Research on the human brain and its connections to the rest of the body have been ongoing for many decades, it is only recently that we have begun to understand how profound these connections are.
For example, when the body is under stress there are certain biochemical and neurological events which occur that allow us to function at a higher level.
On the other hand, when the body is in a state of relaxation such as what occurs when meditating, your body chemistry changes and a completely different set of neurological pathways become active.
There are literally hundreds of studies that have been performed which show the brain's activity level while it is under stress.
This also includes what occurs during meditative stages of energetic relaxation, and how these psycho-physiological states affect the various organ systems in the body.
Back in the 1970's the Institute for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Medicine studied subjects in-depth who meditate.
They discovered that during various stages of deep meditation the brain wave patterns in both hemispheres of their brain were altered, and both sides of the brain were now working in harmony.
This may not sound significant to you now, but to give you some perspective, in a normal waking state the typical human brain usually has one hemisphere that is dominant over the other.
But when the test subjects in these studies were in a meditative state both hemispheres were working together! What does all this mean, and how does knowing this benefit you? Well, again it has been shown that when we are in a state that allows our brain to function to its fullest capacity (both hemispheres working together).
It can allow us to be more productive, it can increase creativity, it can improve our capacity to learn and retain what we learn, and finally it can help us to gain control over our emotions.
And for those who choose to do so, practicing meditation (or what you will come to know as coherence) will help you to reach a higher state of consciousness (spiritually speaking).
Ultimately, achieving and maintaining the state of energetic relaxation known as 'coherence' can help us obtain levels of well-being that could not be achieved in our everyday lives in the past.
(1) The process of achieving coherence will allow us to regain and maintain our overall mental 'health', which will ultimately open the flood gates to better physical health.
The subject of what 'true health' is has become a complicated area of discussion.
The term 'health' has become a fairly generic term that carries numerous meanings depending on what professional you are talking to, and what field they practice in.
If you will pardon a slightly cynical view-point as to how the 'world of health' works.
This is why what you read on the web and in books is in many cases agenda driven and can be inaccurate.
To some health is purely physical and can be restored by simply taking a supplement or drug, while to others merely changing the diet can preserve a healthy way of life, or restore it.
The outcome at the end of the day is mostly profit oriented, and written mostly by people who frame their view-point to fit what ever it is they are selling, or to the field that they were educated in (their scope of practice).
So, the answers that some people provide you on the web and in print can be one-dimensional, and when it comes to health nothing is ever one-dimensional.
The idea that health restoration, or the maintenance of it is purely a physical phenomena is shortsighted and narrow in its view.
Today more than ever we have the ability to see far beyond what is occurring physically, nutritionally or medically.
All of these are very important; however they all have their place in the maintenance of health and your peace of mind.
We are much more than our physical bodies, and the limitations that come with being a physical entity.
This concept is to some very difficult to grasp, and some folks have trouble understanding what they cannot see, and how it relates to their well-being.
Others completely dismiss what they may consider to be 'theory, voodoo or quack medicine' and put all their stock into living life as they see it, or how others want them to see it...
So, if we put aside for the moment some of the other aspects of how we can maintain health for another article, let us concentrate on what we can do to balance our lives in ways that we have control over.
It is said that 'control' is an illusion, that we really never have control over anything in life.
But this is not entirely true; when it comes to our thoughts and how we live our lives we certainly have control over these aspects of life.
What we need to do is to learn how to control (manage) the emotions that well up inside us every day; these over powering emotions in many cases can end up controlling our lives and thus our health.
The emotions we typically dwell on are those that limit us in some way.
For some reason we let the negative emotions have the most impact on our lives, and they do! The emotions that we are talking about are not unfamiliar to any of us...
they include, but are not limited to anger, frustration, sorrow, feelings of inadequacy, depression and the list goes on and on.
For just one moment I would like for you to be able to agree on the fact that we are energetic as well as physical beings.
This 'energy' courses through our bodies on a number of different levels, some of which we will not discuss today, but are nevertheless as real as any other level.
The energy that everyone can relate to, and that travels through our body's via the nervous system is tangible and is both physical (biochemical and electrical) and is an area of human physiology that is well studied.
Some would say that we have no control over this process, but as you will see, they would be wrong.
It is all about perception...
it is imperative that you understand, how we perceive the world around us begins with how we perceive 'what we see'.
Our perception of the outside world is internalized and processed in our brains.
These perceptions and their associated emotions can have either positive or negative impact on our bodies.
For example, the negative emotions, such as the ones described above can have a harmful impact on us far beyond that which we can perceive.
The negative emotions and the physical reactions that they produce have a direct impact on our physical well-being.
Some very intense emotions, and the physical reactions that the body has to these emotions can become part of our physical reality as 'pain', which has been shown to block energy.
How this occurs is a subject for yet another article.
So, what is the bottom line for us here...
how do we deal with the situation, how can we take control of our inner 'world'? Monks have been able to do this for hundreds of years, they meditate, and they take control by placing themselves into a state of controlled relaxation.
This process can take many years to learn, if you are a monk that is.
In reality as it relates to the world that we live in, very few people are going to take the time to learn this method of 'control'.
The great news is that you can start taking control using technology that is available today, without having to spend all the time and energy learning what monks have taken the time to.
How does this occur? Well, studies have been performed and published in journals which provide physiological and behavioral data on what are known as the baroreceptor and the Lacey hypotheses.
These basically state that the cardiovascular system while under stress exerts a modulating influence on the brain by way of certain segments of the circulatory system.
Simply put, the heart, the circulatory system and the brain are intimately connected.
Researcher Lacey was able to confirm that there is a direct relationship between the heart's activity and this kind of connection (2).
Researchers have found that test subjects reaction times, and cognitive function testing were accelerated when their heart rates decelerated.
Lacey also found that when test subjects heart rates accelerated such as what happens during a period of stress, the test subjects had reduced cognitive function and reaction times (3).
This all sounds very technical, and to a degree it is.
This is why, thanks to some ingenious technological advances we now have tools that can accelerate our abilities to attain what research has come to term as 'coherence'.
Once you have control over this connection between the heart, your breathing and the ability to reach certain states of relaxation, and are in a state of coherence, you have the control you seek.
There is only one place that I am aware of that offers affordable equipment which can be used by anyone, and that will facilitate your ability to attain a state of coherence.
The organization is called the Institute of Heart Math (http://store.
heartmath.
org), they offer several versions of a device that can help to facilitate your ability to control your emotional states.
By practicing their scientifically validated techniques and using the these devices, you can train yourself to enter into the state of coherence at will Please keep in mind that what you have just read is a cursory discussion on a subject that can be quite complicated.
It is very difficult to cover subject matter such as this in the space allotted here, so please feel free to go to the above web site to gather more information on this subject and the technology they have to offer, it could change your life! References: 1.
Tiller WA, McCraty R, Atkinson M.
Cardiac coherence: A new, noninvasive measure of autonomic nervous system order.
Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 1996; 2(1): 52-65.
2.
Lacey JL.
Somatic response patterning and stress: Some revisions of activation theory.
In: Appley MH, Trumbull R, eds.
Psychological stress: Issues in Research.
New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1967: 14-42.
3.
Lacey JL, Lacey BC.
Some autonomic-central nervous system interrelationships.
Black P, ed.
Psychological Correlates of Emotion.
New York: Academic Press, 1970: 205-227.
copyright © 2010 Dr.
James Lembeck