THINK AN EMBARRASSING thought and your face flushes; entertain a sexual fantasy in your mind, and you’ll feel some obvious physical sensations within your body. Once viewed with scepticism, there is now no question that the mind a.ects the body – what we think about, how we feel and what we imagine do very much cause biochemical and physiological changes within our physical selves. The modern research in this area is fascinating, but how do we apply it? Here are five simple exercises to strengthen this supremely powerful and useful mind-body connection – every day.
1 Belief shifts biology
When a person takes a placebo pill and makes some improvement, it’s common to dismiss the improvement as ‘all in the mind’ or even that the person isn’t really improving – that he or she just thinks they’re improving. But the improvements are real and they are usually caused because expectation or belief alters brain chemistry.