H e a l t h T h o u g h t s

How our thinking affects our health

Even God has a sense of humor

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beware of God
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My California colleague, Eric Nelson, shares a harrowing experience and his journey to recovery.  It was a process laced throughout with healing humor. Here’s Eric….

This may be hard to believe, but shortly after tumbling about a thousand feet down a rock and ice-covered mountain and suffering multiple injuries from head to toe, I had to laugh.

Despite the trauma, despite the pain, and despite the fact that it would be hours before anyone would find me laying flat on my back in the middle of nowhere, the words of a familiar hymn came to mind and made me smile. And then chuckle.

“Shepherd, show me how to go,” the hymn, written by Mary Baker Eddy, begins, “O’er the hillside steep.” (Did I happen to mention how I found myself in this predicament?).

“How to gather, how to sow, / How to feed Thy sheep.” (And did I mention that the only thing left in my rucksack was an apple?).

“I will listen for Thy voice, / Lest my footsteps stray; / I will follow and rejoice / All the rugged way.”

Tell me these words weren’t written just for me. And tell me that their coincidental references to rugged hillsides and wandering footsteps aren’t just a little, well – funny.

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The evidence of love

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While the “evidence” of Valentine’s Day has mostly come and gone, the love still remains.

Flowers have wilted, romantic meals have been eaten and sweets enjoyed. Perhaps there are still cards displayed and gifts of jewelry being worn and cherished.  But was the love those things were meant to express ever actually in the things themselves?  

No.  The love that is motivated to give gifts is a powerful presence in our hearts, even after the gift has been given, and even though science is unable to measure it.

So does that mean our experience of Valentine’s Day love can’t be classified as “evidence-based”?

We can describe the love and how it made us feel.  We could maybe even point to a transforming effect it had on us to give or receive it.  And science can measure responses and reactions to love in the brain and body. Yet, because the love itself cannot be objectively measured, our “evidence” may not be considered proof of the power of love.

But as you and I know, the power and presence of love can be as tangible and distinct to us as the keys I’m tapping to write this.  So why can’t we prove it?Continue Reading

Healing heartache helps heart health

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©Glowimages (model for illustrative purposes only)
©Glowimages (model for illustrative purposes only)

Is heartache the same as a damaged heart muscle?  No.  But can mending a broken heart help heal heart disease?  Yes.

This phenomenon shows that our thinking has a direct correlation to our physical health.  And it’s one example of how a mental change can bring health benefits to the body.

I listened to Dr. Irv Hinds talk about his book, “Healing the Pain of Heartache:  a physician explores broken heart syndrome.”  Dr. Hinds is certified in pain management and as a cardiac anesthesiologist, formerly with the Open Heart Team in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  His current work is focused on the interrelation of mind, body and spirit and the crucial role of spirituality in breaking the cycle of pain.

He explains how heartache adversely affects heart functions and affirms that healing heartache is vital to healing heart disease.  He urges dealing with broken heart syndrome directly and not sweeping it under the rug, allowing its effects on the heart to become chronic.  The griefs, grudges, hurts, resentments we carry with us – sometimes for decades – are unhealthy.  Dr. Hinds says that if we walk around with a heavy heart, that can become synonymous with heart disease.

And he states that addressing our spiritual needs is indispensable for healing heartache.  That really spoke to me.  I know people who have experienced the healing of heart trouble through healing the heartache of a broken relationship.  Forgiveness plays a big role.

In the recent Oprah Winfrey “Belief” series, one man’s quest for the love he never received while growing up with crack-addicted parents, led him to say, “Forgiveness…cleans out a place in our heart for a new life to spring from.”

A friend of mine was in pain due to his brother’s refusal to forgive him for something he’d done years ago.  Emotionally, he felt as though his heart had been frozen for a long time.  He was also having physical heart symptoms that restricted his activities.

Many times he’d prayed out of heart-wrenching anguish for this relationship to be made whole again.  It was tearing him up inside – literally – and he yearned to be free of the hurt and coldness.  He knew from his spiritual practice that to help bring healing to the situation, he needed to humbly align his thinking with God.  So, he prayed to know how to do that more.  He understood God to be totally good and unconditionally loving.

In answer to this prayer, he had a “change of heart” and felt impelled to forgive his brother for not forgiving him.  This gave him a measure of freedom, yet he still felt the pain of estrangement and suffered with heart symptoms.

Fairly soon after that, his brother called and finally forgave him.  Upon hanging up the phone, he went out for a winter walk in the mountains where he lived.  In the snow-covered stillness, he followed the sound of ice thawing and cracking to the stream where it was melting.  Looking down, he saw the nature scene at his feet as a metaphor – his frozen heart was melting and his feelings were starting to flow again.  All physical symptoms involving his heart were gone from that day on.

The correlation between our heart-life and the life of our heart is increasingly being recognized by modern science.  A new book by Gregg Braden, “Resilience from the Heart:  The Power to Thrive in Life’s Extremes,” even asserts there’s a direct link between the heart and the brain.  The goal of Braden’s work is always to bridge ancient wisdom with the latest scientific research in a way that people can utilize in their everyday lives for better health and prosperity.

And this cutting edge connection truly isn’t new.  Most faith traditions urge us to examine and improve what’s in our hearts – what’s in our thinking – to bring health and harmony to our lives.

About twenty centuries ago, Jesus of Nazareth healed many incurable diseases through an understanding of God’s love.  His success in healing would naturally make us want to hear what he had to say.  He stressed that in order to experience God’s love and its healing power; we need to express this love to each other.

The Bible records these consecutive sentences from Jesus:  “I tell you to have faith that you have already received whatever you pray for, and it will be yours.  Whenever you pray, forgive anything you have against anyone.”

Right after exhorting confident trust and faith, Jesus urged forgiveness of the heart.  That’s instructive.  It says to me that if I’m seeking healing through prayer for a physical ailment, especially anything heart-related, I need to address my emotional baggage.  It’s hard to be lifted up in inspiration with hurts and resentments weighing you down.

So, deal with what is tugging at your heartstrings.  Finding your peace, forgiving, healing whatever it may be, can become synonymous with a healthy heart.

Celebrate religious freedom on the Fourth of July

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@Glowimages: The Statue of Liberty, New York City, United States of America with the Stars and Stripes flag in the foreground
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My Southern California colleague, Don Ingwerson, reminds us that a big part of why we celebrate our independence this weekend, is freedom to practice the religion of our choice.  That idea often gets drowned out by fun and fireworks.  And the prayer that’s at the center of religion can bring freedom from sickness.  Here’s Don…

Is July 4 just a day for barbecues, friends and family?

It seemed that way to a friend of mine a few years ago at an Independence Day neighborhood gathering. He was surprised to learn that most of the children attending didn’t know why they were celebrating….

One of the bedrocks of our country, which many other nations tragically lack, is the commitment to religious freedom we have maintained through the years. Yet I have learned such commitment requires fresh renewal with each generation. We can’t take for granted that all our citizens will understand and appreciate this crucial component of our history, nor recognize how vital it is that it should continue.

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Defeating fear of Ebola will help defeat Ebola

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© GLOW IMAGES (model used for illustrative purposes only)
© GLOW IMAGES (model used for illustrative purposes only)

I’m not an authority on dealing physically with contagious diseases but I do know about handling fear.  I’ve learned that stopping fear of disease can go a long way toward stopping disease itself.

The Christian Science Monitor quoted Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group:  “There are two kinds of contagion, one is related to the virus itself and the other is related to the spread of fear about the virus.  Both contagions must be defeated.”

This Daily Mail article agrees that worry and fear are often unhealthy and linked to various health problems:  “Ebola: A crash course in fear and how it hurts us.”  (See related article, “Five Rock Solid Ways to Master Fear.)

Just how connected the contagion of fear about Ebola is to the actual spread of the virus is becoming more widely understood.  What happens in our thinking does not stay in our thinking.  Fears can be manifested in our bodies.  Protecting ourselves and our communities from Ebola and wiping it out, is as much about what we do mentally as physically.
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Is Prayer No More Than a Placebo?

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My Massachusetts colleague, Ingrid Peschke, discusses how prayer can pick up where placebos leave off.  Here’s Ingrid…

Debates abound on the power of the placebo.  There’s one man who has made it his mission to try and settle that debate, or at least shed significant light on it.

Described as wanting to “broaden the definition of healing” (The New Yorker), Ted Kaptchuk is considered the leading researcher on placebos as a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Program in Placebo Studies at Harvard.

Kaptchuk’s research points to a question often left unanswered in medical treatment:  To what extent does a patient’s thought affect outcomes? The unseen, yet powerful elements of healing, such as hope in a certain result, may, according to his research, “fundamentally contribute to the improvement of patient outcomes” (programinplacebostudies.org).

Kaptchuk was one of the experts on a panel discussion I attended at Harvard designed to explore the topic, “Placebo and Prayer:  Why Prayer Practice Might Help.”

I’ve heard skeptics compare prayer to placebos.  And while I’m no expert on the placebo effect, I have had a lot of experience seeing the effects of prayer on health.

I would suggest the prayer referred to as placebo is based on blind belief.  That kind of prayer, I will agree, is no different than placebo.  But the prayer that has depth of conviction, that seeks to understand and appeal to a distinctly divine Mind, ceases to rely on the human mind for healing.

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I Was Addicted To Gambling — Here’s How I Overcame It

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© GLOW IMAGES

My London colleague, Tony Lobl, gives a heartfelt account of how spiritual growth enabled him to gain control over his thoughts and actions.  He was permanently cured of the disease called, addiction.  Here’s Tony…

When did I cross the line and become “an addict”?  Perhaps during my final year at high school.  Day after day, I’d play hooky from class to join a covert clan of gamblers playing card games in the seniors’ common room.

It didn’t seem like an addiction at the time — as a good bluffer, I’d regularly turn a healthy profit.  But it wasn’t the money that drew me; it was the buzz of pitting my wits against my peers’.  However, the fact remained that the writing was on the wall.  On days when luck ran out, I’d still carry on until I lost everything, including my bus fare home.  Thankfully my father never asked why he had to pick me up.

Despite my lax approach to classes, I got into University.  For a few years, an array of extracurricular activities kept the gambler at bay, hidden within.  So did a couple of cash-light years following graduation, as I pursued a vain dream to be Britain’s answer to Bob Dylan.

But the desire to gamble remained and quickly resurfaced when I finally got a job at a video production company.  Instead of saving my money, I immediately began feeding it to voracious slot machines in London.

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To forgive and to be forgiven each benefit our health

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Thoughts of unforgiveness aren’t good for us.  They affect us like water in our car’s gas tank – we don’t run right.  And those we won’t forgive can be affected too.

The health-giving effects of forgiving have been well documented, to the point of becoming common knowledge.  Back in 2004, a Harvard Medical School publication summed up:

“Researchers found that mentally nursing a grudge puts your body through the same strains as a major stressful event…a link between forgiving someone for a betrayal and improvements in blood pressure and heart rate…those converting anger to compassion felt less pain and anxiety than those who received regular care.”  (See also 11/23/11 report by the Mayo Clinic staff)

And that’s just about the body.  Of course forgiveness can heal relationships and bring more peace and happiness.

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What stops you from being healthy?

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TV news anchors announced that a higher percentage of Minnesotans watched the Olympics’ opening weekend than in any other US state.  From our warm living room, with yet another sub zero night outside, my wife and I helped create that statistic.  It was inspiring, as we saw people break free of limits — sometimes in ways they’d never even tried before.  My Texas colleague, Keith Wommack, tells us how barrier breaking can also apply to our health.  Here’s Keith…

Will World-class competition and the medaling of champions keep you watching the 2014 Winter Olympics? Or will you watch in anticipation of barriers and limitations being shattered?

When it comes to breakthroughs and victories, though, you don’t just have to witness Shaun White pull off a Double McTwist 1260 (a snowboarding feat), you too can be an achiever, a champion.

Yes, your victories may start out smaller than Sochi gold, but in the long run, they may actually be more beneficial to you.

While practicing the guitar and learning languages, I’ve noticed a phenomenon that might help explain how you can shatter limiting expectations.

In order to master a guitar riff or learn a phrase, I sometimes struggle for days or weeks with no progress. Then, out of the blue, I experience a breakthrough. One minute I can’t, and then the next, I can. What couldn’t be done before now seems natural, as if I’d always had the know-how.

How does this happen? Well, I’m learning that each of us has conscious control over our experience; I was simply failing to recognize and use it.

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What word will inspire you to keep your resolutions in 2014?

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New year celebrations have come and gone, resolutions have been made.  Now what?  How do we turn those resolutions into an actual fresh start in our lives?

My Canadian colleague up in Ontario, Wendy Margolese, shares a really helpful way of doing it.  And she invites you to visit her blog site.  Here’s Wendy…

It’s that time of the year.  We make all kinds of promises to ourselves to be healthier – more exercise, better diet – and to spend more time with the family and be kinder to our neighbors.

I find that it helps me to choose a word that creates a theme or a framework for the year and acts as a kind of touchstone to remember my promises and resolutions.

My word for 2014 is simply focus!  Some may call that being more mindful, more focused or less scattered.

I am a hopeless ‘multi-tasker’.  Multi–tasking is when you try to do many things at once – the drawback being that not all of them is done well.   Have you ever talked on the phone while checking your email or tried to make a dinner, carry on a texting conversation and help with a school project at the same time?

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