Knowing Yourself Is An Elixir For Your Mind And Body Health.

"He who know others is learned. He who knows himself is wise."

Lao Tsu



"There's a lot of fear connected with the inner journey because it penetrates our illusions. Taking the inner journey will lead you into some very shadowy places. You're going to learn things about yourself that you'll wish you didn't know. There are monsters in there monsters you can't control but trying to keep them hidden will only give them greater power."

Parker Palmer

Though you live with yourself, how many times have you taken a break from your busy schedule to know your inner self? You know all about your neighbor or your friends, yet you don't have time to know yourself. I have a friend, Jane, who has mastered the art of knowing herself. She knows when there is imbalance in her inner self. When this happens, she develops non specific symptoms such as shoulder, back and neck pains. These non specific symptoms affect her sleep pattern making her tired during the day.

Many of you have similar symptoms when you're confronted with stressful situations. Unlike my friend who will not run to her physician for a quick fix, many people will run to their physicians for the magic pill to solve their psychosomatic problems. In the busy office, when the physician has only a limited time to deal with your symptoms, he prescribes a quick fix to help you cope. The only problem is that most of the time the medicine does not work. You then move to the next doctor looking for something else to help you cope.

Physicians are important in your life. However you cannot ignore self care that consists of exercising, balanced nutrition, rightful thinking and spirituality. The ability to know yourself will let you know when you're under stress or overwhelmed. You will then be able to cope. Many of my patients are aware of this, yet they want a quick fix by demanding medications.

Your emotions control your feelings and thoughts. These feelings and thoughts produce their own chemicals. Happy feelings will produce happy chemicals and negative feelings can also produce chemicals such as adrenaline and steroids that tear your body apart and make you sick. Once you are in touch with your feelings, you can recognize when something is bothering you. The essence of managing your emotions is to change your circumstances. If you can't, alter your attitudes towards what is bothering you. Understand that there are certain things we can change and others we cannot change. The trick is to determine the difference between what you can change and what you cannot.

The ability to manage your needs and wants will go a long way to keep you at peace with yourself. You become the pilot of your fate and happiness rather than becoming a puppet in the hands of fate. This ability is within us.The secret is to find time to cultivate this innate ability which most of us have lost.

"We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another, unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another."

Anna Nin


"It's no good running a pig farm badly for thirty years while saying, "Really I was meant to be a ballet dancer." By that time, pigs will be your style."


Quentin Crisp

Prozac Nation No More - A Self Help Prescription For Depression And Your Mind And Body Health.

"Depression is not the end stage of a disease process but a wake up call to examine our lives. There are better ways to do that than taking drugs, which have side effects and don't address the underlying message that depression is bringing—that our lives are out of balance and significant change is necessary. Instead they tell us, "You have a biochemical disorder, here's a drug." " James Gordon, MD

Depression is prevalent in our society. James Gordon, a psychiatrist and the founder of Mind And Body Center in Washington D.C. has written a book to explain that there is a better way of treating depression than taking medicine. His emphasis is on self care through diet, exercise and meditation. Please, read on...

For A Healthy Mind And A Healthy Body, Be Gentle With Yourself.

"A tree has both straight and crooked branches; the symmetry of the tree,"
however, is perfect. Life is balanced like a tree. When you consider
the struggles, difficulties, and sorrows as a part of it,
then you see it as beautiful and perfect.

George M. Lamsa

"If you have known how
to compose your life,
you have done a great
deal more than the
person who knows how
to compose a book.
You have done more
than the one who has
taken cities and empires."

Michael de Montaigne.

Taking yourself too serious can harm your health. This obsession, when every little slight or disappointment becomes a major problem, can sap your energy and deprive you of your health and happiness. It is therefore imperative that you treat yourself gently.

This means you should fall in love with yourself. The ability to fall in love with yourself will give you the insight to follow healthy habits and love your neighbor as yourself. As the saying goes, "charity begins at home." You cannot love your neighbor more than yourself. To be able to follow the above prescription, the following characteristics may help:

• Learn to laugh at your mistakes. Humor is medicine. Laughing at yourself sometimes is not easy.This will give you an objective look at yourself so you can learn and correct the mistakes. The resulting enhanced self confidence can improve your interactions with your friends and colleagues.
• Knowing that you're human will set you free to try new things. Suddenly, you want to go back to school to acquire new skills so you can be more productive. You are not afraid to fail as your journey through life is just a process. You're never done until you die. For a healthy mind and body, you need to keep on challenging yourself. The satisfaction you get from completing a project gives you security and boosts your self esteem.
• Learn form nature. There is nothing that is permanent in this world. Hence be bold and dream great dreams that will propel you to achieve your objectives to enhance your mind and body health.

"For everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.
A time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal ...
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance ...
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to lose and a time to seek;
a time to rend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace."


Ecclesiastes, 3:1-8

Exercise Slows Down Alzheimer's Disease. A Bonus For Your Mind And Body Health

"Exercise alone provides psychological and physical benefits.

However, if you also adopt a strategy that engages your mind while
you exercise, you can get a whole host of psychological benefits fairly
quickly."

"Movement is a medicine for creating change
in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states."

Carol Welch

Alzheimer's disease wreaks havoc on many old people. Medical research so far has not made any major breakthrough in the treatment of the disease. It is therefore refreshing to see a study published in the journal Neurology about the effects of exercise on the disease.

The study looked at 121 people over 60 years old. About half of them had early stages of the disease. Those with Alzheimer's who were less fit had four times more signs of brain shrinkage than those who were fit.

Other studies have showed that exercise can increase the growth of the hippocampus. During exercise, the brain sends a chemical called BNDF to the brain that causes growth of new cells. Though new cells cannot grow throughout the brain, studies have found that in aging brains some parts of the brain cells rewire themselves
with exercises.

Thus self care is the cornerstone of brain care. Exercise, healthy eating and healthy thoughts can go a long way to keep your mind and body healthy.

Medical Schools Recognise The Role Of Spirituality In Mind And Body Health.

Healing does not consist of using the knife or giving pills only. Physicians are recognizing that patients drive their own care. A patient who practices self care by exercising, eating the right food and in touch with the spiritual world will have the resilience to withstand the onslaught of stress which plagues all of us day in day out. By so doing she will give her body chance to heal.

As healers, physicians in training need to be aware that their patient's sickness is mixed with all sorts of guilty feelings and loneliness as well as fear of death. All these feelings have negative effects on healing as they induce stress.

Medical schools are now training the young physicians in the molecular basis of illness as well as in spirituality. This way, the physicians will learn empathy and encourage their patients to be champions of self care so they can develop resilience to help them heal. Please, read on...

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Confucius

“Psychoanalysis shows the human infant as the passive recipient of love, unable to bear hostility. Development is learning to love actively and to bear rejection.”
Karl Stern