Superhealing: Engaging Your Mind, Body, and Spirit to Create Optimal Health and Well-Being (ARC) (9 page)

From 1975 to 1987, Maddi conducted a landmark study of mid-

level executives at Illinois Bell Telephone, a division of AT&T. In 1981, they faced losing their jobs as a result of the breakup of AT&T.

Because it was an extremely stressful time for so many executives, the number of heart attacks skyrocketed, to the point that a coronary care unit was created at Illinois Bel ’s corporate headquarters. Two-thirds of the managers fell apart from the stress of the company’s downsizing. They had heart attacks and strokes, suffered depression and anxiety, and got divorced. But within this group of executives, there were also those who thrived in the face of severe adversity.27

Although the managers in the second group were similar in age

and ethnicity to their counterparts, they held a different perspective.

Among the managers experiencing high levels of stress, those who

showed “hardy attitudes” experienced fewer mental and physical il -

ness symptoms. Those attitudes entailed a commitment to the job,

an amazing sense of challenge, excitement in response to adversity, and a critical perception of self-control. These managers didn’t just survive, they thrived! They also rose to the top at Illinois Bell or at competing companies. 28

The point is that no matter how bad things get, if you’re com-

mitted, you will stay involved and give your best effort rather than pulling back. If you are strong in the attitude of control, you will tend to perceive yourself as in charge of your destiny, and you will try to influence the outcome of events rather than lapse into passivity. You thereby have the greatest likelihood of influencing the outcomes occurring around you. Sinking into passivity and powerlessness seems pointless to those with hardiness traits.

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PART ONE:
Your Superhealing Mind

If you believe that change is normal, you will be more able to treat change simply as a challenge. If you are strong in the attitude of challenge, you will think that your life will be most fulfilled if you continue to learn and grow in wisdom from your experiences, whether

they are positive or negative.

Together, the attitudes of commitment, control, and challenge

provide the foundation for turning stress from an emotional disaster into a growth opportunity. Dr. Maddi believed that the hardy attitudes of commitment, control, and challenge are the best description of human courage in action.29

Several additional studies have demonstrated that hardiness mod-

erates the stress-disease relationship. In combination with social support and physical exercise, hardy attitudes provide protection from stress-related illnesses, despite genetical y inherited vulnerabilities to certain diseases. Research psychologist Paul Bartone was commis-sioned by the U.S. Army to study military personnel in various stressful circumstances, including peacekeeping and combat missions. He

found considerable evidence that the less hardy the attitudes were, the greater the likelihood was that life-threatening stresses and the culture shock of military engagement abroad would lead to mental

breakdowns such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.30

From all these studies, we can conclude that our behavior, guided

by our personality traits, influences the way we live and how well we can adapt to life’s unpredictable trials and tribulations. Our perceptions, attitudes, and emotions are the keys to open either the doorway to health or the doorway to disease.

But how do we open the doorway to health? In the next chapter,

we’ll look at some recent scientific breakthroughs that show how to activate the superhealing mind-body connection that leads to optimal well-being.

CHAPTER ONE:
Your Superhealing Mind-Body Connection
45

SUPERHEALING WORK SHEET:

ASSESSING YOUR STRESS

For the next week, monitor your stress level and your thoughts,

feelings, and emotions. Reflect upon the following questions or write about them in a journal:

1. How often do you feel stressed on a daily basis?

2. How often do you feel stressed during a week?

3. Describe a typical stressful situation.

4. What are the causes of your stress?

5. Of these causes, which are the most significant?

6. Is your stress increasing?

7. What are the signs and symptoms of the stress that

you experience?

8. What physical symptoms do you experience?

9. What do you do when you’re aware of your stress?

10. Do you think you ever experience stress but are not

aware of it?

11. How do you engage your body, mind, and spirit when

you’re stressed?

12. Do you think your stress is determined by forces be-

yond your control, or does the way you view experiences

determine your body’s response to events?

13. Does stress create a sense in you of having a challenge

to overcome or a feeling of being overwhelmed?

14. In your experience, are all stressful experiences harmful?

If yes, explain why, and if no, explain why not.

15. What are some of the benefits of your stress?

16. If you were to respond in a healthier way to a particular

stressful situation, imagine and describe how that

response would feel.

CHAPTER 2

Superhealing Mind-Body

Research Breakthroughs

The real voyage of discovery consists not in

seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes.

—Marcel Proust

For the vast majority of his life, James was the picture of

health and well-being. At eighty-four, he was still very much the

strong tower of the man he had always been. He looked like he was

in his midsixties and was much fitter than men who were decades

younger. He was full of life, with minimal aches and pains, thanks to his zest for life and his pursuit of hobbies and education. He had had taken vitamins since his midfifties and engaged in vigorous activity, including running a landscaping business and maintaining a large

organic garden that provided him and his neighbors with pounds of

healthy fruits and vegetables. He had returned to his hometown in

South Carolina to farm on the land he loved three years earlier, and he lived alone. He was self-sufficient and happy.

In his entire life, James had spent only one night in the hospital.

He did all the right things. He gave of himself to friends, family, and anyone else who needed a helping hand. Yet a few days after being

kidnapped and robbed of $10,000, he quickly deteriorated mental y

and emotional y, because he was traumatized by the experience.

Nothing eased James’s distress. He had lost his center, his sense

of safety. The kidnappers had robbed him not only of his money but also of his enduring faith and trust in people. From the sidelines, I 47

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PART ONE:
Your Superhealing Mind

watched helplessly as he was diminished by the severe stress of remembering, every day, the painful incident he’d endured. Two weeks later, James had a panic attack and died from a massive heart attack.

He was my dad. I believe he died because he was overwhelmed by

the distress caused by his terrible experience.

Distress is the silent epidemic of our time. The human body—

which is exquisitely sensitive to the barometer of our thoughts,

emotions, and especial y our perceptions (our subjective interpre-

tations)—is always expressing a dynamic symphony of responses.

These are not limited to one part or portion of the body but are a global experience. Our thoughts and feelings initiate the electrochemical reactions that regulate our bodies’ functions and set the tone for our quality of life. Anything that disrupts our minds also disrupts our emotions and our bodies. If we continual y fail to adapt to any given disruption, whether it comes from inside us or outside us, we will experience chronic distress and potential y develop a disease.

The problem of stress is like a two-ton elephant sitting in the middle of the healthcare living room. It remains inadequately addressed by the medical community. Beyond interventions with antianxiety

medication and the establishment of worksite fitness and relaxation programs, stress-reduction efforts have been marginal in our culture. The public health implications are so grave that we continue to ignore stress at our own peril. Stress is a reality that is not going away; there is simply more stress today than ever, coming at us from every direction in our world.

Trust me—you can’t afford to ignore the sources of stress in your

life. No one else can take on this challenge for you. It is your personal responsibility to learn to manage your own stress in a healthy way.

No drug could ever do for you what your own calm and peaceful

mind can do.

CHAPTER TWO:
Superhealing Mind-Body Research Breakthrough
49

What are you thinking about? What do you feel? Do you pay at-

tention and respond appropriately to your thoughts and emotions?

What is the nature of your self-talk: Is it critical or supportive?

Though seemingly simple questions, these are the keys to shifting

your mind, and thus your body, to a higher state of functioning. How you think and feel from moment to moment is always being reflected in your physiology. To engage your superhealing mind, it is critical to uplift your thoughts to positive ones.

My hope is that understanding how your cel s respond to your

thoughts will empower you to transform your health for the better.

The breakthroughs in mind-body research that we’ll explore in this chapter are so promising because they show how the mind operates

as a kind of interface between the body and the spirit. Like a rainbow bent back upon itself, with the many colors representing different facets of personal experience, the mind-body-spirit system is a dynamic, two-way communication loop. Body and spirit are continu-

ously “talking” to each other through the pathways of the mind.

[INSERT FIGURE 2A] (I IMAGINE A RAINBOW INFIN-

ITY FIGURE, WITH BODY AND SPIRIT WRITTEN AT EACH

END, AND MIND IN THE MIDDLE, WHERE THE TWO LOOPS

MEET.)

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PART ONE:
Your Superhealing Mind

Your spirit is the intangible core of your being. Everything you

experience comes from your spirit. It is the point of origin that both establishes and guides your body and mind to be as they are; it is a blueprint through which energetic information expresses itself. It establishes communication with the body through the mind’s interpretation and receiving shifting of spiritual qualities like love, peace, and joy. You experience these qualities emotional y when your mind-body-spirit system is in balance.

Your body communicates with your spirit about your environment

through your perceptions. Everything you perceive with your senses is interpreted by the filter of your awareness and assessments—your cognition. Some of this mental activity is conscious, and some is unconscious.

But no matter what you focus on by choice or by habit, your brain establishes pathways of neural activity to support and sustain your focus.

The emotions you feel are not just sensations; they are an entire

set of electrical, chemical, and hormonal responses that are uniquely and identifiably your own. You create them based on how you build

your brain pathways throughout your life. Emotions are the result of your interpretations of what you sense and what you believe. A lot of people—including me, years ago—have difficulty accepting that

their thoughts have such a powerful effect on their bodies. But the reality is that a thought is never just in your head. A thought always triggers a cascade of matching physiological responses mediated by a variety of mechanisms. These include the release of neuropeptides, short amino acid chains that circulate throughout your entire body.

Although your body also influences your mind, in this chapter

we’re just going to look at how your thoughts and emotions influence your body on its deepest levels. The natural condition of your bodymind-spirit is harmony and well-being. As you engage in new, more

beneficial ways of thinking and learn to alter your beliefs and subdue

CHAPTER TWO:
Superhealing Mind-Body Research Breakthrough
51

the stress response, you will begin to create an emotional style, personality traits, habits, and behaviors that will buffer you against the perils of chronic or severe stress. Engaging your mind in these ways will put you on the road to superhealing.

The good news is that you can develop enough conscious control

to restore or sustain the natural harmony of your mind and your

emotions, and balancing thoughts and emotions can improve your

physiological health. Optimal wellness is associated with high mental performance, low stress, emotional stability, resilience, strong immunity, and a sense of vitality. If you manage your stress in a positive way, using mind-body interventions, you will have laid the foundation for superhealing in your life. Nothing can supplant this effort—

not exercise, not diet, not taking supplements.

THE MOLECULES AND

ENERGETICS OF EMOTIONS

Your emotions are mediated in part by a portion of your brain

known as the limbic system. The hypothalamus, which is the endo-

crine system’s master gland, reads chemical messages that can have certain effects on the immune system. For example, if chronic stress produces an emotional response of sorrow and hopelessness, it can

suppress the immune system’s ability to function. We know this be-

cause in pioneering research done in the 1980s, neuropharmacologist Candace Pert, a brain researcher at Georgetown University Medical