The Mind Body Connection

Why do we blush when we are embarrassed?

Why do we salivate when we think of our favourite food?

Why do we produce tears when feeling emotions of sadness or joy?

It's all down to the Mind Body Connection. Author, international speaker and scientist Dr David Hamilton writes about the mind body connection in his fascinating and highly entertaining book "It's The Thought That Counts".

David became interested in the connection between the mind and the body whilst working as a pharmaceutical scientist testing the new drugs on the market. He was amazed to see that, where the control group taking the tested drug reported an improvement in their condition by, say, 75%, the group taking the placebo pills, which were nothing more than sugar pills, would report a 67% improvement, although they had been given no drugs whatsoever. Full of excitement, David would point this out to his colleagues only to be told indifferently "Yeah, that's the Placebo effect". No-one seemed to be interested in finding out why the placebo effect was producing such incredible results, and so David began to research how the mind and emotions can influence the wellbeing of our body.

Through his research, he also looked into the Mind Body World connection and he uses many stories in his book to demonstrate this.

Examples of the Mind Body World connection are:-

• You think of a friend, the phone rings and it's them

• A group of female friends who find their periods synchronise and they all get their periods at the same time every month

• The effects of the full moon. Many hospitals bring in extra A&E staff over the full moon period to cope with the increased number of accidents

• A room full of pendulum clocks all swinging at different times will eventually align and swing in time

• Similarly, a tuning fork will inspire nearby tuning forks to vibrate at the same speed

In the same way, positive thinking can cause all the organs of the body to sing to the same tune, bringing balance and harmony to your body. And I'm sure you will have noticed that, when you are feeling positive, people sing to the same tune as you and your whole life tends to becomes more balanced and harmonious.

Of course, when you are going through a negative phase, the opposite is true. Everything seem to be against you. How is it that, when you are stressed and in a hurry, the learner driver always pulls out in front of you and is inevitably going your way? That you choose the slowest queue in the supermarket? That the person in front of you at the bank is always paying a million bills and asking for change?

It's no coincidence. We are what we think. And what we think affects our body.

Most of us have felt stress at some point in our lives. Stress starts as a negative thought and often turns into very real symptoms - headaches, tight shoulders, stomach pain, irritable bowels, shallow breathing.

You just have to imagine walking down a dark, lonely road at night. Suddenly you realise you are not alone. The sound of footsteps is getting closer and you can hear someone breathing behind you. Thinking of this is enough to get your heart pumping harder and your adrenalin preparing for fight or flight. This is why horror movies are so popular. Some of the best ones never actually show the violence; they prey on your imagination. Silence Of the Lambs is a perfect example.

Why am I telling you about the Mind Body Connection?

Because you can use it to your advantage. By using the power of positive thought, you can literally alter your DNA, heal your body and attract a better life. You can make things happen. You can run your own movie and decide on the ending. It's up to you whether you go for the happy ending or the sad one.