How Does It Work?

The idea that our thoughts actually create our physical reality, including and especially our own bodies, is pretty outrageous. Don’t hold your breath for any scientific proof for such an idea. But there is a lot of evidence that such an amazing interaction does take place.

How might that work? The quotes in my first Blog (“Fundamental Spirituality”) suggest that there is an interaction between the mind and physical reality. Swami Vivekananda says, “Thoughts live; they travel far.”

How do thoughts travel? Let’s start with some short thought trips. Indigenous healers, shamans, witch doctors, medicine men and women have always believed in and experienced a sense of the oneness between humans, oneness with nature, and oneness with the divine. Through their teachings, or perhaps simply intuitively, they knew that the mind and body were one.

It wasn’t until relatively recently that science accidentally discovered that this mind-body interaction or oneness was real. The new discipline is called psychoneuroimmunology (PNI). Dr. Candice Pert is an expert in this new field. She was featured in the movie, “What the Bleep Do We Know?”

Essentially, PNI is the study of the interaction/communication between our nervous system, endocrine system, and immune system. So our thoughts (nervous system) communicate with our endocrine system (all of our glands), and our immune system.

The immune system of course protects us from viruses, germs, cancer cells, and other nasty stuff. Our endocrine system, through the glands, regulates just about every part of our body including moods, metabolism, sexual function, cell growth, etc.

So it’s a short trip for our thoughts to contact the endocrine and immune system. We know that certain things depress the immune system. Depression, anxiety, fear, anger, grief, and other negative kinds of emotions suppress the immune system. The nasty critters that are in our body all the time are able to make us sick when this happens.

Negative feelings, attitudes, assumptions, expectations, and beliefs can wreak havoc with our endocrine system and have numerous negative consequences.

So every thought and feeling has an impact on our body through the endocrine and immune system. Our health and wellness are impacted throughout the day by what we are thinking and experiencing. This is why positive thinking and positive affirmations can have a beneficial impact on our health and sense of well-being.

Next time I will talk about how our thoughts go beyond the body and have an impact on our entire physical experience.