The Mind-Body Connection in Healthy Living

The brain's neural connections to all parts of the body is one factor in the bodymind connection. Credit: artlessstacey Public domain

The University of Minnesota explains this connection as thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes positively or negatively affecting your biological functioning.

The Cleveland Clinic defines the connection as the ability to use your thoughts to positively influence some of your body’s physical responses.

NIH Medline Plus states that "Today, we accept that there is a powerful mind-body connection through which emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and behavioral factors can directly affect our health... Over the past 20 years, mind-body medicine has provided evidence that psychological factors can play a major role in such illnesses as heart disease, and that mind-body techniques can aid in their treatment."

However you define it, the connection between mind, body, and spirit is an important factor in healthy living. For example, author Barbara Levine examines the link between language and disease in Your Body Believes Every Word You Say: The Language of the Bodymind Connection.

Healthy Mind-Body-Spirit Articles

This section of my website will contain a range of articles that explore various mind-body-spirit therapies or practices:

Connect with Spirit: Experience your truth, love, and divine nature.

Guided Imagery for relaxation and health.

Somatics: Exploring the bodymind connection.

Ten Relaxation Techniques and a Progressive Relaxation Exercise.

Tips for a Fulfilling Life

Yoga Exercises: Getting-started guidelines.

Telomeres

At the end of every chromosome is a length of DNA called a telomere, which becomes shorter every time a cell divides. Young cells produce an enzyme called telomerase that prevents the telomeres from getting too short. However, as cells repeatedly divide, telomerase cannot keep up, so the telomeres get shorter. Scientists have associated short telomeres with HIV, osteoporosis, heart disease, other diseases, and aging.

What do telomeres have to do with the mind-body connection? When you are under stress, your body makes cortisol. Science Daily reports that an UCLA study showed that cortisol interferes with the ability of immune cells to activate their telomerase, possibly explaining why researchers have seen that the cells of a person under chronic stress have shorter telomeres. Thus, what happens to the cells in the body is connected to the stress experienced in the mind.

Another study, Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. suggested meditation increased the activity of telomerase.

For a more detailed explanation of telomeres, see this article at the University of Utah Genetic Science Learning Center.

More Resources

The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin conducts rigorous interdisciplinary research on healthy mind qualities such as compassion, forgiveness, kindness, and mindfulness.