Issue 8 December 2010


Quantum


HEALTH


Body Medicine: Simple ways to Improve Well-being


By Joan Parisi Wilcox F


eeling blue? Don’t go for the ice cream, glass of wine or other mood-altering substance—change your body position or your breathing pattern and instantly alter the way you feel. We know from the latest science that just about every change in our physical body affects our mind, and just about every thought that flickers through our mind affects our body. The mind-body connection is not so much a linear feedback loop as it is a spider’s web of relations. Tweak one fiber of the web, and the whole web vibrates.


Most of us also are familiar with the many ways perception filters, and even creates, our reality, but there are many ways that our body and brain chemistry change from influences we might not be aware of. For instance, our memory rides on the waves of our feelings. Studies reveal that when you are feeling positive and upbeat your memory is sharper and recall is faster. The way you talk about yourself, such as telling someone your personal story, even changes according to your mental state—different mental state, different story. Both our mental states and physiology can be shifted in positive directions over the long-term through practices such as meditation and yoga, yet many people don’t realize that they also can be improved in the short-term, in some cases almost instantly, through other measures, such as changing your body position or altering your breathing. Using body postures and breathing practices for improved health, both physical and mental, is easy, can be done anytime and anywhere, and is free, so they truly are among the “best medicine.”


www.quantumhealthmagazine.com


Quantum Health 43


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