The short answer is yes, the mind body connection is real
Now of course if you want to understand the mind body connection then that is a different story
By the way, if you are still in doubt of it, just look at doctors and their questions when you fall sick
“Are you stressed recently?”
Is that not a common question asked by doctors when you see them?
This only makes sense if they recognize that the emotion or psychological effect of stress can affect physical health
Therefore, the mind body connection is real
Similarly, you might get a physical pain in the form of a panic attack from anxiety
You might get shivers and cold sweat when in fear
We even say that anger might cause heart attacks in the future
We recognize that our emotions can affect our physical health to create illnesses
So technically… since the mind body connection is real… it also means that hypnosis might work with the physical health
Now of course, I get it, you might still be in doubt
And honestly, even I find it hard to believe, even though I was there and doing it on other people
Yes, using hypnosis to heal people of their physical ailments
Recently I wrote about psychosomatic symptoms and shared a case study of eczema so you can check it out if you are interested
So how does the mind body connection work?
You see our emotions or even trauma settle in our bodies
In fact, it could be in any part of the body
And our unconscious mind might have a symbol to represent this emotion or trauma
Or it has a certain level of understanding regarding the emotion or trauma
Now, the unconscious mind is more like a servant for us, and wants to protect us
Remember this!
And at the point of a traumatic event, we might not have been able to protect ourselves
Depending on various factors such as type of event, age, knowledge etc
So the unconscious mind has to step in, to some extent, to absorb the trauma and develop its own protection mechanisms to protect you!
Ergo lies the problem
Because more often than not, the unconscious protections may serve as a short term protection, but cause long term effects, and usually of a negative element
You might know of someone who has a fear of public speaking, and perhaps there was an event that created that fear in him/her
And this person might have stomachache and diarrhea as an attempt to avoid the presentation or public speaking
That is the unconscious defense mechanism at play!
The original event presents itself as a harmful event and thus cause the trauma, and the unconscious mind wants to protect the self from experiencing such a traumatic event again, and thus, develop mild sickness in an attempt to get out of presentations or public speaking!
That’s the short term protection, so what possible negative long term effects might occur?
Well, if the person ends up needing to do presentations or public speaking often, the frequency of stomachache and diarrhea might cause him/her to go to see a doctor and get a diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBS
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg
Because the person might also form their own conscious beliefs and develop other patterns which might cause it to worsen without them realizing
Adding to the above example, one might assume the stomachache and diarrhea is due to social events, not just public speaking events, and thus avoid going to social events
And this might cause one to believe one has social anxiety or similar, when it’s not
We… as humans… don’t really know ourselves well to be honest
This is because we only have ourselves to reference our emotions, we cannot feel and compare our emotions to others to know exactly what we are feeling
And yes, you might answer that we can use physical attributions to determine our emotions but here’s the kicker
Both excitement and fear can generate heart palpitations, an increased heart rate, increased breathing rate, as well as sweating
Which is why some dating coaches advice bringing your date to an event that induces fear or excitement, because they might assume the physical attributions are of being in love
“I experience an event with you and my heart races, my breathing quickens, oh my god I must be in love!!”
Anxiety also induces such physical attributes, as do anger although probably less sweating
You see, we cannot really use physical attributes to determine our emotions
That’s why many of my clients have no idea what emotions they are truly feeling
They assume one emotion when it was something else entirely
A client thought she had social anxiety, but the real event was being scolded by her mom for something involving her 5 year old brother
Thus her unconscious mind linked trouble by being with a male person, it triggers the fear or anxiety of getting caught and scolded by her mom
The creation of illnesses
Any emotion can settle in any part of the body, and this has a toil on the affected area, which thus create illnesses
I had a client from the Caribbeans and he had asthma and anxiety for speaking up, due to witnessing his father getting beaten for speaking up in public
The anxiety that restraint him appeared as a a knife in his throat, as well as a steel cage of thorns around his chest
When we release the steel cage, he suddenly felt like it was the first time he could breathe properly
As mentioned earlier, they can take the form of any symbol, and this has an effect on us
This is because our unconscious mind has that image as real as it can be within us, even if its not in the physical reality
But it is real to you
And thus has an effect in such a manner
I had a client who spend over $10,000 on hospital fees, ECG, cat scans, X-rays etc because of a constant stomach pain yet doctors couldn’t detect anything
They declared her perfectly healthy
She came to me and we found that in her stomach, reside grief over the loss of her dad, abuse from her mom, and resentment from her ex-husband
Upon releasing these 3 problems from her stomach, she was surprised to find herself finally free of pain for the first time in years
Imagine this, she already spend over $10,000 on hospital bills, will she have continually seek other doctors until someone suggest to cut her stomach open?
What can we do now knowing the mind body connection?
Well, since we have a better understanding of the mind body connection, what can we do?
Granted, you may still have some questions because there are many variations which I didn’t go through
I could probably write a whole book on that with all the examples hahaha
Perhaps next time I’ll share from the TCM perspective how the organs and our emotions are linked too
But now you know more surely, when they say anger can cause heart attacks or strokes
Anxiety can cause stomach issues and headaches
Stress can cause a multitude of possible illnesses
You best believe it
And so what?
Well, we find a way to address and resolve our emotions
That’s my tip
Whether you want to do meditation, forgive the people who hurt you, therapy or even hypnosis
Resolving and releasing those negative emotions is your first step towards a healthier you
Of course, regarding stress, you got to see where the stress is coming from, and then you can figure how to address it
Dealing with work stress and relationship stress isn’t the same
And no, picking up a smoking or drinking addiction in response to stress doesn’t do you good either
You know, when I was studying in JC, I was so stressed out that I took long showers to de-stress
I imagine I’m under a waterfall and just let the water wash my stress away~
That was more of a temporary thing, but hey, I was just a kid haha
Anyway, I hope this help open some doors in your mind to understanding yourself a bit better
And find someone to chat with if you really need it
This will be the last blog post of 2024, and may 2025 be a great New Year for you!
Happy New Year~!
