Thursday, May 3, 2012

The healing mind - the mind body connection

The mind has to establish an intent (thought-command) that initiates an electrical activity in the appropriate part of the brain (the motor area controlling that finger in this case), which is then transmitted by electrical nerve impulses through the neurons. These impulses are transmitted from one neuron to another along the appropriate chain through synapses (specialised junctions, or contact points between neurons or nerve cells). At the synapses, the signal transmission can be via direct electrical impulse or chemical neurotransmitters.
Finally, the signals reach the neuro-muscular junction where a whole series of chemical-electrical actions occur, which then causes the muscle to contract. This sequence occurs whenever we move any voluntary muscle.
A simple mental command (often done “without thinking”, when actually, it is a conscious, voluntary command) is all that is necessary to initiate the cascade of chemical-electrical actions that allow us to walk, run, speak, laugh, and do many things to enjoy this experience called Life.
Involuntary muscles move because of similar chemical-electrical actions, except that the process is initiated without conscious command. Various receptors, feed-back mechanisms, emotions, hormones and chemicals influence the workings of involuntary muscles and other automatic systems.
While synaptic signal transmission/communication between neurons has been well understood for a long time, what is poorly understood is ephaptic coupling – the indirect communication within the nervous system through extracellular electric fields, which is known to occur in both the nerve fibres, as well as in the neurons of the brain.
Of course, there are many actions that are automatic, which do not depend on conscious command, otherwise we will all die when we sleep, because we cannot continue to send commands for breathing and for the heart to continue beating in that state.
There are also automatic responses (eg reflex actions) that are meant to be protective, which circumvent conscious decisions and commands. In fact, there are thousands of activities going on inside our body that are not directly under our conscious control.
However, all these autonomous activities are still connected and directed by the (subconscious) mind in some way. The autonomic nervous system, while not always subject to conscious control, is still part of, and dependent on, the commands from the brain. Many yogis and qigong masters have trained their mind to be able to take charge of certain autonomic functions (eg regulation of body temperature).The mind is often on automatic mode. How often have your thoughts wandered when you were supposed to be concentrating on something else? How creative (and often outrageous) are our minds to have scripted and directed the sometimes believable, and sometimes ludicrous, dreams that we all have experienced.

source :thestar.com.my/health/DrAmir Farid Isahak

No comments:

Post a Comment