Your Health -Above and Below

In self-healing terms the first step toward self-management is to recognise the physical body is not simply a combination of physical chemical pathways, observable and treatable scientifically.

What we call our mind; the emotional, mental, and spiritual (or higher) nature is energetically related to our physical conception. In other words, self-healing powers embrace the BodyMind -the entire spectrum of life giving and taking influence, and our health (body and mind) is dependent upon the interrelationship of energies that comprise this union.

You cannot divorce the relationship between body and mind and expect lasting good health outcomes.

Health treatments -be they for the recovery of mental and emotional disorders, or body repair, holistically benefit from the BodyMind approach, which will always take a causal view of a person’s health needs.

Key to management and maintenance of good health is the immune system ‘above and below’.

‘Below’ the body’s immune system is a wonder to behold. It defends us from attacking bacteria, viruses, and parasites. A vast network of cells and tissues constantly on the lookout for pathogenic invaders, and when an enemy is spotted, a complex attack is mounted. It consists of many types of cells, organs, proteins, and tissues. Crucially, it can distinguish your tissue from foreign tissue, and can dispose of dead and faulty cells and clear them away out of the body.

Made up of special organs, cells and types of chemicals that fight infection, the constituent parts in our bodies are white blood cells, antibodies, the complement system (proteins whose actions complement work done by antibodies), the lymphatic system, the spleen, the thymus, and the bone marrow.  In common parlance the lymphatic system consists of tubes producing cells that clean and dispose of bacteria -a dustbin cleaner. The spleen is a blood filtering organ that removes and destroys old or damaged red blood cells. The thymus filters your blood and produces a type of white blood cell called T-lymphocytes. Bone marrow, a spongy tissue inside your bones, produces red blood cells of a type that carries oxygen, white blood cells we use to fight infection, and the platelets we need to help the blood clot.

An underactive BodyMind immune system does not function correctly and makes people vulnerable to infections. It can be life threatening in severe cases. If the immune system is overactive we can suffer from allergies, foods, medications, stinging insects, hay fever, asthma, hives, dermatitis, and eczema. If it compromises and attacks itself, autoimmune diseases arise, including multiple sclerosis, hypothyroidism, type 1 diabetes, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels).

The BodyMind’s mental and emotional immunity has a physical relationship with the limbic system located between the brain stem and the two cerebral hemispheres that govern emotions and memory, within the hypothalamus plays a key role activating the sympathetic nervous system, which is a part of any emotional reaction. The cerebrum, the large, outer part of the brain, controls reading, thinking, learning, speech, emotions, and planned muscle movements like walking.

If we are not emotionally and mentally balanced, i.e., harmonically expressive of our BodyMind character, the immune system will labour to achieve its purpose, identifiable illness, and disease -physically and psychosomatically can take root. 

How we manage our mental and emotional nature is critically important -and it must account for the instrumental nature of our consciousness. We are not islands, or containers -at best we are houses with controllable front and back doors, and viewable windows we are able to curtain, when we are not openly inquiring. The house ceases to be home when all the doors are locked, and the windows barred. The BodyMind becomes a prison.

In purely physical terms there are 11 organ systems in the human body, the integumentary system, skeletal system, muscular system, lymphatic system, respiratory system, digestive system, nervous system, endocrine system, cardiovascular system, urinary system, and reproductive systems (male & female). All have self-healing, self-managing capability peculiar to their own design -yet they all are dependent upon the BodyMind immune network of ‘fighters and defenders’ to work efficiently. And as described the emotional and mental counterpart is a key player which has the potential to drive change and ensure compliant health of the BodyMind.

So, there you have it -put the immune system right, ‘above and below’ and you are your own Master.

Next week I’ll talk about the How’s and Why’s. Microcosms and Macrocosms?? All will be revealed.

The poem I’ve written for this week is a reminder that every moment of our lives is recorded -just as the bay rocks hold the music of the sea.

Jewels of Memory

Bay rocks hold sung music
of the timeless sea.
Smooth faced archipelago’s
thrust the shore seeking waves
into cuts of ebony dark basalt pillars
to thunder down
and suck back the shifting sand.
Giving ebb and flow
chasing grains that move
the face of geography.
Baring pebbled bones
psychometric jewels of memory.
to us, the fossilised visage
of the years before….