Corrosive Effects Of Chronic High Cortisol

Some of you may already know this, but I've suffered bouts of severe illness that's left my immune system KO, my mind foggy and/or full of holes, and my body deteriorating at an increasing rate. Now that I know all the ills (and there are many), I can finally start on the road to recovery (and an arduous road it is).

So when I was rereading my notes from this really interesting book I read over the summer, Mind to Matter: The Astonishing Science of How Your Brain Creates Material Reality by Dawson Church, I fell on this passage which really spoke to me.

I therefore thought I might share these particular insights on the effects of sustained stress on our systems.

Source: Women to Women Healthcare Center

When we're stressed out or worried, our bodies release cortisol. It's a hormone which is meant to help us survive (like adrenaline) when our lives are at risk, but not at chronically high levels. Church shares the following list of body damages a sustained high level of cortisol can lead to:

• High blood pressure
• Death of neurons in the brain's memory centers (I confirm I've become worse than Dory this past year)
• High blood sugar
• Heart disease
• Diminished cell repair
• Accelerated aging
• Alzheimer's
• Fatigue (this one's terrible, because you can't do anything anymore, except the very basic to survive...you literally become a robot, too tired to even have feelings beyond utter and total exhaustion)
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Slow wound healing
• Reduced bone repair
• Fewer stem cells
• Reduced muscle mass
• Increased skin wrinkling
• Fat around the waist and hips
• Osteoporosis

And the following passage is quite illuminating:

We cause chronic cortisol production by turning our attention to those factors in the environment that stress us out. Negative thinking drives high cortisol even when there is no tiger in the grass. Our brilliant brains are able to ruminate about the bad thing that happened in the past or the bad thing that might happen in the future. Even if  it never happened and will never happen, we can nonetheless focus on it, picture it, contemplate it, imagine it, talk about it, and catastrophize about it.

The body cannot distinguish between an actual threat and a perceived threat. It has no way of knowing that the imaginary threat we are conjuring up in our minds using negative thinking is not an actual threat to our survival. Purely by though alone, we can drive cortisol up and produce corrosive effects on our cells.

I would add to this that it is important to be in a place where you can feel safe first--both physically and emotionally. Then you can learn to catch yourself when you're allowing your mind to stray down dark paths, and instead force yourself to think more positively. And repeat the process, until your brain's positive pathways are deeper than the others.

Dory and Marlin, in Finding Nemo

The Power Of Words - A New Year's Resolution Based On Transformational Vocabulary

Wonder Woman inspirational power
& strength through words
~ art print by Marvin Blaine

I've been reading Anthony Robbins's inspiring book Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical, and Financial Destiny!  It's a great book, though some examples are dated, and the basics of the content is applicable no matter what century we happen to be living in. Unless we've all turned into robots, but that's another problem altogether.

In any case, there's a section in this book that discusses the power of the word on our lives, and our ability to be happy and fulfill our self-chosen destiny thanks to it. This is because "words absolutely do filter and transform experience." For you see, "since words are our primary tool for interpretation or translation, the way we label our experience immediately changes the sensations produced in our nervous systems. You and I must realize that words do indeed create a biochemical effect."

In fact, in Words Can Change Your Brain, Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Robert Waldman state that "a single word has the power to influence the expression of genes that regulate physical and emotional stress." Negative words cause our brain to create fear-inducing, stress-related hormones, while positive words stimulate the frontal lobe of our brain, which is linked to logic and reason. The frontal lobe activation by the positive word(s) will, in turn, activate other parts of the brain, like the parietal lobe (responsible for how you view yourself), and the thalamus (responsible for how you view others and reality), so that we will start feeling better about ourselves, others around us, and basically our whole world.

Robbins used as an example how one of his friends inspired him to start using the word "peeved" whenever he started feeling angry about a situation. Just the use of that word (instead of potentially stronger words like "livid" or "enraged") automatically diffuses the situation emotionally-speaking, and therefore allows him to be open to more ways to solve the problem that's suddenly appeared because he's not flooding his brain and body with stress hormones.

But Robbins doesn't just stop there. Indeed, he posits that not only do the labels we apply to how we feel/what we think alter our emotions (with the goal being that we want to more relaxed and happier beings), but that the greater our vocabulary, the easier it is for us to do so.

To illustrate this point, Robbins mentions a study that had once been undertaken in a prison, where it was found that "when inmates experienced pain, one of the few ways they could communicate it was through physical action--their limited vocabulary limited their emotional range, channeling even the slightest feelings of discomfort into heightened levels of violent anger." So the better you are at labeling your emotions, the better you become at controlling your anger (and potentially your violence), and lessening the degree of the emotions while at the same time heightening the positive one.

In an online class I took (I'm all about self-empowerment these days), the teacher stressed the fact that you can choose to be happy, and the way to do that is to realize that your thoughts--shaped by your words--affect how you feel. So it's very important to use empowering words, ones that will make you feel good about yourself and your world, words of love, and encouragement, and inspiration.

And it works! It truly, really works! I'm not saying that it's always going to be easy, that we won't feel pain or sadness (like I said, we haven't yet "evolved" into machines), but it will certainly skew our life towards the more positive side of things. So my goal (or one of them anyways, but this one's at the top of my list) is to consistently choose to be happy, and build up my vocabulary so I can describe my emotions in more variegated ways.

I'm also hoping this will allow me to become a better writer over time.

So, what word(s) of power would you like to calibrate your life to in the coming weeks, months, or years?

If we want to change our lives and shape our destiny, we need to consciously select the words we're going to use, and we need to constantly strive to expand our level of choice.

~Anthony Robbins

Meditation Powers On The Brain

Art by dandingeroz

I am currently reading (among, possibly, 20 other books...yeah, I need to work on that) Mind to Matter: The Astonishing Science of How Your Brain Creates Material Reality, and though I'm still quite at the beginning, I already have so much food for thought!

The book talks about the science behind how our mind and thoughts can alter physical reality, starting with our own brain. As part of the intro on this topic, it brings up an article written by Tang, Hötzel, & Postner in 2015, which I'll partially transcribe down here for you.

The article talks about an astrophysicist/journalist, Phillips, who decided to check how meditation would affect his brain, and test it medically (to convince his skeptical self should there really be any major effects):

By Robert Voight/Adobe Stock

"After just two weeks of practicing mindfulness meditation, Phillips felt less stressed and more able to handle the challenges of his job and life.;He reported that he 'notices stress but doesn't get sucked into it.'
Eight weeks later, he [went back] for testing. ... They found that he was better at behavioral tasks, even though he showed diminished brain activity. ... [H]is brain had become more energy efficient. ... His memory tests also improved.
His reaction time to unexpected events had been cut by almost half a second. (...)
One of the brain regions the researchers measured the hippocampus, ... and the part of [it] responsible for regulation emotion in other parts of the brain. ... They found that the volume of nerve cells in th[at part of the hippocampus] had increased by 22.8%.
...Such brain reconfiguration is occasionally seen in young people whose brains are still growing, but it is rarely seen in adults. (...)
[There is an] accumulation of a large body of evidence [that has] identified neural growth in 'multiple brain regions...suggesting that the effects of meditation might involve large-scale brain networks.'"

So reading this, I of course totally want to try it out (especially if meditation will allow me to get less angry at, say, loud neighbors that keep me up all night, or help me stay focused on my writing). Despite being terrible at sitting for long periods of time with nothing to do but focus on my breathing and whatnot.

BUT...

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli

Meditation is a double-edged sword.

Indeed, meditation can exacerbate problems instead of helping us overcome them, particularly if we are already suffering from certain mental or personality conditions.

So instead of calming us down, meditation could instead "trigger anxiety, depressive episodes, or flashbacks to past traumas," and turn one more aggressive. In worse cases, it can truly make you lose your mind entirely, lose yourself and your identity entirely as "the boundaries of [your] ego dissolve," and push you towards suicide.

So, yeah. There's that too.

All of this does prove that meditation changes your brain, but whether it's for the better is not necessarily a given. And with my kind of writer's mind, I think I need to be careful. So for now I think I'll stick to what I know works for me, which is what I like to call "active meditation" or exercise (which I definitely don't do enough of, quite frankly).

Still, it is fascinating to see how much of an influence our thoughts have on our body, is it not?

Additional Sources:
When Mindfulness Goes Wrong
What Mindfulness Gurus Don't Tell You: Meditation Has a Dark Side

Natural Steps for Myelin Sheath Preservation

In the previous article, we discussed how important it is to build the myelin sheath in your brain to help you learn and become a better performer.  So today, I want to discuss ways in which one can help prevent and repair myelin damage, in a natural way.

Myelin is essentially 75% fats and cholesterol, and 25% protein.

1.       Folic acid and vitamin B12.

2.       Reduce inflammation in the body that could damage the myelin:  essential fatty acids (omega-6, omega-3), vitamin C, vitamin D, green tea, devil’s claw, white willow, and boswellia.

3.       Other nutrients that support the immune system:  zinc, vitamin A, vitamin B.

Of course, the quantities needed of each varies with each individual, but it’s important to make sure one has a balanced (and as natural as possible) diet.  The more detoxified your body is, the better.

Some foods that can help include:

1.       Olive oil.

2.       Fish (though be careful of mercury).

3.       Nuts.

4.       Cocoa.

5.       Avocados.

6.       Whole grains.

7.       Legumes (ex: beans, lentils).

8.       Spinach.

9.       Yogurt (plain organic is better; if you want it to taste sweet, you can add a little bit of raw honey).

10.   Semisweet chocolate.

11.   Oregano and thyme.

 

Things to avoid include chemicals and heavy metals (ex:  mercury), exposure to x-rays, insecticides, organic solvents.

Sources:

Ehow

Cancers Survivor Network 

A Healthy Writer Is A Happy Writer

I find that writing always comes to me more easily when I feel rested.  And I've noticed that, no matter how many hours I sleep, if I eat poorly, I still feel drained.  Not only that, but I have more and more of a hard time concentrating on even simple tasks, such as typing words that ressemble English...

On that note, this interesting documentary came to my attention (attention, this movie's quite long, and subbed in Spanish):

With that, I think I'm gonna turn to zombyism or vampirism.  Hmmm... which one would be better?

The Cosmos Inside Our Cells - DNA Series Part 2

So how many of you guys got freaked out by the last post? Ok, ok, you know what would make a fun story? If as well as reacting to our emotions, our cells that have gone AWOL created a 3-D holograph representation of us. Now that would be spooky, don’t you think?

Anyway, the reason for today’s post is that I want to talk a little about this one experiment:

“[Experiments] conducted between 1992 and 1995 ... began by isolating human DNA in a glass beaker and then exposing it to a powerful form of feeling known as coherent emotion. According to Glen Rein and Rollin McCraty, the principal researchers, this physiological state may be created intentionally by ‘using specially designed mental and emotional self-management techniques which involve intentionally quieting the mind, shifting one’s awareness to the heart area and focusing on positive emotions.’ They performed a series of tests involving up to five people trained in applying coherent emotion. Using special techniques that analyze the DNA both chemically and visually, the researchers could detect any changes that happened.
...The bottom line: Human emotion changed the shape of the DNA! ... ‘These experiments revealed that different intentions produced different effects on the DNA molecule causing it to either wind or unwind.’” (The Divine Matrix, Gregg Braden).

So it appears that the reason for our cells reaction to our emotions is because our DNA reacts to it (it sounds so very mathematical, doesn’t it? What affects the whole affects its individual elements as well. You know, the whole Venn diagram stuff).

But if it can react to positive emotions, I’m sure it can react to negative ones as well. If only we knew how to interpret those changes in our DNA, how they affect us, our health, our psyche.

And this brings me to another study that has been undertaken that sheds some light on this question (I know, I know, I said I’d only talk about one, but bear with me, please--I apologize for the extra work m(_ _)m ):

“There is now strong evidence that our perception of how much love and caring we receive as young children from our parents can be a major influence on our health later in our life. One famous study has followed the health of Harvard graduates from the 1950s to the present day, and has found an increased incidence of hypertension, coronary heart disease, duodenal ulcers and alcoholism in those who, as students, used few positive, loving words to describe their parents.” (The Human Antenna, Dr. Robin Kelly).

So here is what I posit: the fact that our propensity to become sensitive to more serious diseases as we age is linked to the emotions we’ve felt growing up to that point, as it has affected (either strengthened or weakened) our DNA and, thereby, our cells.

So to lead healthier lives, we need to be positive, try to shed away our fears, our negative feelings, all these emotions that basically bring ourselves down. And we need to act the same way towards others as well.

I know, easier said than done. So I promise to try not to get angry with idiotic people on the road anymore, even if they should not technically be on the roads. And I promise to try not to berate myself so much in life anymore.

Obviously easier said than done, but I will sincerely give these resolutions a serious go. I like being healthy and happy and all that jazz. And after all, don’t people say the human body is a divine temple?

--Alessa

How To Turn Into Wolverine (without the adamantium skeleton) -- X-MEN Series ½

“Mens sana in corpore sano.” (Juvenal, The Satires )

A healthy mind in a healthy body.

Have any of you heard this one before? No? Yes? Well, either way I’m gonna talk about it (or should it be write?). I want to address what this is all about. Okay, not all per se, but, you know . . . talk about what it could potentially mean. Uh, one of its potential meanings anyway. According to my interpretation that is . . . Uh . . . How 'bout we start over?

*Cough. Cough.*

Today, I’d like to talk about how we could use our super powers to heal ourselves. Kind of like Wolverine in X-Men. You know, the one with the wacky hair and long pointy thingies coming out of his hands? (You can see him on the picture on the right. I know, I know. He’s easy to miss when you’ve got your eyes on Gambit. I mean, who can notice anyone else when you’ve got that hot guy being all sarcastic in that cute, Cajun voice?).

Uh. Getting sidetracked again. Oh. Yeah.

Before we go any further, I need to put in a disclaimer: Anything said in today’s post is what this author’s discovered in her research on the topic and, occasionally, her own belief. It doesn’t mean that any of you should ever forego going to the doctor’s entirely (no matter how much this author distrusts them. Really!).

So I’ve talked in past blogs about how our thoughts have a very strong influence on our lives, that, depending on how strong our faith/intent is, we can make things happen according to our wishes.

Now, what if that wish were to make ourselves heal? (See the Wolverine connection here? Huh?)
Here's a story I read about a man who managed t cure himself of a terrible heart disease:

“It involves a man in his 20s who’d been diagnosed with a rare heart condition that his doctors believed was fatal. [He was m]arried with two small children. By the time Neville (a 20th century visionary from Barbados who described our ability to make our dreams a reality and bring imagination to life) was asked to speak with him, the man had lost a tremendous amount of weigh and “shrunk to almost a skeleton.” He was so weak that even conversation was hard for him, but he agreed to simply listen and nod his understanding as Neville shared with him the power of his beliefs.
. . .Neville asked the man to experience himself as if his healing had already taken place. (...) He suggested that, in imagination, he see the doctor’s face expressing incredulous amazement in finding him recovered, contrary to all reason, from the last stages of an incurable disease . . ..
Well, . . .the fellow did get better. Months later, the visionary received a letter telling him that the young man had, in fact, made a truly miraculous recovery.
. . .The secret, the man revealed, was that rather than simply wishing for his health, since the day of their meeting, he had lived from the ‘assumption of already being well and healed.’” (Gregg Braden, The Divine Matrix: Bridging Time, Space, Miracles, and Belief).

A true miracle, as his doctor said. But was it? Was it truly a miracle?

What this guy did was change his way of thinking about himself. He saw himself healthy and he became healthy. Could it be that all the people who go to, say, Lourdes to get cured get cured because in their own minds they know they will be healthy again in some kind of placebo sort of way?

This would mean that positive thinking (again) is the key to self-healing. (OK, don’t see how Wolverine did it then, since he’s always so cranky, unless he’s always been a really peppy guy deep inside but hid it so people would take him seriously?)

This idea isn’t a new one (I'm not talking about Wolverine anymore, I'm talking about positive thinking. Follow, people!). In fact, it’s a really old one (I’ll talk about this later, in another, non-X-Men post). Even the United States’ founders (or some of them at least) believed in the fact that “because mind and body were assumed to be closely connected--as physician and Declaration-of-Independence signer Benjamin Rush had . . .indicated in 1811--it was taken for granted that harmonizing one’s emotions in a positive way would, unquestionably, improve one’s physical well-being.” (United State National Library of Medicine)

But why is this possible? What’s going on behind the scenes? How is it that our thoughts, our will, have such power? If it is all an 'energy thing,' how does it work?

Any ideas?

-Alessa

PS: Did you know that it’s out of this type of thinking that Alcoholics Anonymous was created? Yep, yep. Pretty nifty, huh?

PS2: Don’t know where or when you’re going to use that fact, but I thought it was cool.

PS3: For those of you who like Gambit as much as I do, here's a picture of him too! (Wow, I just rhymed!)

PS4: OK. Signing out for real now. Bye.