We usually do not think of our brain or emotional health, until the day we realise that we have difficulties in concentration, remembering names, phone numbers/ address, or we have sleep disorders, increased tiredness, chronic fatigue, depression, mood changes, anger, irritable, restlessness with our self and others.
Why has this taken us so long to come to this realisation?
Is it because we are so busy involved with our physiological (body) illness, that whenever we experience pain or discomfort in our body then we seek for medical assistance or is it because we do not realise that our emotions have a high impact on our physical body.
Emotions are expressed as chemical reactions and energies of our body. The biochemical environment created in our body and maintained for a long period will define our mental and physical wellbeing, together with our genetic inheritance, circumstances of our surroundings, experiential knowledge skills and experience gained throughout life, and how these are used.
A healthy body offers the basis for a healthy, happy, stable emotional health. Our diverse chemical substances that carry information between neurons are called Rasas (neurotransmitters) that allow for cells of our nervous system to communicate from our spinal cord to organs of our body to our digestive system, respiratory system, endocrine system, excretory system, cardio vascular system, etc. They act as a bio-feedback system.
How Integrative Medicine helps us understand emotional health
Prajnaparadha – This is according to the Science of Ayurveda, the ultimate cause of disease is ignorance, the ultimate cure of disease is knowledge and wisdom
Ayurveda Medical Science has for the last 5000 years stressed on the mind / body relationship. It is in the last 30 years that Conventional Western Medicine started to realise the importance of the mind body relationship.
Ayurveda is 5000 year old Science of Life, Health, and Longevity, this unique concept (psycho-physiological) of body, mind, and consciousness, is that there is no separation between body and mind. Psycho-physiological principles are the concepts of health and disease.
Our mind is organically related to our physical body.
The relationship between our body and mind functions as an integrated WHOLE together with nature’s laws.
The relationship between body and mind is experienced by each one of us when our physical imbalances disturb our mental state and vice versa.
The body-mind composite is in harmony, but mind and body displace different functional qualities. The thought process is observed as and when we direct our attention to what ever object is preferred. The thought process can take us to where ever we want the mind to go. The mind jumps from one thought to another.
An analogy is of a monkey jumping from one branch to another.
Our mind can function apart from the body consciousness. The physical body is primarily an organ of perception and expression through the senses and motor organs. We could say that the body is a gross form of the mind; it serves as a vehicle for the mind to perceive, act, and express itself. On the other hand, the mind is influenced by the impressions of the world we receive through our senses and motor organs. So our body and mind constantly work together. Yet what gives us the sense of who we are is not our physical body. It is what we think and feel.
All disease has a mental, emotional, and physical component, even though we tend to focus primarily on the physical symptoms. The emotional pain manifests on the physical level.
The thoughts and emotions are generated in our mind and our imbalance or dis- ease is manifested in our body.
We all know that our emotions and thoughts can affect how our body functions. This connection however works both ways. Not only do our emotions affect our physical health, but also inappropriate nutritional balance, lifestyle status, toxicity levels, seasonal changes and the environment can all have mental manifestations which thus affect our emotions, behaviour and moods.
How do you know if our brain chemicals and energies of the body need balancing?
Do these symptoms or experience sound familiar?
Short or long term memory loss:
Forgetfulness, forgetting names of people you are familiar with or walking to the next room and forgetting the purpose of what you wanted, difficulty in concentrating, inability to think clearly, slow thought processing speed, poor verbal memory.
Getting anxious :
Anxiety builds in, getting angry with yourself and others, aggression , mood swings, rage, restlessness, sleeplessness.
Depression
Finding it difficult to solve problems, difficult to cope with the daily stress, difficulty in setting goals, planning, racing thoughts, over intellectualization, guilt, feelings of worthlessness, manic depression, phobias, insomnia, and excessive sleep
Illnesses or imbalances :
High blood pressure, hypotension, digestive problems, constipation, chronic pain, headaches, arthritis, difficult in movement, stroke, paralysis, cancer, hormonal imbalance, anaemia, respiratory problems, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiac dysfunction, urinary frequency, addictions, ADD AND ADHA, bipolar, schizophrenia and all mental diseases etc.
The above symptoms and experience involve the interaction of our brain chemicals and energies in the body which is known as rasas/ neurotransmitter function.
What action is required to balance our Rasas (Neurotransmitters?)
According to the Science of Ayurveda the emotions that affect our mind through the rasas (neurotransmitters) relate to the five basic elements; the three Dosas and their Combinations, the seven Dhatus and the three Gunas, the five senses, the five motor organs, the mind, nutrition and Prana (breath) and the environment.
Balancing the above would bring harmony to the mental and physical health since body and mind are an organic unity.
Ayurveda the Science of Life, Health and Longevity works taking a multi displinary approach the best of all medicine, thus is an Integrative approach. This specialty of medicine is technologically advanced in its systematic and scientific researched and documented approach.