Our minds floods our bodies with chemical reactions that affect our emotions

In our efforts to getting better it is important to understand how important our mind is and the tremendous influence it has on our bodies, including our heart beat, body temperature and other self-regulated bodily functions such as for example digestion that we don't consciously think about. Every thought we have and every emotion triggers a chain of chemical reactions in our bodies that has a very real impact on our health. This is the reason why we need to understand how our mind works and to make it work for us as opposed to against us.

Creativity v. Fear and paralysis

Our mind has two main areas: the emotional mind (that I also call the Little Self) and the intellectual mind (the Big Self or Higher Self).

• The emotional mind governs all bodily functions through the autonomic system but also the digestive, reproductive and immune systems. It is part of the lymbic system. It directly impacts on all these areas throught the hypothalamus because its job is to keep us safe. When we used to live in caves, it was much needed to keep us safe and keep us out of dangers. Any unusual noise would trigger important reactions: increased heart beat, flow of blood away from the digestive system into the muscles and heart, drop in body temperature, sweating, etc. This was necessary to enable us to run away from danger. However if our emotional mind thinks we are in a dangerous situation - even if we are not - it will keep us on edge and this overflow of adrenaline and cortisol will create a permanent state of alert, opening the way for disorders such as depression, panic attacks, phobias and other mental health issues but also problems with digestion (IBS), fertility, but also obesity and more.
• The intellectual mind, on the other hand, is what enables us to put things in perspective, to see the bigger picture and to cope with stress. It is creative and it contains positive thoughts. Although not all of our intellectual mind is conscious, we access it through our consciousness.

Keeping in control

Our troubles appear when the emotional mind is in control of our lives and gets out of hand. Since the amygdala, the seat of the emotional mind, cannot tell the difference between reality and imagination, it will act on our fears without discrimination. So it does not matter if we are really in danger or if we just think we are. The implications are endless.

Using our minds to restore physical and mental health

Behind all this science is also the realisation that there is a strong link between our mind and our bodies and that the mind plays a very active role in our health and our disease. Although it maybe scary to think that there is such a strong link between our minds and our health, it is in effect very empowering, because it means that by altering the way we think, we can change the chemistry in our bodies and restore health. We can be in control.

This is where hypnotherapy comes in. And that is also the reason why hypnotherapy is mentioned as an effective method to manage and in a lot of cases cure a vast list of conditions and diseases. To book an appointment, please call 07914606729.