Life Experiences
Our personal history and education - accompanied by our brain chemistry and genetics - influence our overall health.
This means that past traumas have an influence over how we experience life in the present moment, massively affecting our wellbeing.
We will experience high levels of stress in situations in which our emotional wounds are sensitive. This happens when we suffered from pain in the past and never paid attention to it. Rather we looked for distractions to “stop” feeling it.
As time goes on, maybe we forgot about the event that caused us pain, or we might just be unaware of those unhealed parts of ourselves because we unconsciously blocked them.
The Impact
To understand how the health of our minds directly affects our bodies, we have to remember that the brain and spinal cord constitute the Central Nervous System (CNS), and are in charge of sending and receiving messages from every part of the body through the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The latter is composed of the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, and it mediates our stress responses.
Every time we encounter a stressful situation, the function of every cell, tissue, and organ of the body is affected (sympathetic response). On the other hand, the parasympathetic system is activated when relaxation is experienced.
If the sympathetic branch of the ANS is overstimulated by chronic stress, it results in depression of the physiological and immune functions.
Finding the balance
For this reason it is essential to take care of our mental health as much as we strive for having a “healthy body”. A healthy body will not happen if our brain is suffering, and viceversa.
A regular meditation and yoga practices are important as they help prepare the mind to be more interested in what is actually happening rather than listening to the survival responses playing out of emotional unresolved issues from the past.
In other words, both meditation and yoga promote mindful living, allowing for more space to enjoy life with optimal health.
Meet the Author
Coloma Muro, Inspria Los Angeles
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