Human Body/Mind Connection – Great Stuff

A few days ago I was reflecting on human relationships (see Humans), and Shannon, a really smart and generous person, emailed the response below to me. Shannon has been educating me on Candace Pert, the subject of her email below, for a few years, and I think I am finally ready to dive in, listen to her CDs and learn more.

I am always amazed at how long it sometimes takes me to get moving on something, but we all get there when we get there and I can’t do it all at once, which is my natural and always unfulfilled desire. I love aging - it has given me the wisdom to accept that I will get to things when I can and no longer beat myself up for not getting it all done when I initially think I should.

Speaking of humans, a birthing educator friend was explaining to me that when humans learn something new that very personally affects them and requires a change of beliefs or actions, they often go through the stages of grief before possibly changing their behavior. They have to hear the idea more than once so that they can process it and then possibly act on it. That would explain why it is so hard for people to buy in to changing the way that they eat, care for themselves and so much more.

For my family, the food and healing journey was a gentle one until we hit the point when Colson’s allergies flared so strongly while he was running through a tall grass field with friends, when his face and neck swelled to unbelievable size. Really strong fear that his windpipe could swell and close while we were a couple of hours from medical care pushed us right through the resistance to change barrier when it came to healing his allergies through diet. Nothing like a fear for your son’s life event to accelerate your change in perspective!

Now for Shannon’s email:

Your blog blew my mind in a great way, you see so clearly!! As I sit here drinking my bone broth and I read your blog I’m reminded how easy it is to forget that there is more to health than just food/nutrition. It is also a person’s outlook. The two are linked. Candace Pert’s “Your Body is Your Subconscious Mind” CD really delves into how the body and mind are one (she calls it the body-mind) as they both effect each other. If your body is a mess, your mind will be a mess - if your thoughts are bad, it feeds into the body mind cycle and hurts your body.

Candace is all about neuropeptides (neurotransmitters, hormones, all are neuropeptides, insulin, serotonin, gaba, etc) and how every cell in our body releases them and has receptors on them to accept them from the outside. It is intercellular communication. She says 98% of all communication in the brain is via neuropeptides, only 2% is via the nerves. Wow.

So basically you have a thought, your brain releases neuropeptides which are received by other cells in the body which then release their own neuropeptides in response, and so on, and so on, until the brain then receives neuropeptides from the body in response to that thought as well as in response to what the body just ate, did, etc. The different neuropeptides create different responses, and there are over 300 different neuropeptides so this gets very complex. Plus, what receptors are where makes a difference and she said she has never seen something vary so much from person to person. Only the heart and brain contain receptors for all neuropeptides. She says emotions are the bottom line result of all this intercellular communication.

This is big because it explains chemically how what you think changes your health and how your health impacts what you think. The thing is, with a frontal cortex, the only part of the brain unique to humans, we are able to “choose what we pay attention to” we can choose what we think about.

Another thing Candace discusses is cellular memory and how the body actually remembers trauma. She says body work can do a lot more healing to resolving trauma than psychoanalysis. I would suspect both together make a powerful healing tool.

However, as you point out in your blog, everyone has their own “stuff” to process the world through. Insecurity, anger, unresolved emotions. It all blocks and taints our perception. The frontal cortex is also responsible for explaining the world to us. Our brains seem to need an explanation in order to process the world, so much so our eyes will fool us. Candace says there is one neuron between the nose and the brain which is why smell memories are so vivid. However there are seven neurons between the eyes and the brain, giving the body seven chances to alter our perception. When the Indians saw the boat from Spain coming over the horizon, they had no way to explain it and they saw something very different if anything at all. (There are about 3 neurons for ears I think). If we cannot explain our universe, we live in fear, even a wrong/bad explanation seems easier for people to handle than no explanation, and it’s amazing how strongly people will hold onto it out of fear of change.

So I find refuge blaming the frontal cortex LOL! At least that is in my perceived universe for today. ;-D I think being able to adapt to new information and not letting it crumble one’s world is key to growth. To reject all that is new, while it may feel safe at the time, limits understanding, but fear can be a strong motivator.