, Improved attention, learning and memory, Increased sense of well-being.
Anger, sadness, fear, hatred all release neuropeptides that disrupt the release of natural opiates like endorphins and serotonin in the body. These natural opiates increase our feelings of well-being. It is clear that the choice is ours: the choice not only to think positively but to choose actions that elicit positive responses in our cells. Our bodies are as fluid as Wordsworth’s lyre and it is incumbent upon us to move in the most effective direction the biochemical make-up of our cells by consciously selecting our emotional reactions to events.
If we are what we eat and what we do, we are even more intensely what we think and what we feel.
Copyright 2005 Mary Desaulniers Similar ArticlesYoga For Pregnant Women Master your mind! Gain control over your body! Be relieved of your stress through the practice of gentle art of Yoga! Pregnancy is a physical as well as mental experience. Women often becomes hyper aware of all the changes their bodies are going through. Yoga allows pregnant women to adapt to these changes more gracefully and to feel proud and a… Do You Really Get The Sleep Your Body Needs? Many Americans are chronically sleep-deprived; up to eighty percent of adults, by some estimates. Much of this deprivation can be attributed to ever-more frantic lifestyles, and most people understand the basic effects of poor sleeping habits. Some have found relief through sleep inducing drugs and comfort related products like memory foam… Respect Your Wake/Sleep Cycle A client recently told me this revealing story about the power of routine. While in college she knew a young man whom every one admired. He just seemed to do everything "right". He excelled at his schoolwork, was liked by everyone, had a pleasing and peaceful energy, had many accomplishments and many connections. She asked him what his secret was.… Kick Your Caffeine Habit With Knock-Out Herbal Remedies If you need a dose of morning coffee to kick start your day you may be undermining the peaceful balance that comes from advanced martial arts training and dramatically lowering your ability to develop Ki energy. Overloading your body with caffeine can cause insomnia, anxiety attacks, impatience, mood swings and the caffeine “Jitters”. But quitting… How to Exercise your Nervous System You exercise your cardio-vascular system with aerobics. You strengthen your muscular system with weight training. You watch your diet to avoid pollutants and supply nutrients. All these good things provide your body with health and vitality. What’s missing? Your brain. You work your heart and muscles to improve their condition and tone. You want… What is Sleep Apnea? Sleep apnea is one of the major sleep disorders. Apnea is the condition of ‘not respiring’, which may return to normal within a few seconds. Apnea can be voluntary or involuntary. The involuntary attacks of apnea are considered to be dangerous since it affects the oxygen level in the body. The episodes of apnea occurring during sleep are called… Are You Getting Too Much Sleep? Too much sleep? are you kidding? There's no such thing these days is there? With today's fast paced lifestyle there's barely enough time to grab enough sleep let alone too much. However if you sleep eight hours a night or more and still awake less than refreshed, chances are you're getting too much sleep. What you need is not more sleep it's… How to Have the Best Sleep Ever There’s no doubt about it sleep is very important, but lets face it, Americans are lacking it. During sleep the body replenishes itself and the cells restore and rebuild tissues in the body. Not getting enough sleep can lead to more than just feeling tired. It can lead to a suppress immune system which makes it easier for an individual to catch a… Treatments for Sleep Apnea Numerous treatment procedures apply to sleep apnea. All these treatments aim at helping sleep apnea sufferers to gain consistently uninterrupted breathing motions whilst sleeping. This article aims to help those people having problems with sleep apnea that are unsure of how to eradicate their problem. Various treatments exist such as behavioral… Baby Yourself: Let's Start with Sleep Sleep is essential to our ability to function in our everyday life which has much to do with our happiness. No matter what mental, physical, and emotional problems you have in your life, they will be worsened by exhaustion. It’s impossible to be happy when you are overwhelmed, anxious and short-tempered….all extensions of sleep deprivation. In my… Sleep Apnea Treatment: Foods that Aid sleep The benefits of a sound sleep is not a state secret. We know how sleep can effect our productivity, our decision making capability, functioning of our brain. According to Ayurveda, people who are most vulnerable to sleep disorders have dry hair, suffer hair fall, sensitive digestions, are usually restless, prone to smoking and have DRY SKIN too.… Tips for Getting a Great Night's Sleep Is it difficult for you to "roll out of bed" in the morning? Do you have a hard time concentrating in the morning and feel like you're running around in a fog for most of the day? Are you constantly trying to "snap yourself out of it?" If this sounds like you, then you may not be getting enough uninterrupted sleep. Most adults need between 8 to 10… Twelve Ways to Conquer Sleep Disorders Do you wake up refreshed in the morning without the use of an alarm clock and feel energetic all day? If you don’t, you may not be sleeping enough (adults need between 7.5-8.5 hours a night of sleep) or you may suffer from a sleep disorder that affects 60 million Americans: insomnia. If you have insomnia, you probably experience difficulty falling… How To Deal With A Sleep Apnea Problem Sleep apnea is quite common — it's believed to affect as many adults as diabetes does. As such, there are many people who are forced to deal with it. The first step is to get a proper diagnosis. If sleep apnea is suspected, your doctor can send you for a test known as a polysomnogram (PSG) which records various things while you sleep. It can… The Benefit of Yoga — Fight or Flight? Medical conditions can be vastly improved through the benefit of yoga. Yoga can lessen the negative effects of such conditions as lung disease, Parkinson's, insomnia, high blood pressure multiple sclerosis, and even joint pain. The benefit of yoga is being recognized today as a viable alternative not only by the yoga community, but by many medical… The views of the authors are owned by them alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Hypnotic-Insomnia-Cure.com. Articles here are provided for informational purposes only. They are not intended to diagnose, cure, or prevent any disease. 
← Articles index | Save to del.icio.us

Melatrol Sleeping AidMelatrol combines benefits of immediate results with long term effects. It will help you fall asleep instantly and aid your body to regulate its sleeping patterns. Melatrol will provide you with a better quality sleep so you can enjoy a productive day after awakening! Melatrol is not addictive and has no side effects. Money Back Guarantee. If you're not happy with purchase simply return the used packaging after you are finished for a full refund less processing fee shipping and handling. Worldwide Delivery. US delivery within 2-14 business days. Worldwide delivery available. Be the one of thousands people who overcame insomnia and claimed their life back. < ORDER NOW ONLINE > |