HUMANS have survived a constant onslaught of environmental challenges over thousands of years. It does not matter what those challenges are, or might be – it would be impossible to predict them. We do wonder, though, how our species continues to survive, cope and even prosper.
The choice to survive is an innate instinct and depends on our ability to cope with the external and internal environment we live in. The external environment includes the air we breathe, our water, food, medicine, community, religion, wars, pandemics and relationships. The internal environment is what goes on in our body and mind when we react to those external stimuli.
The body and mind in partnership then takes in all that it experiences and converts it into a memory. The memory is especially strong when an emotion is paired with the experience.
Our emotions of love, joy, happiness, and a general sense of well-being is always coupled with clarity, confidence and calmness. However, hate, anger, sadness, and fear twins with confusion, delusion, victimhood, tunnel vision, irrational behaviour, and bad communication skills.
In a book written by cellular biologist and researcher Dr Bruce Lipton, entitled The Biology of Belief, he says the health of a cell is a consequence of the environment in which it lives.
In lab experiments, he discovered that the cells he places in toxic environments tend to mutate just to cope and survive. This can be likened as a state of disease. Since we are a collection of trillions of cells, each cell in our body is influenced by the environment it is in.
Therefore, it is important that we pay keen attention to the environment we live in and consequently, how we react to that environment. We have to approach health holistically in mind, body and spirit. Unfortunately, we have little to no control over some environmental factors, but we do have in possession a tool that is seldom used effectively – our brain.
It is said that we use only 10% of our brain, but I have difficulty believing it, especially when I wonder if it is the brain or the mind that does the thinking. To me, there is a vast difference between the brain (radio) and the mind (radio station).
The brain is a receiver of thoughts and it reacts according to what the mind puts into it. Of course, the mind is divided into the conscious and the subconscious. So, with that in mind (pun intended) – which radio station would you choose to tune in to?
The brain is just like any other part of our body, it needs to be exercised with new thoughts, information, skills and behaviours that support our state of well-being. Having gone through my share of challenges in having severe asthma, two heart attacks, depression and an assorted array of modern problems, I can say without a doubt that you can overcome your challenges.
The mind is the key, and in order to get disciplined, there is some work to be done. I have noticed some people who are careful with their health – they eat healthily, exercise and have all they need to live a privileged life – yet they suffer from debilitating diseases and die from the very diseases they are trying to avoid. Why?
When your motivations are based on fear, scarcity, anger, avoidance, and a lack of self-love, it is likely you have tuned into a permanent state of stress that you might not even notice.
You may be doing all the right things in your relationships, work, diet, exercise and learning, but you are anything but happy or at peace. This is because your underlying issues have not been addressed and resolved.
Meanwhile, your sleep gets compromised, you are unable to concentrate on work, you are impatient, the emotions run high, your word choices get you into trouble, your relationships suffer, and things begin to spiral in all areas of your life.
Let us see how we can tune our radio to a “station” that gives us a feeling of love, gratitude, compassion, forgiveness, and abundance. Let us make that choice now, in whatever way befits you. Your conscious mind will be aware of the choices you make. Your subconscious mind is listening with approval because it is for your own well-being.
To begin with, you must discard the past emotions and experiences that do not serve you. It is an exercise of forgiveness to everyone you have met throughout your life.
Alone and in a quiet place of contemplation, begin to truly and deeply forgive each and every one for whatever they have done to you knowingly or unknowingly – in their words, thoughts and actions.
At the same time you, too, must ask them for forgiveness. This process may take awhile, but the results are undeniable. You will feel your burdens lift. It is important to apply this process for everyone – dead or alive – even if you have just met them once.
After every session, you have to ask yourself for forgiveness – for putting yourself through this emotional roller coaster, for judging, criticising, being angry and anything that makes you feel disappointed with yourself.
This first process is imperative to lay the ground for healing. It is akin to what a farmer would do as he prepares the ground for new growth.
May you be kind to yourself as you prepare for this process of healing.
In my next article, we will discuss how we can dovetail from here to a place of calmness, clarity, love, gratitude, compassion, forgiveness and abundance.
Terence D’Cruz is a clinical hypnotherapy practitioner and practises at the Heart and Mind Center, SunwayGeo. He can be reached via WhatsApp at 019-233 1509.
