by Debra Arko Novotny | Nov 18, 2015 | Acupuncture, Health
You Become What You Believe – Even Is Illness
I’m a big believer that we are what we think about most of the time. This includes our health. I’ve seen patients so focused on their disease it consumes them and never seems to improve. They’re locked in the negative thoughts about their situation. Is your health related to your thoughts? Sometimes it takes a little faith in yourself to open the door to better health. Let me explain.
Have you ever heard someone say, “My doctor says people my age all have arthritis or pain?” Too often patients come in with the belief that age or ‘that it’s normal’ to have pain, hot flashes, insomnia, etc.
While it’s common in today’s world, it’s not normal. Today I want to invite you to change your beliefs. Your health is related your thoughts. Your beliefs affect how quickly you heal or how much relief you receive from any treatment.
Do You Have Faith In Yourself
It’s simple; I had a patient come in who didn’t believe acupuncture would help their problem. After a few treatments, their pain was 30% improved despite their belief that they had pain because everyone their age did. Now they had ‘faith’. A belief that pain didn’t affect everyone in their generation. They continued to improve to 75%.
If our mindset helps or hinders our healing why can’t we have 100% relief or health? Our bodies do age. The patient above was in their 60’s. He began to exercise, walk and changed his diet little by little all things that increased his general health. He believed now he could improve himself.
Belief is a funny thing. It only works in the present. It creates our current moment. Past events are shaped by our memories and then form a belief now. These usually are absolutes such as “all people my age have arthritis.” Or perhaps, “Women my age all lose interest in sex.” Maybe, “My mom had hot flashes and was over-weight that’s why I’m this way..”
Finally, “All the people in my family have high cholesterol so I knew I would too.” I know you have others that play inside your mind. These are beliefs that stop you from having a healthier life.
We are a team. What you think matters. What you do between visits increases your health and make it seem like you are aging backward! Is your health related to your thoughts? I feel it is.
Is Your Health Related To Your Thoughts?
This is true for my fertility patients too! Recently a couple against all odds became parents. Their tests with the fertility center didn’t look hopeful. They believed if they did acupuncture, a healthier diet, along with the IVF they’d become parents. Proactive health says you’re in control of your wellness and taking action to achieve your goals.
Where are you proactive in your wellness? Learn more about how natural medicine and acupuncture along with changing how you think about your health can help you live a more enjoyable life. For more mindful living visit my Debra Arko Novotny website
**Debra is a certified natural health practitioner, health and life coach, . She has degrees or certifications in homeopathy, acupuncture, Emotional acupuncture EMT, Chinese Medicine, and more. **
Schedule your appointment with Dr. Deb today!
720-515-4602
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by Debra Arko Novotny | Apr 1, 2015 | Health
Creating a Healthy Mindset
To live totally in the present is a moment-by-moment thing. Because there is no such thing as time living in the past is similar to being in a dream or fog. There simply is the moment or now. Each cell in our bodies’ continually renews this is health. Every thought moves forward if we allow it.
Our thoughts move into a new dimension. The question we have to ask ourselves is, ‘does thought exist in the past?’
My answer, “only when it’s a cancer of sorts.’ When a cell in our bodies’ stagnates and doesn’t renew this becomes cancer. Why is living in our past story much different?
It took me a full year to change a mindset I held, looking back personally I do feel that my brain was feeding a situation in my life. Once I formed a new mindset I was able to move forward having success in that area of my life within days. Today I can change unhappy moments within hours because of the new brain I possess – a healthy thinking brain.
Health coaching clients often tell me they experience the same thing using the tools from my health coaching. So what is Cancer of the mind?
Cancer Of the Mind – The Importance of Living Totally In the Present
Experiencing pain in our lives is inevitable. Often though we choose to suffer along with this experience. We continue the story in our lives and in our mind. It literally imprints on our human cells. This is the scientific fact [1] our brains can remember events that are emotionally easier than a daily activity that is rote.
Do you remember what you wore the second Tuesday of last month or last Tuesday for that matter? Unless something eventful happened, you might not. If you met a new love interest, I bet you do. When I pose this question to acupuncture clients they always remember when they met their significant other.
According to Robert Sanders, at UC Berkeley News Center [http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/06/14/new-neurons-help-to-remember-fear/] Berkeley neuroscientists recent research studies show that fear burns memories into our brain.
These memories often are unpleasant and tend to become life-stories of hard times. We wear a badge of honor into the ‘me too’ club of pain and suffering. 
We all have these times you don’t have to join this metaphoric club. Health coaching focuses on helping you escape this group and move into a happier life.
Living totally in the present reduces physical pain too and end suffering. This allows us to focus on what we want in our life. This cancer of the mind affects our body too by sending pain signals setting up patterns that are hard to break without tools like acupuncture.
Living Totally In The Present – Leaving The Past Where It Belongs
They also believe other highly emotional experiences lead to incredibly strong memories too. This can be the birth of your child or the day your spouse proposes.
This is one reason we love rituals around important events in our lives. It helps us to remember vividly a feeling of happiness that counter-balances the times we felt fear.
Nature knows most women fear the birth process so it sends chemicals soaring through our bodies as our newborn enters the world changing our mindset.
Science knows that neurons form based on our thoughts. If we continue to think in a negative pattern, our brainpower will give us resolutions that always have a negative effect on our thinking.
Robert Sapolsky’s lab at Stanford University is conducting studies on Gage’s theory that new neurons are especially sensitive to input two weeks after they form.
Their data shows that new neurons forming in the brain can develop ‘active’ connections, leading to happy thoughts, peace of mind, and the ability to bounce back from emotions of fear or stress.
While they are doing this chemically [through the use of drugs], other natural methods abound! Brain Gym is proof of mental retraining.
Laying New Pathways For Living Totally In The Present
Neuropathways connect inside our brain in patterns. These neurons store information or stimuli. If tall, dark men remind you of your loving father, you’ll feel a sense of peace. On the other hand, if your father was abusive, you’ll have a sense of fear even though you may not be conscious of this effect.
Muscle tense and irritability may increase all because of an unconscious response.
This held true with a distant family member for me. They always found ways to make me feel unwanted and small. Changing my own feelings about this person helped me recover.
When we are faced with a negative emotion, to reprogram the brain – literally, we must lay down new pathways so we can live totally in the present. Acupuncture can help stimulate the process while you use gratitude and forgiveness at home.
It sounds silly, but I and many clients have proven this theory many times. In my case, I started seeing the degrading behavior as a way to grow and be better. It taught me kindness, love, and finding joy in the faces of my small children at the time.
I also had to move past the anger and forgive this person. The surprise came when I forgave myself. I’ve found that we all feel we allowed these things to happen to us or we deserved the treatment in some way. I call these esteem-breakers. Also, we aren’t ourselves during these times and lash out at innocent people who don’t deserve our anger.
Using Affirmations And Meditation Really
If you’ve followed my articles long, you know I believe in using daily meditation and affirmations. In my own life, the initial change began right away but took months to feel it. Reprogramming your thinking is taught at Harvard, Stanford, and many other prestigious universities known for their research in medicine.
Health coaching methods help us use these tools to move you out of living in the past and totally in the present. It starts the first time you do it though you might not notice a change in yourself yet. Remember from a scientific point of view, you’re laying down new pathways.
It doesn’t matter if you do this once daily or multiple times. It’s consistency that matters. Set the same time daily aside. I do this first thing in the morning. You can start with one, two, five minutes. Today I enjoy being in a state of bliss and peace for 30 minutes each morning. You do not need to do this. It is part of my career it may not be your calling so don’t worry about how long you spend, just do it daily
Set a mantra for yourself. Are you working on being happy and feeling joy? Then use that as your affirmation. ‘I am happy and full of joy.” With health coaching we may work with other affirmations around weight loss, or insomnia, even careers.
I felt so silly saying this in my own mind at first. Silently I added ‘thank goodness no one can hear me.’ Don’t worry only you and whatever you believe in can hear you. Often we don’t feel we deserve to feel joy and be happy. This is where forgiving ourselves comes into the mantra.
Let Yourself Off The Hook
For any of this to work, you have to do it. Once I began forgiving myself and others, things moved fast. Clients share it’s like lightning going off in their lives. They aren’t angry, they laugh more, and love more fully.
When we start living in the now, we begin to see a future creating a mental equivalent of what we desire to create in our lives. Seeing a better future is only possible when we have a mindset that supports us.
Shawn Achor is an expert in positive psychology with a dozen distinguished teaching awards at Harvard University, where he delivered lectures in Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar’s class “Positive Psychology,” the most popular class at Harvard, confirms that growing new neuro-pathways in our brains is possible by using repetition.
The principle is simple. Right now, you repeat your story daily to someone or in your mind. Just change your story by using this tool. Do the meditation; repeat your mantra with breathing once daily then say it to yourself as often as you can. If you do this, every time your negative story pops in your mind you’ll replace it with new neuron connections in your body, especially your brain.
While it doesn’t change the past, it allows living totally in the present to be your way of life. Enjoying the things that now are free to come your way will appear when you’re open to receiving.
All photos Dreamstime Copyright.
Science articles into cell reprogramming is not new you can read more about it here, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3150836/.
[1] http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/uploads/HeartMath%20article.pdf
