The Power Trio for Optimal Wellness:
Mind – Body – Spirit
Being a physician is more than a pill pusher or applier of band-aids. My responsibility as a doctor requires an understanding of the totality of an individual. A healer needs to be aware that we are composed of mind, body, and spirit. Therefore, addressing one without the other results in an imbalance, a disconnect, disharmony. Modern medicine does a decent job on the body side of things, but that is where it ends.
I recognized early in my career that those patients who are able to manage stress and maintain optimism tended to be healthier and happier. How one accomplishes these things has encouraged me to explore the evolution of our mind and spirit – those elements seldom recognized by doctors, though vital components of our humanity. I found that the less one believes and trusts in certain limiting thoughts, the less evident are the physical signs of stress and the more one is able to have faith in themselves and their abilities, thus fostering optimism.
Mind:
You give birth to that on which you fix your mind. – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
As a physician for 20 years, I have come to realize that the ability to control our thoughts affects our chances to stay well or to become ill. From an early stage in my career, I became interested in the mind-bodyconnection. That term means something different for each of us, but the point is that many people who come in to see a doctor nowadays believe in some form of the concept, and feel they’re missing a key part of the medical process when the mind-body connection is left out of the conversation.
I suspect many of you are baby boomers, my contemporaries. As we move through life and closer to our inescapable mortality, we increasingly face the basic human questions of where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going after we die. Since I am coming at this from the perspective of a physician and not a clergyman, I am able to call upon many real life examples of these subjects from everyday life. The lives that I use as examples are not only baby boomers but from many decades.
The most important lessons I’ve learned during
my career have not come from medical textbooks, journal articles, or grand
rounds. None of that conventionally-imparted information speaks to the
essence of what makes us human. Medical science is important and plays
a necessary role when a physical problem develops. But what I have learned
in my practice is that the essence of our humanity—and what ultimately
keeps us on a healthy and vibrant course—lies in the workings of
our mind: our thoughts. Those who can learn to manage their stress and
maintain strong optimism are those who remain healthy and strong despite
the many inevitable potholes in the road of life. Through the fascinating
field of epigenetics, science is beginning to show that genetic predispositions
are not guarantees. On the contrary, through the turning on or off of “suppressor” or “activator” genes,
one can alter their genetic destiny through thoughts, behaviors, and belief.
During the first few weeks of 2007, I began writing a weekly e-mail message
for my patients and many others. It all started with a discussion I had
with a single patient. He told me how motivated he felt after talking
with me, but that somewhere between our conversations and his immersing
himself in his life responsibilities, the motivation seemed to fade. He
asked if I could find a way to motivate him between visits. I proposed
sending him a weekly inspirational kick in the behind! I evolved my writings
into a book, where I discuss extensively about how our mind influences
our behavior. You can find all my writings on the Motivational Health
page.
Body:
A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world. – John Locke
A healthy mind needs a healthy body, and vica versa.
As the saying goes, “you are what you eat.” Many of us in
western society are diabetics or well on the way to becoming diabetics
because of what we eat. I have developed a plan that is consistent with
our physiology and considers that many factors, besides hunger, drive
our eating habits. Maintaining healthy cholesterol and triglyceride levels
and minimizing internal inflammation remains a central part of my focus
and practice.
Consistent exercise is essential to keep blood flow optimal to our muscles
and prevent premature breakdown. Aerobic exercise is essential to maintain
proper cardiovascular and pulmonary health as well as aiding in the maintenance
of a healthy body weight. Anaerobic and flexibility exercises (such as
weight training, Pilates, and yoga) help to strengthen and keep flexible
our muscles and joints. We need this in order to minimize the development
of chronic bone and joint diseases such as osteoporosis and arthritis.
Exercise, too, is a vital component in balancing stress.
If we all lived in a glass bubble, we might be able to get away with very basic nutritional supplements to avoid deficiency states. Few of us eat the proper balance of foods to get all the essential nutrients to prevent illness and promote health. We live in an active, exciting, interactive world that, although filled with endless possibilities, is also bathed in the exhaust from environmental pollutants, industrial chemicals, agricultural pesticides, emissions from fossil fuels and cigarette smoke, and radiation. These cause reactions in our bodies that lead to a daily assault by free radicals and can mimic certain hormones. If gone unchecked, these reactions and xenohormones (as they are referred to) form the basis of chronic inflammation, cell injury, cell mutation and ultimately cell death or uncontrolled cell division, i.e. cancer. There are excellent studies from peer reviewed journals that reveal the power of nutritional supplements to prevent such processes.
Additionally, certain periods in our lives demand particular
attention to signs and symptoms of aging. For example, the balance of
hormones using bio-identical hormone therapy is an effective and safe
strategy to enhance quality of life and maintain a healthy mind and body.
Spirit:
Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them. – Blaise Pascal
Questions of faith and belief enter into the doctor-patient relationship yet are mostly ignored. In my practice, I consider spirituality as much as physical health.
Being spiritual is different from putting your life in the hands of chance. It is different from giving your life over to an imaginary father figure in the sky. Spirituality is your deepest connection with the universe and God and the mystery that surrounds everything that occupies most of what we define as physical matter. It confirms your uniqueness, yet stands with all humanity as a singularity. Connecting with our spirituality, what I call essence, allows abundance to flow into the empty void of matter and manifest great wonders. It reassures us that most of the direction from our automatic brain is composed of fallacies, and the surrounding space that we see as physical is actually emptiness. Fully understanding this helps us live with essence, rather than ego, as our guide. We can then make real the intangibility of essence, affecting relationships, material belongings, physical health, and physical pleasure.
Spirituality is a humble admission that what we think we know is not all there is. The universe as we know it is mostly empty space—for instance, the distance between an atomic nucleus and its orbiting electrons is comparable to the distance between the sun and Pluto (in relative terms). What we think we know as skin and bones is mostly nothingness. Albert Einstein predicted—correctly, as it was later shown—that this nothingness contains enormous energy. Through the meditative activity of prayer, the energy of thought searches for a connection with a much greater source of energy—a force, a spirit, God.
Believing, trusting, and having faith in our spirit enhances our ability to stay healthy and happy.
Article: Meditative Technique in Balancing Stress