What is Mind-Body Medicine?

What is Mind-Body Medicine?

by | Jan 13, 2011

What is Mind-Body Medicine? Sometimes called integral or complementary medicine, it refers both to a general approach to human health/healing, and a medical sub-specialty.  The Mind-Body approach goes beyond the physically bound thinking and practice that we see in “mainstream medicine” where little attention is given to the mind, the emotions, and the spiritual being of the patients.

It used to be that physicians knew their patients and their patients’ families, and were aware of their personal and cultural beliefs. Before antibiotics and open-heart surgery, physicians had to rely on their remarkable ability to awaken and strengthen the healing response in the patient by positively influencing his or her thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. They used “placebos,” meditations, rituals, and prayers to guide the mind and body into harmony with the heart and soul — and they were remarkably effective. Unfortunately, the rise of technological medicine, though immensely valuable (it has saved the lives of those I love), it has brought about the disappearance of these powerful Mind-Tools.

Mind-Body Healing

Mind-Body Medicine recognizes the incredible potential that can be realized by joining the power of these two approaches and offers a perspective on human health that recognizes the power of emotional intelligence, critical thinking, physical conditioning (e.g., diet, exercise), and spiritual awareness. Unlike mainstream medicine, the Mind-Body approach is evidence-based. Study after study demonstrates that stress, relationship, and emotional state are by far the most reliable predictors of whether a person will heal rapidly – and whether they will get sick in the first place. Yet mainstream medicine is just coming into awareness of this and of how shortsighted it has been.

The Mind-Body healing approach places stress management, emotional state, self-image, and spiritual wholeness at the center of the examination – after all, most of the symptoms in the body have their roots in the mind and emotions.

    • The Mind-Body healing approach recognizes that there is a great power in belief and provides a way for the patient to access the power of their positive beliefs, and to change the beliefs that are impeding personal growth and peak performance.
    • It recognizes the power of epigenetic factors 
    • It utilizes the enormous potential of neuroplasticity and our potential for change that even extends to the level of growing new neurons in addition to modifying synapses in the brain –we can literally rewire the brain.

Mind-Body Medicine requires that all the skills and tools of ‘technological medicine’ be available for emergencies and other acute medical situations to which its tools are so well suited. It does not replace the positive tools of mainstream medicine, it includes them as another healing option.

The Overlooked Power of the Mind Over Body

Mainstream approaches ignore mind, heart, and spirit – even when the symptoms are clearly mental and emotional. Sadly, today’s doctor often merely prescribes a pill instead of getting to know the patient and his or her particular stressors. They are trapped in the current paradigm, “A pill for every ill.”

In a true healing relationship, the physician is empathetic to the ills of the patient and the patient is willing to open up and deal with the true source of their symptoms. As honest conversation takes place, the physician, therapist, or healer, through rational appraisal, personal experience, and intuitive guidance, becomes able to offer a healing prescription.

The healing prescription includes specific relaxation and guided imagery tools to be used together with dietary, exercise, rest, and spiritual recommendations (and medicine or surgery when needed). The goal is to restore balance and vitality to all parts of the person — mind, body, emotions, behavior, and relationships.

Mind-Body Interaction

Mind-Body Medicine focuses on the entire system, with special attention to the interactions between mind (psyche) and body (soma), as well as to the emotional and spiritual dimensions and how they all interact in both health and disease.

The mind is at the highest level of that hierarchy, and therefore it is the part of our anatomy that deserves to be in charge of making decisions that concern the entire organism. The goal of Mind-Body Medicine is to return the mind to a calm, balanced, well-functioning state so that it can make wise decisions that will lead to and maintain optimal health and performance. The use of deeply relaxed states and wisely guided imagery is the most effective way to empower the mind to heal the body.

The Use of Guided Imagery For Mind-Body Healing – Software for the Mind

Central to the Mind-Body healing approach is an awareness that certain negative kinds of mental images, thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and self-talk can create an inner imbalance in your physiology thereby producing serious diseases and chronic conditions. Conversely, there are clear positive patterns of thought that can generate the kinds of beliefs, emotions, and self-regard that create balance for your mind and body as well as vibrant good health.

In a similar manner, the condition of your physical body (its internal chemistry, fitness, and vitality, etc.) will have an enormous impact on the functioning of the mind. Healing of one facilitates the healing of the other. Mind heals body, body heals mind.

The Deeply Relaxed State, Key to Mind-Body Wellness

One of the most important aspects of Mind-Body Medicine involves the use of techniques that produce a deeply relaxed, receptive state of consciousness (biofeedback, hypnosis, or meditation). Dr. Miller refers to this as the “Healing State,” since it provides a medium through which the health care professional can interact with the patient/client to create positive mental “programs” (Software for the Mind). These programs are composed of wise guidance using mental imagery and visualization, affirmations, and patterns of thoughts that are scripts for the mind, body, emotions, and behaviors to follow. This engages and enhances the healing response.

Getting Started in Mind-Body Medicine and Self-Healing

  • Check out the many fascinating tools for deep healing and personal growth at our Online Store in the form of CDs, Audio Downloads, DVDs, books, and e-books.
  • In addition, you can schedule a personal appointment with Dr. Miller for individual guidance, coaching, therapy, or professional consultation.
  • Sign up for Dr. Miller’s Healing Times eNewsletter and receive 2 Free Gifts (Our Culture on the Couch; Seven Steps to Global Healing ebook AND Dr. Miller’s Relaxation and Inspiration Guided Imagery MP3 Program).

Suggested Guided Imagery Meditation Programs

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How to Heal Yourself

How to Heal Yourself

by | Sep 15, 2010

You can learn how to heal yourself!  In fact, you are the only one who can.

The right food, the right exercise, the right medications, the right relationships -all these can help support your healing process, but not unless you intentionally cause them to. Your conscious, intentional mind (which is separate from, though connected to, your subconscious mind and nervous system) is the key to your self-healing.
The process is simple, actually.

  1. First, you need to understand the process with your intellect, the part capable of critical thinking that realizes the value of evidence-based reasoning.
  2. The next step in healing any system is that the system becomes aware of its identity as a system. For you, this means freeing yourself from distraction and focusing on who you are, your true values, purpose, goals, and vision.
  3. Third, you learn how to read the signals and messages that come from within and how to balance your system — physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Fortunately, you can learn to do this in a remarkably short period of time using the powerful Mind Tools Dr. Miller has developed. These tools can help you to reach a very pleasant state of deep relaxation and meditation, bringing you into the present, emptying your mind of distractions and your body of toxins, and preparing the cells of your body to receive your self-healing instructions.
Another very valuable tool for self-healing is guided imagery. This process involves holding specific healing imagery in the mind while in the receptive “Healing State.” This results in relief of stress, and the activation of your unconscious healing and corrective processes are mobilized.  In a very real sense, you are “reprogramming” your mind and rewiring your brain. Your goal is to restore internal coherence and balance, and thus to help heal your body, emotions, mind, and behavior.
Each time you repeat these experiences, you are re-scripting your body, your emotional state, and how you will respond in future situations. You will discover this is a powerful way to mentally rehearse, through guided imagery, your desired behaviors of mind and body, much as athletes or actors mentally rehearse their performances.
These new behaviors may have to do with modifying how the internal organs of your body operate, how you talk to yourself, your personal habits, how you interact with others, etc.  Diet, exercise, rest, prayer, meditation, and other modalities of re-balancing the system may be needed, but all these require us to change our mental behavior in order to apply them. Thus, the mind-body axis is always primary in healing yourself. Change Your Mind – Change Your Life.

The Six Steps of Self Healing with Guided Imagery Audio

    1. Education — Obtain as much accurate information as possible about health and healing. Learn as much about your constitution and about your condition, the symptoms, etiology, and therapy, including the role of stress, diet, emotions, and exercise. Learn about the different options for treating your condition. To begin your education consider reading about Mind-Body Medicine.
    2. Relaxation — Deep Relaxation is essential for rapid healing because it is the direct antidote to stress. In addition, relaxation empties your mind of distractions, and thus allows you to self-program new, more desirable self-healing behaviors — both at the visible (macroscopic) level and in the microscopic behavior of the cells of your body. Deep relaxation is also the key to programming mind and body for peak performance in any endeavor — sports, profession, or personal life (yes, even sexual).
    3. Entering “The Healing State” — Here the mind is open to re-scripting and the body accepts new healthy images and emotions. Re-scripting is a powerful way to mentally rehearse desired behaviors of the mind and body, much as athletes or actors mentally rehearse their performances. These guided imagery & meditation CDs and MP3 downloads will teach you to do this through simple, logical, straightforward, and highly enjoyable guided imagery experiences. The experience and your ability to use the Healing State becomes progressively more powerful with a few minutes a day of pleasurable practice.
    4. Forming Powerful, Transformative, Healing Images—Intentional mental imagery through Selective Awareness — Software For The Mind — allows you to make a commitment to healing yourself by directly influencing the behavior of the cells of your body (e.g., the immune system), initiating and sustaining health-producing behaviors, (exercise, diet, non-abuse of alcohol or drugs, quit smoking), and produce a health-sustaining self-image. This inner image serves to change the behavior at every level of the mind-body system.
    5. Rehearsing These Images Daily — Reprogramming your mind is actually retraining the mind. Just as you might practice musical scales or typing in order to improve, the regular practice of the appropriate imagery trains the brain, the nervous system, and the immune system to easily carry out the desired changes. Your goal is to restore internal coherence and balance and thus to help heal the body, emotions, mind, and behavior.
    6. Reinforcing Positive Changes — Reward your mind for responding to your entreaties so that the new behaviors prevail. Take yourself out for dinner, to a ball game, or a movie, for instance. Or take time off to be with loved ones.

 

Dr. Miller's Online Store of Guided Imagery, Meditation & Self-Hypnosis CDs & MP3 Downloads Sidebar ImageDr. Miller’s Guided Imagery Meditation CDs, MP3, Books, & DVDs for Learning How to Heal Yourself

Visit Our Online Store and find the guidance you need to speed up your self-healing process. You can search for Dr. Miller’s recommendation by finding your symptom(s) on the Symptom Search page, browse the categories of self-healing, or just browse the many healing tools offered at DrMiller.com — then enjoy exploring the rest of our website. If you are new to our site try reading the How To Use DrMiller.com page.  There’s a lifetime of high-quality information here about healing, wellness, meditation, Software for the Mind, Stress Management, and more, enjoy!

 
 

Imagery for Kids – A Conversation with Dr. Charlotte Reznick [Free Podcast]

Imagery for Kids – A Conversation with Dr. Charlotte Reznick [Free Podcast]

by | Jun 3, 2010

Dr. Charlotte Reznick who has dedicated her life to helping children, adolescents, parents, and professionals. She is a nationally recognized child and educational Psychologist and Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at UCLA. Upon earning her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Southern California, she was honored with “Dissertation of the Year” for her work on the effects of parental divorce on adolescents.

“The challenges of growing up in today’s rapidly changing society are enormous.  Children need to be equipped with skills for survival and growth that were never before imagined. I focus on teaching children and adolescents self-healing and self-control techniques that will empower them to realize their potential throughout their lifetime.”

— Charlotte Reznick, Ph.D.

For over 20 years, Dr. Reznick has pioneered therapeutic interventions with a wide spectrum of children. Responding with unerring intuition to children’s diverse needs, Dr. Reznick is best known for creating Imagery For Kids: Breakthrough for Learning, Creativity, and Empowerment. This highly insightful program of guided and interactive imagery – enhanced by music, relaxation techniques, drawing, and journal writing – can help all children achieve their highest learning potential, develop self-esteem, heal internal conflicts, and reduce overall stress.

Her audio programs, “Discovering Your Special Place” and “Creating a Magical Garden and Healing Pond,” soothing guided journeys to inner peace, have been listened to and loved by young children, adolescents, and adults alike. These CDs lay the relaxation groundwork for Dr. Reznick’s Imagery For Kids program.

Especially talented and uniquely qualified to share her work with others, Dr. Reznick has presented Imagery For Kids to thousands of professionals, psychologists, educators, and parents at local, national, and international levels.

Featured on national television, published in professional and general journals and newspapers, Dr. Reznick is sought after as a consultant, counselor, and healer.

She currently maintains a private practice in Los Angeles, California, as a Licensed Educational Psychologist (LEP 1475).

If you enjoyed this conversation…

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About Healing Times Radio: Conversations with Extraordinary People

Welcome to Healing Times Radio. Since being a part of the launching of the holistic approach to healing and the field of Holistic Medicine 40 years ago it has been Dr. Miller’s passion to seek out other thought leaders – the movers and shapers who could see the disaster looming for our world and were setting about crafting the tools that would help transform the world. Those few who, like Dr. Miller, were in the medical and psychological field could see the enormous waste in our health care system, the crisis it was leading to. The tools they developed – guided imagery, mindfulness, meditation, wellness, nutritional medicine, and physical exercise physiology – are now transforming mainstream medicine.

Those in other fields (organizational development, sociobiology, ecology, climatology, leadership) were developing their respective instruments and tools (e.g., The World Cafe, Gather The Women, Peak Moment TV, People’s Pharmacy) His relationships with this extraordinary cadre have developed through the decades, as they supported one another in the evolution of their collective intelligence and collective wisdom.

Dr. Emmett Miller ImageOn Conversations With Extraordinary People, you will experience Dr. Miller in Heart-to-Heart conversations with his remarkable guests as they explore the challenges to health and sustainability we face personally, collectively, globally. You will be treated to an enlightening intellectual experience and receive powerful, practical tools to:

      • Reclaim your inherent personal wisdom
      • Use the power of your mind to heal your body
      • Harness the energy of stress and apply it to your true goals in life
      • Nurture and heal your relationships and your planet

 

Listen Anytime

Browse and listen to shows anytime at Conversations With Extraordinary People or listen to Dr. Miller’s introductory show.

Check out upcoming topics and guests on our Event Menu page. Shows are aired on Thursdays 12pm – 1pm.

About the Host

Emmett Miller MD is a physician, author, poet, musician, and master storyteller whose multicultural heritage has given him a unique social, medical, and spiritual perspective. A pioneer in Mind-Body Medicine, he fused the tools of meditation, hypnosis, prayer, and autosuggestion to form Guided Imagery – a powerful tool for self-healing and peak performance. Turning his attention to the larger sphere, he now applies those principles to the glaring community and cultural imbalances and the planetary illness they are causing. His examination, diagnosis, and prescription are explored in his latest book, Our Culture on the Couch: Seven Steps to Global Healing, Dr. Miller’s mission is to help us heal ourselves so that we can in turn, heal our planet.

Dr. Miller is also available for interviews, workshops, trainings, seminars, and lectures. Please visit our Book Dr. Miller page. You can also get information about scheduling a personal appointment. See the blue menubar at the top of this page for more options

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What is Self Healing?

What is Self Healing?

by | Apr 29, 2010

-Healing means becoming more whole, more able to accomplish what you wish to accomplish, and more able to enjoy your life. This wholeness may involve the healing of a physical wound, an emotional disturbance, a maladaptive behavior (rage, addiction, shyness), or conflictual relationships.

Healing is an active, living process. You can learn how to heal yourself. Medicines, supplements, surgery, exercise – they help but are only support for the self-healing process. Antibiotics can weaken a bacterium, but only your immune system can actually kill and get rid of it. Studies show the single most important thing you can do is to learn to create mental and physical relaxation and balance. These, along with guided imagery, meditation, self-hypnosis, and prayer are very potent mind tools for getting you well and keeping you well.

Patient, Heal Thyself

Self-healing refers to the things you can do to cause your internal system to function better and heal you faster and more thoroughly. Self-healing involves behaving wisely, tuning into the true needs of your body, mind, spirit, and soul and making wise choices – to eat the right way, exercise the right way, and get the right amount of sleep. Learn deep relaxation for ten or twenty minutes each day, three times a day if you want even better results.  During this time focus on peace, harmony, beauty, love, and other similar experiences. Meditation, prayer, and other deep relaxation techniques will help you eliminate distractions.  During this time, allow yourself to feel completely accepting of yourself, exactly as you are and accepting the world just as it is at this moment – after all, it cannot at this moment be any different from how it is at this moment!

Fill your mind with the things you feel grateful that you have to feel and experience in your life. Give thanks and feel the gratitude in your body. Visualize your body healing itself and becoming more whole and functional. Then picture yourself as completely well, happy and healthy.  That’s the key to the secrets of self-healing!  Just remember to do it several times a day.

Self Healing Stress

Stress is a very important part of most of our illnesses. Some it causes, others it makes worse. Physical tension and mental/emotional stress produce disordered (incoherent) neural impulses in the nerves and circulate stress chemicals in the body that cause, for example:

    • Inflammation, (tendonitis, arthritis, GI problems)
    • Muscle pain and dysfunction, (backache and headache, muscle tension, elevated blood pressure, colonic disorders)
    • Emotional imbalance (anxiety, irritability, anger, depression, unhappiness)
    • Mental dysfunction, (low creativity, insomnia, procrastination, attention deficit)
    • Behavioral disorders, (drinking, smoking, eating)
    • Chronic stress over a long period actually shrinks the brain, killing neurons by the millions

Deeply relaxed states re-balance the system. Most imbalances and disorders, (illnesses, dysfunctions, symptoms, or diseases)  are either caused or made worse, by physical tension and mental/emotional stress.  Deep Relaxation is the direct antidote to stress and is thus widely used in self-healing techniques.

So, to help speed up your healing, be certain to wisely guide the mind, its thoughts, and emotions, to function in a way that is congruent with the healing process you want to facilitate. In other words, be the change you want to create.

 

Suggested Self Healing Guided Imagery, Meditation Programs

Perhaps the easiest way to heal yourself with your mind is through the use of guided imagery audio recordings. Dr. Miller has many different CDs, DVDs, and Audio Downloads that are designed to help speed up your healing process.

All the following programs will help you learn deep relaxation skills, and how to use guided imagery to create an inner state that is most supportive of the healing process.

What is Deep Healing?

What is Deep Healing?

by | Apr 29, 2010

Healing, as we have discussed is the process of moving mind, body, emotion, and behavior in the direction of becoming more whole and finding a healthy balance (homeostasis). As a system becomes more whole, its component parts function better, and they function in a more coordinated, effective way in relationship to each other. Deep Healing refers to the process of creating this balance on all levels of the internal system and, in addition, finding balance in relationship to the outside world (mate, family, community, planet).

Superficial Healing

Dr. Miller presents amazing new skills in mental imagery, the transformation of disease-oriented perceptions, and the writing of positive life scripts.


Healing is easy to see when a cut on a finger mends. In this case, healing addresses the unbalanced state in the body, in which energy (blood) was being lost and the interior of the body was excessively exposed to potential damage (infection). A few sutures and a bandage, and the healing process proceeds on its own.
But what if the bleeding is from an ulcer in the stomach? Sure, a surgeon may operate and suture it closed and the body will repair the wound as it did the finger – but that may not be enough. Often, a further form, like deep healing is needed. This is because a stomach ulcer may actually be the end result of a series of changes beginning with the person living a life of too much stress. Or it could be that the person has been using alcohol to excess, or living a life that is unhealthy in other ways.
In such cases, local treatment by surgically repairing the ulcer treats the symptom but does not treat the deeper cause. This leads to a state of incomplete healing, and because the true source of the symptoms is not being adequately dealt with, they are likely to recur. The fact is that the overwhelming majority of all our illnesses are of this type – and to make a complete return to health and wellness we need deep healing.
To continue with the example of the ulcer: to heal more deeply we must ask questions of the person with the ulcer, and help her/him discover a more effective way of relating with her/his body and the world. The best way to achieve this is through the use of Mind Tools such as cognitive behavior change strategies, guided imagery, deep relaxation, and self-hypnosis to create changes in attitudes, habits, and beliefs.

Deep Healing Source

Lotus Flower
So, whether we are dealing with, for example, high blood pressure, headaches, spastic bowel, diabetes, obesity, back pain, or stress management problems, etc., the most effective and most rapid way to complete healing is through looking at the system as a whole. We must address the relationship between mind, body, emotion, spirit, and environment.
We must pay attention to the fact that our thoughts and images control our nervous system, the factory that produces the chemicals that control our perceptions, feelings, and behaviors. Our thoughts and images thus determine whether we are healthy or not. This deep healing process involves accessing the wisdom of the conscious mind — the highest level of our physical and spiritual system and the only level that is able to balance and organize all the other levels when it is in harmony.
Now we are free to go on to high-level wellness and peak performance. Because the process of deep healing has opened the inner doors to our vast inner reservoir of wisdom, we can now understand at a deeper level the importance of paying attention to the functioning of the system long before we develop symptoms. How foolish it would be to not check the oil in the car until our engine seized up in the middle of the freeway.

“The poor physician treats the symptoms.
The good physician treats the disease.
The excellent physician treats the patient.”

Examples of Deep Healing

So, what is Deep Healing?  For an individual, healing means developing higher levels of health, wellness, and performance of mind, body, emotions, and behaviors, as well as developing balance and happiness spiritually and in relationships. Here are some examples of healing at each of the levels:

      • Physical: Healing at the physical level is exemplified by the wound that stops bleeding and closes over or the infection that goes away through the action of the immune system.
      • Emotional: At the emotional healing level; healing and wholeness can mean overcoming a tragic loss and finding hope and courage again – or it might mean learning to relax through anxiety or anger.
      • Mental: At the mental healing level, it could be choosing to avoid distraction and to focus clearly on that which is most important – or to think more creatively and logically and make better choices.
      • Relationship: At the relationship level, it could be going beyond conflict, communicating honestly and treating others with respect, unconditional positive regard, and love.
      • Spirit: At the spiritual healing level; healing might mean realizing that we have not been living up to our own ideals, awakening to our true values and purpose, and reorganizing our lives to better reflect them.

 

Deep Healing Our Planet

Just as we can be out of balance at the individual level, our families, communities, nation, and world can be out of balance and in need of deep healing. To be truly deep, healing must also examine and balance the environment – the people, the natural world, and the man-made structures – and how we are relating to it. Our Culture On The Couch, Dr. Miller’s most recent book, explores healing at a global as well as at an individual and family/community level, and Healing Our Planet provides a set of experiences to help you participate in the healing process.
 

 

Suggested Deep Healing (CD & MP3) Programs

Deep Healing: Your Personal Wellness Suite CDs

Deep Healing: Your Personal Wellness Suite


Deep Healing means addressing all these levels and bringing all of them into balance (homeostasis). Dr. Miller’s classic text, Deep Healing – The Essence of Mind-Body Medicine, explores this topic in detail.
You can learn more by reading about self-healing, checking out our free resources, visiting our Online Store or exploring some of these deep healing programs:

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