The Mind Matters

“It’s all in your head!” If anything were to put a patient on the defensive…it would be this statement! The truth of the matter is that nearly every health problem has an emotional component to it. Have you ever had some low level back pain and then get a stressful phone call, and realize your pain is a lot more intense at the end of the call than the beginning? Or have you noticed what happens to blood pressure when you are under more stress? Let’s face it: emotions play a major role in our health. In our office we really look at four dimensions of health; structural, chemical (nutritional), electrical (acupuncture) and emotional. Sometimes in talking with a patient, I even tack “emotional” on to the end as though it’s an afterthought. In many cases though, it’s the biggest contributor of all of these. So how do we help this? First let me say that we still need to take care of the other components, but if we neglect this one…our results will be mediocre. Emotional release technique, life coaching, and visualization are just a few of the tools available to our patients when this is a significant contributor. To give you an example, the Institute of HeartMath in Colorado uses specific heart-focused techniques involving guided visualizations to help people lower blood pressure. A pre and post check nearly always shows a 10-20 point drop in blood pressure. I have seen this first hand with my own patients. A core treatment is then to have the patient go through a daily exercise regimen of visualization/meditation and/ or journaling…to bring about that remarkable change. Of course after you learn it and are able to do it yourself, it has to be a daily exercise, just like taking a medication is a daily thing. Eventually the way you think will be impacted so much that you will feel remarkably better. If this is of interest to you…give us a call at 417-336-2620. Even if you live a distance away…some of these techniques can be done verbally over the phone.