1. Healthy MindHealthy Body Developing the Mind/Body/Spirit Connection

2. Can You Choose To Be Healthy? Or is illness just the luck of the draw? Medical research is making exciting new discoveries. Science has proven that your mental/emotional health and your physical health are interconnected. In order to achieve true health and happiness, you must achieve balance. To achieve that healthy balance, you need only look as far as your mirror. True wholeness occurs when you discover, explore and utilize the healing power that exists within yourself. In the following slides, you will see how scientific research has proven that people’s minds can have a powerful impact on their health~ and you can learn how to harness that power.

3. Mental Fitness The pathway to human flourishing begins with our mind, which is our informational seat, our inner voice, our thought center. When we say mind, we are not just talking about our brain. Our mind includes our brain, but it also includes our essence, our spirituality, our inner being. When we learn to train our mind, we are in essence learning to turn off the chatter, the images, the frustrations and everything that separates us from our inner self. Our mind can be explored and used to accomplish great good for our bodies. The following research shows you how.

4. The Henry Bennett Study In 1986, a group of 94 surgical patients who were scheduled for spinal surgery were involved in a study. The patients who were given instructions on how to “move their blood” from the surgery site lost only 500 cubic centimeters of blood during surgery compared to the patients who were not given any instructions and had blood loss of 900 cubic centimeters during surgery.

5. The Lewis H. Mehl Study In 1994, a study was conducted of 100 pregnant women whose babies were in the breech position. Hypnotherapy was used with one group, and this group was encouraged to trust in their bodies and in nature and encouraged to think about why their babies were in this position. 81% of the babies in this group spontaneously converted (to the proper “head down” position) compared to the control group who received no hypnotherapy or encouragement and who only had a 48% spontaneous conversion.

6. Jon Kabat-Zinn Study A small control group of psoriasis patients were given hypnotherapy along with their phototherapy. They were instructed in mindfulness meditation and given suggestions that they could visualize the slowing of cell growth. This control group reached the halfway clearing point 50 percent sooner than the group of psoriasis patients that were only given phototherapy.

7. Loving Kindness Practice The purpose of this Practice is to help you tame your mind and learn how to practice contemplation. Place yourself in a comfortable position. Think of someone you love, someone you are close to. Open your heart and feel the loving kindness you feel for this person. Feel the love and kindness grow warmer. Take those feelings of love and kindness and turn them inward toward yourself. Embrace your body, your thoughts, your feelings. Turn the feelings of love inward toward your inner mind, giving to your self all of the embracing love and kindness in your heart. Next, visualize a loved one who is hurting. As you breathe in, visualize that you are breathing in that person’s pain and suffering. When you breathe out, visualize that you are breathing health, happiness and wholeness toward that person. Breathe in their pain, breathe out wholeness. Next, visualize a group of strangers. When you breathe in, imagine you are breathing in their pain and suffering. As you breathe out, you are breathing out health, happiness and wholeness to the whole group. Next, embrace all living things. Every living thing you can imagine, breathe in the pain, breathe out happiness and wholeness and love.

8. The Subtle Mind This exercise will further improve mental fitness and help you gain insight and human flourishing as you practice it. Find a comfortable position. Take ten deep in breaths and ten slow out breaths. Find a focal point and concentrate on it. Use your breath as your focal point. When your mind begins to wander, bring it back to focus using your breath. Watch your mind, and when it begins to wander, bring it back to focus on the breath. You will eventually be capable of witnessing your mental activity instead of being immersed in it. In this way you will learn to change a grasping mind to a witnessing mind as you learn to observe your thoughts as if from a distance. As your mind becomes still, shift your focus to the stillness. If your mind wanders, bring it back to focus with your breath. After you have stabilized the stillness, explore the still mind. How does it feel? This is called calm-abiding. It will eventually evolve into unity consciousness. This is where your deepest essence exists. Pure awareness will eventually result, although it might take some time to achieve.

9. In Conclusion Self-transformation may be accomplished by anyone who has the desire to achieve deeper levels of health, balance and self awareness. Simple practices on a daily basis will allow you to gain control over the mental meanderings that is the norm for most people in Western civilization. Exploring and taming your inner mind can open your heart and mind to health, happiness and help create balance and control over your life. It is definitely worth the effort. ~