Superhealing: Engaging Your Mind, Body, and Spirit to Create Optimal Health and Well-Being (ARC) (24 page)

I’ve often been asked why I talk about science and spirit as if there were no conflict between the two. Why do I use science to demonstrate the value of spirit and spirituality? The break occurred, as I 162

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mentioned earlier, during the turf war between church and science.

But it never happened in reality. Spirit has always guided our physiology through the vehicle of the mind. I see no separation, because the division that exists between spirituality and science is arbitrary and unnecessary.

Remarkable research has provedn that immersing ourselves in

positive emotions and attributes associated with the spirit—such

as love, intelligence, beauty, joy, and compassion—dramatical y enhances our health and well-being and gives life its greatest meaning.

The positive emotions, values, attitudes, beliefs and, strengths that we acquire through spiritual practices contribute to our health and happiness. The engagement of spiritual practices improves the quality of life, increases the likelihood of survival, and contributes to illness being less severe.1

According to both spiritual traditions and scientific discoveries, we are all beings of energy. The body’s atoms and molecules vibrate at certain frequencies and generate waves of energy. Uplifting states of awareness physiological y alter our bodies and minds and guide

them into a higher level of functioning and health. These states also enhance our likelihood of recovering from serious illnesses, promote longevity, and general y improve our lives.

When we express spiritual qualities, our physiology changes.

There is a biology of hope, a physiology of love, and a biochemistry of peace. That is how intimately the spirit interacts with the body.

When we feel these states, they are not just in our spirits, they are actual physical states. When the autonomic nervous system experiences positive emotions such as enthusiasm, love, awe, and amuse-

ment, compared to being in a state of emotional neutrality, unique patterns of activation occur, indicating the existence of many physiological y distinct positive emotions.2

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While I have already shared with you the concepts of positive psy-

chology, I think we need to take a deeper look at it now, because

expressing positive emotions is the doorway to aligning the mind

and the spirit and thus the body, too. I see a continuum of emotions, from the highest to the lowest—from love to sadness—and positive

emotions fall within that spectrum. All the spiritual qualities are reflective of positivity, but the research so far has focused more on what I would call the psychological, rather than the spiritual, aspects of human nature. Positive emotions are part of our spiritual expression.

They are the key to actively experiencing superhealing on an ongo-

ing basis.

Living in states of emotional well-being, happiness, joy, optimism, satisfaction, and other positive moods and having a sense of humor are all associated with a decreased death rate, among healthy people as well as those experiencing illness.3

Lower
emotional states include anger, envy, fear, frustration, pessimism, impatience, doubt, guilt, despair, dishonesty, revenge, selfishness, ingratitude, intolerance, sorrow, shame, and prejudice. They have their place and should not be shunned, ignored, or suppressed; rather, they should be experienced and explored for the messages,

potential growth, greater understanding, and awareness that all our emotions can bring. Some people have been misled to believe that

being spiritual requires dwelling in positivity 100 percent of the time.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Superhealing is living authentical y and experiencing all the different emotions our experiences bring.

Spiritual well-being can reduce our chances of developing diseases through dampening the fight-or-flight response and the sympathetic nervous system and enhancing calmness and the parasympathetic

nervous system. Spiritual well-being may decrease inflammation

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and blood clotting that is triggered by stress.4 Well-being causes a reduction in death from heart disease. Similar to the relaxation response, it lowers the level of cortisol, a key stress hormone.

Accessing superhealing through heightened well-being can decrease

your risk of developing disease by changing your response to stress through the autonomic nervous system and by enhancing parasympathetic stimulation, elevating heart rate variability, and lowering blood pressure. By maintaining a positive state of well-being, you may reduce your vulnerability to infectious diseases and also not generate as high a level of the stress-induced chemicals that are involved with inflammation and coagulation, which are associated with cardiovascular disease.

Many studies now indicate that optimists are healthier than pes-

simists. The most comprehensive review of research findings dis-

covered that a sense of well-being and feeling positive rather than distressed or depressed does contribute to enhanced health and longevity. By following 5,000 college students for more than forty years, one study showed that the most pessimistic students lived shorter

lives than the other students did. Another research project, which involved tracking 180 nuns throughout their adult lives, determined that those who wrote autobiographies in which they indicated that

they had been positive in their twenties tended to live longer than those who had negative recollections of their earlier lives.5 Several long-term studies have determined that pessimism, anxiety, depression, and a lack of enjoyment of one’s daily activities are all linked to higher rates of disease and statistical y significant shorter lives. This, the researchers concluded, is because of the effects of long-term negative thinking. Occasional negative thoughts that occur in the midst of ongoing positivity are not as harmful.

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YOUR SUPERHEALING

SPIRIT-HEART-BRAIN CONNECTION

Have you ever felt your heart speaking to you? Have you ever con-

sidered its significance beyond pumping blood through your body?

It is indeed a specialized muscle that is unique unto itself. “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,” said the author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. “What is important is invisible to the eye.”( http://

www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/antoinedes101532.html)

From time immemorial and around the globe, the heart has been

perceived as the seat of our emotions. Our ancestors believed that the heart is where they experienced the sensation of love and where intuition, gratitude, and wisdom abided. For some cultures, the

heart was the location of consciousness and of the soul. The heart has always been associated with the highest—that is, spiritual—human qualities.

Until studies showed otherwise, however, scientists focused on

the brain as the source of these experiences. Now there is research that has explored the activities through which the heart actively communicates with the brain, transferring emotion and influencing biochemical and electrical processing through the nervous system. These studies provided the foundation to explain how and why the heart

affects our emotions, mental clarity, creativity, and empathetic states.

We also now know that through the powerful electromagnetic

energy the heart generates with each beat, it actual y communicates and informs the brain and other organs of our emotional states, because our heart rate varies in accordance with those states. The heart contains a highly complex nervous system that has the capacity to

learn and maintain memories independently of the brain.

Surprising, too, is that the heart communicates with the brain in

ways that significantly affect our perceptions and our reactions to 166

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the world. Studies have determined that the heart has its own unique mechanisms that are frequently different from the directions received from the autonomic nervous system. The heart appeared to

send messages to the brain, which received the messages and fol-

lowed their instructions.6 More recently, neuroscientists discovered nerve cel s and pathways where messages from the heart to the brain could stop or enhance the brain’s electrical activity.7

PHYSIOLOGICAL COHERENCE

The pathway between spirit and body via positive emotions is

a recently discovered physiological state known as
coherence
. Our hearts are affected by our feelings and emotions, which alter the

heart rate and form a heart rhythm pattern. This coherent pattern is an indication of our body’s quality of functioning. It allows the two parts of our nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic) to

function effectively together in harmony. Perhaps this is the physiological basis of positive emotions.

Our negative emotions create a very different vibration and state

throughout the body. Emotional distress causes an erratic and un-

predictable heart rate, which is considered
incoherent
. It is an indication that the two parts of our autonomic nervous system are func-

tioning independently of each other rather than together. One part is stimulating while the other is attempting to relax. This wastes energy and causes additional physical deterioration. This is especial y true if we experience stress and negative emotions on a regular basis.

SPIRITUALITY, HEALTH, AND WELL-BEING

As we consider the link between spirituality and health, I want to be clear at the outset about something.
By no means is this intended
to make you feel less spiritual if you are living with an il ness
.

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Spirituality and health is the final medical frontier, yet to be ful y explored and understood. And I believe it is one of the most important frontiers. When I was in medical school, there was never, and I do mean
never
, a conversation about the topic. However, it has proved to be one of the most promising areas of medical research for those daring enough to investigate. Fortunately, there are more and more research scientists who are boldly going where few others have previously dared to go.

A global survey of more than 132 countries and 136,000 people

found that even though increased income (both personal and na-

tional) enhances life satisfaction, it does not automatical y lead to a greater sense of personal well-being. The data revealed that positive feelings are more closely associated with having social support, fulfilling work, autonomy, and respect. This is the first global study to examine life satisfaction, daily emotional states, and the perspective that one’s life is going wel .8

Contrary to popular opinion, our well-being is not improved by the external signs of success that many cultures honor. Fame and wealth do not help with pain. However, enhancing our spirituality and spiritual well-being does, and it leads to greater self-awareness and happiness.

The basis of our spiritual health and well-being is becoming one

with life itself through the awareness of our inseparable connection to everyone and everything. It is escaping the unconsciously self-imposed constraints of our ego identity: the constricted individualized personality we have become through the portal of our culture’s ideas of who we should be rather than the truth of who we are.

There are three general y accepted areas of spiritual health and

development:

1. The realization of our potential

2. The meaning and purpose of life

3. Internal happiness

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The Realization of Our Potential

It is well documented that during our lifetimes, we experience

stages of human awareness—a pathway of spiritual unfolding and

well-being. First there is the narrowly bound focus on the self-interest of the ego, which is reactive to the external world and seeks to control it. Along the path, those boundaries soften as we develop a consideration of the needs of others. Ultimately, the boundaries expand to include our souls and all of life itself. This is truly the transformation of ego and personality to the spiritual reality of who we are. This pathway is the superhealing journey to optimal health and well-being, the most direct route to having all that you desire.

The Meaning and Purpose of Life

Taking a deeper look into our spirits and spirituality promotes a

state of well-being in which we have a broader view of life that supports the expression of our full potential, the understanding of our purpose and the meaning of life, and the internal focus that promotes happiness from within.

Internal Happiness

As we grow into greater self awareness, we begin to experience

positive spiritual qualities more often, from occasional y to regularly to continuously. We become more purposeful, resourceful, compassionate, giving, intuitive, spiritual, joyful, happy, and peaceful, and we experience negative emotions less frequently.

FAITH AND FORTITUDE

You’ve probably heard the saying that the difference between a pessimist and an optimist is that the pessimist sees a glass as half empty and the optimist sees the glass as half ful . Just as pessimism leads

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to complacency and indecision, optimism leads to hope and self-

actualization. According to
Miriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
, optimism is “an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.”