The Power to Heal

P.O.W.E.R.

PAUSE, so that you can clear and open your mind.

OPTIMIZE your awareness of the parts of the body and how they function.

WITNESS your own body’s language and physiology, so that you can further your awareness and move into acceptance, understanding how your body speaks to you.

EXAMINE the deeper emotions and beliefs that are adding to your stress, furthering your awareness and acceptance, and moving you into accountability. Develop action steps to RELEASE negative habits and beliefs, RELIEVE your body of stress, and RESTORE power that will bring your mind and body into balance.

When you learn to become aware of and accept your body’s signals and begin to listen to and understand what it is telling you it needs, you will make better choices, be more accountable for your actions and choices, and take action steps that enable you to take care of yourself in ways that truly help you to get healthy and happy. The first step is to hit the pause button, to take a break from your busy life and ongoing thoughts. When your mind is busy and noisy, you can’t hear your body’s signals or be open to learning or processing new information.

Pause

Imagine you are engaged in one of your favorite activities—golf, tennis, dancing, singing, or skiing. Every movement is precise—the perfect swing, the perfect pirouette, the perfect C sharp, the perfect ski jump. You are not thinking. Your mind and body are one unit. It feels like a dream. Smooth. No mistakes. In this moment, anything seems possible. Then you begin to analyze and overthink every movement. You worry. Will you fail? Will you trip? Will your voice crack? Perhaps you remember that the last time you went skiing you fell, which causes you to fall. Like a toddler learning to walk, you act with hesitation rather than with confidence and ease. Your focus, timing, and coordination are way off the mark. Physically, emotionally, and mentally you expend more energy trying to perform than actually performing. Your mind has gotten in the way of your success. This happens on an everyday basis. How much energy do you expend thinking, worrying, analyzing, and trying rather than simply being or doing? To the brain your fears and perceived obstacles represent unmanageable stressors. What does this mean? Normally, when the brain perceives a stress to be manageable, it will activate the stress response long enough to take care of the problem. If the stress is perceived to be unmanageable, the stress response will be activated incessantly. This means your heart continues to race, your blood pressure to climb, your digestive system to shut down, or the inflammatory response to heighten. On a daily basis, the persistent activation of the stress response can take a toll on the mind-body system, depleting your energy and ultimately the trust in your own abilities and strengths to manage uncertainty or handle a challenging task. When you empty your mind of its fears – fear that you might fail, that something bad might happen, that the outcome will not be what you expect – you can tap into your inner trust. When you quiet the mind, your inner trust can be heard. You become more centered and balanced within yourself, more relaxed and unattached, yet alert and engaged.

Optimize Your Awareness

When your mind is open, you widen your lens of perception and create a big picture for yourself of how your body works and why. Optimizing your awareness involves understanding how your body functions, what problems can arise, and why, so that you can prevent them from happening or getting worse. It entails not only getting a clear picture of the anatomy of your body, but also when medical attention is warranted. You will learn about the prevalence and incidence of problems in different areas of the body, risk factors, and causes as well as the “red flags”—the signs and symptoms that your body really needs medical attention sooner rather than later. This information is meant to guide you to take care of yourself, so that you can be at your optimal best.

Witness Your Physiology

Witnessing your physiology involves listening to and observing your body and how it speaks to you. You observe with an open mind without judgment. Nothing is good or bad; nothing is right or wrong. Witnessing has its roots in the Buddhist meditation practice called mindfulness, which is now a widespread secular practice. Mindfulness involves being in a moment-by-moment awareness of your thoughts, sensations, and feelings as well as of the surrounding environment. Thoughts tune into whatever you sense in the present moment, so that you can remain in the now. Studies have shown that mindfulness can help tune out distraction and enable better focus and memory, which is exactly why this tool is used to “witness.” By tuning out distractions and negative emotions, you can tune into the language, feelings, and memories of your mind and body. You also learn to reduce your stress-response reactivity, improve your mood, and cope more effectively with life’s challenges.

When your mind is quiet, you can pay closer attention to the emotions and thoughts, beliefs, and memories that lie beneath physical sensations and feelings. When the body reacts with a physical sensation or discomfort, there are often emotional and psychological symptoms as well. Rather than trying to numb that discomfort with a medication, you can examine it more closely to uncover the underlying emotion. Teachings from wisdom traditions can guide you to understand that different parts of the body are associated with a variety of emotions and beliefs. For example, the Vedic (Indian) chakra system and the five-element system from traditional Chinese medicine help us understand which belief or emotion may correspond with which symptom or part of the body. If, for example, you suffer from lung problems, the five-element system reveals that you may have experienced some loss or grief at some point, while the chakra system says heartache results from an imbalance within your heart chakra. Together, these systems teach that you may have some negative beliefs related to your sense of belonging and feeling loved and attached. For now, this is what you want to know. The five-element theory asserts that all things in nature and in the human body are made up of five elements that regulate cycles of growth and change—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. The cycle of growth and change regulated by these elements is seen in all natural processes, including the seasons and human life. Each element has its own unique physical, emotional, and spiritual property, which is constantly moving and changing.

Release, Relieve, and Restore

Once you have taken a pause, opened your mind, optimized your awareness, identified the language of your body as well as underlying beliefs or emotions that warrant healing, you want to create outlets of release and relief, so that you can restore balance in your mind and body. You can imagine your body as a body of water behind a dam; you need outlets of relief to maintain the desired water level. These outlets make use of adaptive coping tools that you have at your fingertips should you choose to use them. They are adaptive in that they allow for regulation of the stress response and for reward and relief, which are beneficial to your health and well-being. You often don’t know that you are feeling badly until you are feeling good. You also often don’t appreciate feeling good until you have experienced feeling badly. This is what I refer to as learning by having contrasting experiences. When you have had the opportunity to experience both feeling good and feeling bad, which would you prefer to feel in the future? Now that you have experienced both, you have a choice. For instance, you always have a choice about how you want to feel at any particular moment, even in a trying situation. You can choose to get upset and stressed about a challenging predicament, or you can choose to redirect your focus to positive thoughts, virtues, emotions, experiences, or imagery to transcend any negative thoughts and emotions. Perhaps you feel angry or worried, for example. You have the choice to focus on the object of your anger or worry, or you may choose to redirect your focus to something unrelated and more positive in an effort to shift your physiology and access positive thinking and emotions. You may try closing your eyes, taking a few slow, deep breaths, and focusing on the image of the smile of someone you love. Recall all the details of that smile—without judgment or repression. Just notice. As you breathe in and out, notice all the details and focus on the smile. If you concentrate on how the image makes you feel, you will become aware that you have shifted into a more positive state. You will also realize that you want to hold on to this wonderful feeling of joy and appreciation and that you are not experiencing negative thoughts and emotions simultaneously. You have the option of making many choices. Do you want to feel rested or tired? Energized or sluggish? Strong or weak? Like you belong or are alone? Victorious or victimized? The list goes on, and there exists an even longer list of tools available to you to help you make the healthier choice, one that enables you to feel good and stay feeling that way. Each chapter focuses on lifestyle habits, with a particular emphasis on nutrition, exercise, and finding ways to build loving relationships that help you stay healthier and happier.