One of the most respected clinicians in the treatment of chronic pain is Dr. John Sarno of the NYU Rehabilitative Medicine department. His research shows that up to 95% of chronic pain lingers because it is ultimately generated by the mind and brain. This...
Self-Regulation
Train Your Brain, Transform Your Health
This blog is about the value of befriending and taming your limbic brain in the pursuit of health and happiness. Ever since Swami Rama, the noted yogi, was studied at the Menninger Institute in the 1960's it's been known that we can indeed influence unconscious bodily...
ADHD, Sleep Disturbances, & Acupuncture
It's often believed that the overactive mind that prevents an adult or child with ADHD from falling asleep is a symptom of that illness. My experience is that the overactive mind is a symptom of an imbalanced autonomic nervous system (ANS) that in fact contributes to...
Heart Intelligence, Inflammation, and Healing
Inflammation is epidemic and leads to pain and illness ... in fact most illness, both physical issues like arthritis and psycho-emotional diagnoses like anxiety or depression. Inflammation is a natural, temporary part of a healing process, but when it becomes chronic...
ADD, ADHD, or Just Scattered?
Whether we've been diagnosed with an attention disorder, or we're just feeling scattered, we (adults and children) can learn to be more in control of our minds and bodies. To improve brain function we need to be aware of what causes foggy thinking, a lack of focus,...
Rapid Steps for Stress
While much of the research concerning the benefits of self-regulation practices like meditation and mindfulness focuses on 20-30 minute periods of practice daily, quite a lot can be accomplished within very brief 30 second sessions. 30 seconds is all it takes Within...
Depression … It’s Not What You Think
We’ve been taught to believe that depression and anxiety are the result of chemical imbalances in the brain … that are best treated pharmaceutically … without any consideration for what was actually causing the imbalances in the first place. That’s the mainstream...
Your Body is a Source of Guiding Wisdom
In my experience most of us are unfamiliar with our body as a source of knowledge or wisdom. It may be because of an almost universal identification with the thinking mind. I don’t know if we blame this on Descartes who said “I think, therefore I am” or on stress...
From Drugs to Bugs
In my previous posts regarding the stress response I mentioned how damaging stress was to our health and well-being in general and to the digestive system more specifically. The takeaway was that we need to learn to turn off the stress response as best we can ......