THINKING

AS ABOVE SO BELOW

The mind is a very powerful thing. It is the universal basis of our experience, the creator of happiness and the creator of suffering. 

If one were to truly comprehend the nature of one's mind to shape their reality, one would not allow any thoughts or emotions that they didn't want into their life, into their mind. Some of us make the mistake of believing that the nature of the mind is exclusive to human beings. It is in fact the nature of everything. It can never be said too often that to realize the nature of the mind is to realize the nature of all things.

Throughout human history, mystics have adorned their realizations with different names, faces, and interpretations. Naturally, these differing qualities were informed by the cultural environment and associated language. But despite their differences, what they are all fundamentally trying to express is an experience of the essential and universal nature of the mind. Christians and Jews call it “God”; Sufi mystics would call it “the Hidden Essence”; Buddhists refer to it as “Buddha Nature” and Hindus title it "Brahma" or "the Self”. At the heart of all religious frameworks is a conviction that there is a fundamental truth, and that this life is an opportunity to evolve and realize it.

An understanding pervades, that the individual mind is a reflection of the universal mind and that we are all intrinsically connected.

Furthermore, the body and the mind are not separate entities, operating independently from one another, but rather more like complimentary opposites. The body and the mind mirror each other in the most remarkable fashion, whereby insight can be gained about the mind by looking into the body and vice versa. Some physical ailments, an old injury in your leg, for instance, will not release its pain by physical means alone. It is only when the underpinning mental/emotional states and associations to the trauma surrounding that injury are also processed and removed that the physical side of the pain will follow suit. I have personal experience healing injuries and understanding this kind of inter-relationship.

There exists a field of science that has evolved over the last 40 years to study the relationship between the mind and the body. Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) takes an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating psychology, neuroscience, immunology, physiology, genetics, pharmacology, molecular biology, behavioral medicine, infectious diseases, and endocrinology together. PNI investigates how the immune system, the endocrine system, and the central and peripheral nervous systems are all involved in the mind-body connection, a pivotal step in understanding psycho-somatic (mind-body) disease. PNI shows how neurotransmitters, hormones, and neuropeptides have been found to regulate immune cells, and these in turn are capable of communicating with nervous tissue. One of the primary factors driving this synergy is the activity of the mind and the emotional state of the individual. This might sound rather complex on the surface but the implications are clear, there is a feedback of interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems of the human body.

There is now sufficient data to conclude that changes in the immune system created by psychological stressors can lead to actual health changes.  This mind-body connection is implicated by increased risk factors across diverse conditions and diseases. Changes related to infectious disease and wound healing rates have provided the strongest evidence to date. In one epidemiological study, all-cause mortality increased in the month following a severe stressor, which came in the form of the death of a spouse. Potential health consequences are broad but are not exclusively negative. The same mechanism, which will suppress your immune system and make you more vulnerable to infection, will also increase the activity in response to positive mental-emotional states such as joy and gratitude. 

All of this held in consideration should help you to understand why it is important to be mindful of one's thoughts. 

Make sure that what you bring into your mind is what you want to bring into your life.