“Get out of your head man!”
Everyone đ
A Simple Observation:
Have you ever seen the “shine” in someones eyes when they are experiencing something amazing? They light up and you think “Wow, that person is just FULL of life!”
How about someone who has a beautiful complexion that just radiates a sense of health?
In Traditional Chinese Medicine this is a physical sign of a healthy “Mind.”
The Mind is the “I am,” it is the most individual part of who we are. It is made up of the cognitive aspects of the brain such as memory, perception, and integration of your five senses. In addition, it also includes our thought life, emotional balance, personality, and all of the wonderful parts that make us all experience individuality.
The Mind has a tremendous effect on your physical health.
Every function the mind has requires energy and equally has an affect on how energy moves throughout your body. How specific emotions, thoughts, and perceptions affect your body is detailed and will be talked about in specific blogs for specific issues however there is a simple way to understand the effect the mind has on the body.
When awareness fixates on thought or emotion, blood and energy stop moving; When blood and energy stop moving, the body fails to thrive and symptoms can occur.
In short the more you focus on something (whether it be thoughts in general or a specific train of thought) the more “stuck” the energy and blood gets in relation to that thought, idea, or emotion.
Certain thoughts and emotions TEND to affect the body in certain ways, for example:
When we FEEL angry it tends to cause energy and blood to rise towards the top of your body. Common symptoms associated with anger would be headaches, ringing in the ears, painful or blurry vision, tense neck and shoulder muscles etc. This would be different than when we FEEL grief which tends to drain or deplete energy causing us to feel tired, breathless, or depressed.
This happens not just with emotions but with thoughts as well; excessively thinking about life rather than living it causes a tremendous strain on the mind and body, and can contribute to feelings of anxiety and depression as well as physical sensations such as a “nervous stomach” or “Irritable Bowel Syndrome.”
Up next: A Healthy and Thriving Mind is Easy to Work Towards!