articles

You are what you eat … and what you think

by Martha McCallum, September, 2007

People generally agree that good health depends on good nutrition. Now take a moment to consider that your health depends on your thoughts too.

Each day, we all have stressful thoughts that reduce the health of every system in the body. Stress is the body’s response to perceived threats, and it is the brain that does the perceiving. That is why one person can be excited by a situation that is stressful to another person; they have different thoughts and past experiences. When we pay attention to our thought processes we can reduce the duration of our stress response; eventually we can replace our old thoughts with new thoughts that better support our well being.

The benefits of stress are that our body gets ready to fight or flee from the proverbial saber tooth tiger. Over the long term, early man’s biggest stress was starvation, so chronic stress sets off a series of reactions to conserve sugars and fats. Aside from fight, flight and energy conservation, stress has few other benefits, and many health-compromising effects.

When we feel comfortable with ourselves and welcome to express ourselves honestly, when we are enjoying positive thoughts, feelings and laughter, then we are secreting health-promoting hormones that support all the body systems. We digest our food and eliminate waste more completely, sleep more soundly, resist disease, enjoy vitality and quick recovery from exercise, and we have access to the full capacity of our mind to focus and think broadly and clearly.

When we feel hurried, anxious, overwhelmed, inadequate or doubtful then we secrete stress hormones that create a less healthy, more acidic environment in all our cells, and limit communication between body systems.

As a result of eight years of studying stress and working as a herbalist, hakomi mind/body psychotherapist, and teaching yoga, I believe that emotional stress occurs when our mind and body are not in synch … hence we can understand and reduce our stress through specific mind/body explorations.

Here is a short exercise you can try as you read this article. First, close your eyes and notice how your body feels inside – your mood, your energy, breathing, tense muscles, etc. Then immerse yourself in a memory of a time when you felt moderately stressed about something. Let all the elements come back to life and fill you up. Notice how your body tightens up, your breath gets shallow, you feel unsettled. Then let go of the thoughts by really focusing on the feelings, checking out every detail of how something is stopping your breath, and the texture of those tight shoulders or facial muscles, or the knot in your stomach. Does this feel familiar? Does it feel discordant? Then shift again to how you want to feel. Invite your tight muscles to soften and your breath to reach into your belly. Consciously open and invite a feeling of wellbeing to seep into every cell, to fill you up. Linger in this good feeling, and then notice how your mind feels about that original, stressful thought. It might have some new, gentler or more creative ways of looking at your situation. Notice the trick – it is much easier to shift your feelings that to shift your thoughts, so you follow the progression of stressful thought – stressful feeling – good feeling – good thought.

We have tens of thousands of thoughts each day, and we can learn a great deal about ourselves by observing them, how we react or respond to them, and the inner feeling states that they create. We can learn to recognize toxic thoughts and to shut them down quickly. Eventually, we learn to be the master of our thoughts instead of the servant, just as we learn how to eat and exercise to feel our best

AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION

WEEKLY COLUMN from the Canmore Leader, May 28, 2003

Mindfulness makes life easier by
helping us make the right choices

Dear Martha,

I found a brochure in one of Canmore's fine cafés and I've got to ask, what is all the hype I'm hearing about mindfulness?

Still Mindless

Dear Mindless,

Thanks for asking me one of my favourite questions! Most people know of mindfulness from learning meditation or yoga, and it is a state of consciousness that we have learned about from its roots in Eastern spiritual traditions. Recently, I have noticed it has been creeping into use in business schools and corporations too.

Mindfulness is simply an awareness, or even a focus, on what is happening inside ourselves in the present moment. We notice what is going on in our thoughts as we go about our work or interact with other people. We notice the first signs of stress building up inside us, such as tensing muscles, tight breathing, or agitation. We become aware of the subtle little ideas, images, or feelings that can give us a whole lot of information as we walk into a room full of people or along a mountain trail - that some call intuition. And once we notice this information, we have choices about how to use it.

In mindfulness we are relaxed, self-reflective, and accepting of what we find in ourselves, and notice when we might be judgmental, especially about ourselves. We have a naturally heightened sensitivity to what is going on inside when we focus there rather than in a handful of places all at once.

I think all the hype about something that is really so simple that our pets do it all the time comes from the way we have lost this connection with ourselves in our busy lives. If you've become better at planning than enjoying your life, you're not alone. Just imagine how beneficial it could be for a corporation to teach employees mindfulness as a way of interacting with colleagues, and a way of focusing on their tasks. Routine gets replaced with a better understanding of the tasks. The benefits of this ability to focus are easy to imagine for athletes, for parents, and for anyone that wants great relationships!

For me, mindfulness has brought me a deeper understanding of the little voices in my head that drive me, so I feel more aware of why I am making choices and I can choose which voices to listen to and which to ignore. It has made me feel more alive!

Martha