There is a powerful psychosomatic connection between the mind and body. It has been proven in various studies that stress has an impact on physical health. For example a UCLA study in 2011 accidentally discovered that blocking a stress hormone in stressed mice, their hair grow back at an astonishing rate.
Stress affects hormone production, including testosterone and cortisol production, which in turn affect muscle growth and fat storage. On the other hand, success, winning and feeling good can have a positive impact on hormonal balance. So is it possible to use the mind to improve physical health and even improve physical appearance?
Using Mind Training to Improve Your Body
By pummelling your subconscious with positive affirmations, some researchers believe it is possible to reduce anxiety levels, improve confidence, increase motivation and train the mind in many other positive changes. It may even be possible to completely reverse stress related hair loss using simple mind training techniques.
The method works by firstly calming the mind and making it more receptive to suggestions, using ‘binaural beats’, which are carefully timed tempos that work in different ways to induce different states of mind. Once the mind is more receptive to suggestions, positive affirmations are played at a frequency that cannot be heard, but is supposedly registered by the subconscious – thus by-passing the logical and critical conscious mind.
In Guy Claxton’s book, Hair Brain Tortoise Mind, Claxton theorizes that the conscious mind is the logical thinking part of human psychology, where as what he calls the “undermind”, is evolved to make quick important decisions that need to be made (Claxton, 1998). It seems somewhat implausible that repeatedly saying positive affirmations over and over might make them eventually come true and Claxton’s theories would suggest that the conscious mind is too closed off to take such suggestions onboard. However the subconscious mind may be more receptive to suggestions.
Tricking Your Brains Natural Way of Learning
Over many years of experience and learning life lessons the human mind gets used to operating in certain ways. Neuron pathways in the brain become more optimized for electron travel, the more they are used. This is how we learn. However, we learn negative habits, such as social anxieties, in the same way. By ‘unlearning’ negative habits, we can remove the psychosomatic effects they have on our physical bodies.
At the start of this article we looked at how mentally stressed mice lost their hair. When they were no-longer stressed their hair regrow rapidly. So can we achieve similar positive physical change using mind training?
The jury is still out as to whether mind training can truly change the way humans think and react to perceptions, but with growing research and investment in this area, we may one day find that instead of using medication to reduce negative psychological problems, we can treat the root causes of the problems by unlearning harmful subconscious habits. Perhaps one day, even life threatening physical conditions will be treated with special computer programs or special audio software that can change the way the mind thinks, making the patient healthier by triggering healing in the body.
About the Author: Chris Carter is the author of the eBook, Stop Hair Loss in 10 Steps, Guaranteed. He blogs about natural ways of improving health and hair growth at nicehair.org.
