If you're not religious, or if you don't believe in the spiritual at all, you might consider psychosomatic illnesses as just that, of the mind. You may skip this post. But, if you can bear with me on this one and hear me out, you may be able to come up with a parallel perspective.
In his book The Complete Illustrated Book Of Yoga, author Swami Vishnu Devananda featured a study guide that included the gradual replacement of negative thought-habits with what would be a religious mindset. While he did not favor any religious system or style in particular, he prescribed the elimination of unhealthy predispositions like being quick to anger or resentment. Rather, he suggested the development and nurturing of pure thoughts, like kindness, compassion and charity. He implied that this is essential to the maintenance of good health.
Psychologists recognize as fact that the subconscious mind is the repository of all memories, good or bad. They recognize that undesirable memories, not necessarily traumatic ones, can haunt us even though they have been forgotten or are being suppressed from surfacing by the conscious mind. Old fears, resentments and guilt do damage. Old or new, negative thoughts are a burden to the subconscious.
The subconscious mind has control over the autonomic functions of the brain. Autonomic functions refer to the brain's job of giving orders to the involuntary muscles such as that of the heart and other internal organs. They work without us thinking about them. Autonomic brain functions also control the endocrine glands which, ideally, balances our internal chemistry.
A troubled subconscious can cause physical illness. It can have adverse effects on involuntary muscles as well as glandular secretions. Unlike conscious emotions of which effects can be felt, like the faster heart rate in fear, the unnoticeable effects of deep-seated emotions cannot and are thus harder to correct. Their cumulative effects can be killing us slowly.
Psychologists will interpret it differently but, to a Christian prayer-healer, the subconscious may be burdened not only by some traumatic experience in the past but also by what we call sin. It is not just the sins we commit through words and actions. It includes sins like old resentments, hate and so on. In our memory, no matter how vague, there are records of sinful thoughts, even thoughts caused by those who have done us wrong. It is a sin not to forgive.
From a Christian perspective, the subconscious mind is the closest or most direct contact of the pure Spirit that is in us all. What our conscious mind have forgotten or try to suppress, the subconscious keeps on record. The pure Spirit feels these and, being pure, is not in harmony with them. Although we are not consciously aware of what the Spirit is "saying", the subconscious mind is sensitive to it.
So the subconscious can be caught between a pure Spirit that disagrees and keeps "nagging" and a conscious mind that tries to suppress conscience. Sooner or later, the subconscious experiences disorientation, usually manifesting in the form of an unexplainable physiological disorder. This is one reason why it is said that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), death in the form of a pathogenic internal imbalance that slowly kills cells, tissues, organs, systems and the whole body.
Sins have to be forgiven. In the same manner that Christians confess, we may confide or pour out our inner woes to a friend or psychologist to feel release. In an attempt to find and purge our forgotten "sins", psychologists may use hypnosis. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. There are memories so painful or embarrassing that we tend to suppress them, so much so that they can't be dug up by clinical means alone.
And so the Christian need for Christ.
At the garden of Gethsemani, Christ supposedly descended from pure divinity through the psychic act of taking unto Himself all the inequities of Mankind. Transcending time and space, He entered the subconscious minds of all. It was an act that is still happening now. He is inside each and everyone of us now, ready to cleanse us. There is only one obstacle, our reluctance to believe.
Out of divine courtesy, and in recognition of our free will, Christ will not automatically clean the subconscious. There's a catch. We first have to opt-in to His list. (Sounds like Internet marketing.) I mean the Heavenly List, the Book of Life. We first have to recognize that the Lord Jesus Christ can indeed do the job of being our savior. Then we have to ask Him, specifically, to cleanse our memories of all impurities. What we cannot confess to a psychologist or a friend, we can confess to Him. It's not that He doesn't know our sins already. It's the act of pouring out on our part that is essential. Then, with thanksgiving, we take it by faith that He does what He came to do - to cleanse and forgive.
That's basically it as far as my meager understanding is concerned. Of course, this is not some process we can keep coming back to while remaining undisciplined ourselves. We should try our very best to sin no more so that we can actually reduce the need to ask the Lord the same favor again and again.
Some assume that one need not believe in God or Christ for this kind of inner cleansing to work. There are schools of thought that treat this issue as purely psychological and/or energetic. Some may assume that the mind just needs an imaginary "savior", to accept that it is being cleansed so as to feel a release. Others recommend some form of meditation. Whatever, clean living, a compassionate and charitable disposition as well as the nurturing of pure thoughts can actually make us feel better.
Okay, we have discussed a little about physical, mental and spiritual systems that concern our health and well-being. We've gone through some of the "believe it or not" stuff, so to speak. I guess it's time we started talking about physical exercises and the ideas that you came here for in the first place.
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