This simple observation reflects our current understanding of the relationship between mind and body. There is a close correlation between physical actions and mental states. Certain actions can impact our mental attitudes and our mental attitudes influence our physical being because the mind and body constantly talk to one another. The brain sends all that it thinks and perceives to the rest of the body.
An extreme example of this interconnection can be seen in the effects of voodoo. In the 1940s, Harvard physiologist Walter Cannon spent several years collecting examples of "voodoo death" -- case histories of men and women who died as a result of being the recipient of a curse, an alleged supernatural visitation or the breaking of some tribal or cultural taboo. Cannon concluded that humans could die from "the fatal power of the imagination working through unmitigated terror." Another researcher, Dr. J.C. Barker, in Scared to Death -- a collection of case histories of individuals who had willed themselves or others to death -- concluded that voodoo-like death results "purely from extreme fear and exhaustion...essentially a psychosomatic phenomenon."
How is it possible for thoughts to impact the body so drastically?
It is possible because the central nervous system and the body's immune system are hard-wired together. In 1981 neurobiologist David Felten and a team of researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine found the first concrete example of the mind/body connection -- a bridge between the body's immune system and the central nervous system that is under control of the brain. While tracing nerves to bone marrow, lymph nodes and the spleen, Felten's team discovered a network of nerves leading to blood vessels as well as to cells of the immune system. They found that nerves in the thymus and spleen terminated near clusters of lymphocytes and mast cells, which help control immune function. In other words, the brain absolutely communicates with immune-system cells.
This establishes a close correlation between a person's mental state and physical reactions. You can generate an emotion simply by going through the appropriate muscle movements. For example, if you clench your fist and scowl, you will begin to feel anger. Force yourself to laugh and you will begin to feel good. The specific muscle action is an integral part of the corresponding emotion. You cannot hold your features in the expression of one emotion and call up the feeling of a different emotion at the same time. It is impossible to do.
Paul Ekman, Professor Emeritus at the University of California at San Francisco, is a pioneer in the study of emotions and facial expressions. His research on more than 200 kinds of smiles demonstrated that you could actually alter your emotional state and immune system by smiling or frowning. When Ekman's research subjects were trained to control their facial muscles and voluntarily form smiles, their physiological processes altered immediately and their hormones changed drastically.
So when you smile, you alter your blood chemistry. The natural opiates in your system and your neuropeptides change. These chemicals are located not only in your brain but in your stomach and intestines.
What does this have to do with hypnosis?
Hypnosis is the most powerful tool we possess for changing thoughts and attitudes. It is a trance state characterized by relaxation, extreme suggestibility and hyper-attentiveness. The subject is fully conscious, but chooses to focus internally while ignoring external stimuli.
Hypnosis allows one to access the subconscious mind directly. In this relaxed, hyper-attentive state, the subject experiences the hypnotist's suggestions as if they were real. If told that his or her tongue has swollen to double its normal size, the subject will have difficulty talking. If told that his/her hands are glued together, the subject cannot pull them apart. By the same token, the subject is receptive to suggestions that are designed to change destructive thought patterns and habits such as anxiety, depression, stress, smoking and eating disorders.
A potent example of hypnosis' power to affect physiology through the brain connection is its medical use. Since all pain is transmitted through the brain, the pain associated with surgery or medical conditions responds well to hypnosis. Hypnosis is an effective anesthesia for surgeries, dental procedures, childbirth and migraines. It also helps patients to manage nausea and symptoms from chemotherapy by enhancing control over their body responses.
The mind/body connection is the key to why hypnosis can be used so successfully to manage our physiology. Hypnosis gives us the power to alter our mental attitudes for the better; this in turn positively impacts our physical being.
In light of this potent interplay between mind and body, we would do well to take seriously the old Cole Porter song: "Accentuate the positive; eliminate the negative; latch on to the affirmative." And enjoy happy body chemistry as your reward!
What were the last words that you spoke to someone in an effort to influence their actions? Think carefully was it the words that influenced them or the thoughts in their mind that your words generated that influenced? You cannot help but conjure up an image in your mind whenever you hear a word spoken or you read one, and that image is based on your life experiences. So words themselves are powerless it is the thoughts that the words generate that cause man to go to war and die for their country, that on the simplest level influence your very personality.
I do not know about you but if I look back on my childhood I was continually told, 'do not do that' or 'you cannot do that' by my parents and later by the teachers in the various schools I attended in the name of discipline. Very few children are taught how to think positive thoughts. It would seem that people are more interested in correcting what children do wrong rather than commending them for what they manage to do right.
I recall that this did not do a great deal for my self-confidence for every time I was and to an extent still am faced with a situation my first thought tends to be 'why I cannot do it'. It is really only when individuals are exposed to management consultancy, business leadership and team building that they have a change of attitude sometimes through leadership development programs.
When I look back I realise that I had what is termed a strong personality as a child, I always wanted to be the leader at sport and ended up as the head boy in my final year. I suppose even then I was kicking back at authority and trying to impose my personality on my life by trying to think positive about my life. For every one of our positive children there are a thousand who who will always think of reasons why they cannot do a task. They carry this negative attitude into the adult life and fail to achieve most things in life. responding to the negative words fed to them as children they feel that life is passing them by.
So when they are told to change their attitude or to think positive thoughts - what is their immediate reaction?
'I cannot do that!'
The mistake many people make is that they think that they have to change negative thoughts to change life. Maybe you also have been told, by a management consulting team, that to make progress you have to take your negative thoughts and change them to positive thoughts?
I have some good news for you if that is the case, maybe that is also what is holding you back in your self improvement.
It is not easy to change attitude and re-programme your thoughts because they are your thoughts and they have been established by a constant drip feed over the span of your whole life.
Another theory is that when you have a negative thought - immediately change thoughts change life. Well with no disrespect to the teachers of that particular theory, I would find it very difficult to change my thought process when my negative thought is paramount and preventing me from doing something.
So what can you do?
Have you planned any social activity lately that took up all of your thoughts, such as a holiday. I can almost gurantee that in doing so you did not have a negative thought and if you did it was quickly replaced? Your mind was so filled with positive thoughts that you did not even consider being negative.
When you are planning your holiday you are so busy thinking about the fabulous time you are going to have the fun and laughter, the lazy stress free days ahead that there is no room for negativity.
That's the answer to negative thoughts. Don't try to change them, replace them.
At the start of each day look at what you have to do, even if you are in a mundane job doing the same thing every day. Whatever task you perfom in your daily work there is always something good if you look for it, determine now to duplicate that feeling at work today.
Look back on your day and select the best thing that happened to you during it. It may be something your have done or said or something that has been done or said to you but find one thing. It does not have to be a leadership development program, I do not mind what it is and we all have something good that happens sometime in a day that lasts between 15 and 18 hours. Write it down.
In the future you can glance back at your diary and you will read all the good things that have happened in your life, and I guarantee that if you are feeling low at the time you will quickly feel on top of the world.
Try it. It is FREE and it works, and as you read your successes you will find that change thought change life is true for you.
Both Kevin Sinclair & David Dutch are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Kevin Sinclair has sinced written about articles on various topics from self improvement and motivation, Personal Development Plan and Ezines And Newsletters. Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of , a site that provides information and articles for self improvement and personal growth and de. Kevin Sinclair's top article generates over 450000 views. to your Favourites.
David Dutch has sinced written about articles on various topics from self improvement and motivation, Small Business and Mind Power. Following a lifetime career in Direct Sales with many years as a senior manager David left his lucrative career behind to help others achieve their life goals through a series of seminars and lately through his books, Articles and Blog, his mission is to. David Dutch's top article generates over 9900 views. to your Favourites.