Two very powerful Ted Talks
Thoughts, Words and our Choices do more than affect our moods, they literally can change our lives for better or worse. This post is about the psychology and physiology of the mind, body and spirit.
Happy New Year everyone!
If you have a sword but don’t know how to use it, if you don’t respect it, the same sword that could be used to defend you can also hurt you ~ HSMC, IWTT
Over the years, I’ve watched a lot of Ted Talks. These two are amazing!
They both highlight the power of the mind over the body. They talk about the power of words and the power of our choices.
The Words we use, the Choices we make can manifest anything in life but it’s a double edged sword! The same words, thoughts, choices in our heads that can create something wonderful can also take us to deep depths of despair. It comes down to our choice.
I remember studying Anthony Robbins courses back in the 90s. I remember him saying that people think change takes a long time but in reality, the mind can change in a millisecond and this is a good thing! If you are standing on the road and a car is speeding toward you, you’d best be able to change your mind about standing there very quickly!
People fear change for lots of reasons. For instance they like familiarity. People like their routines. Fear of the unknown. People fear what others will say or think if they did so and so. Then they also fear that if they made a decision, then changed that decision, others might think they are crazy. The fear of what others might think controls the individual. Most want to please others. Most want to fit in. Most worry about being socially or politically correct which is fine but not at the cost of being your authentic self. Not at the cost of following your heart. If you care more about what others might think, then you will be trapped as being a people pleaser. Another way of putting it, “if you care about what others think, you will be their prisoner.”
I’m not a very fast learner so I’ve watched this first one like 3 times now!
Choices that can Change your Life
Caroline Myss TEDx Findhorn Salon
ALL of our choices, large or small can have extraordinary impacts on our lives. She points out that we think of big decisions as buying a house or a car or getting married but even smaller decisions that we make in our own heads, some that we don’t even discuss with ourselves, have huge impacts, like the way we talk to ourselves, the words we use on ourselves as well as others.
We’ve all heard about the power of positive thinking but how many times have we stopped to think about the way we treat ourselves? The way we talk to ourselves? Maybe we give ourselves negative feed back without even realizing it.
Point #2 we can chose whether to live in woe or wisdom. At 12 minutes, she talks about passing on our wisdom not our grief.
She says we can live in woe or we can live in wisdom but it’s our choice. She says that we can’t change things that happened to us in the past but we can chose to make our future.
Personally, I’ve said this before, I don’t think grief ever goes away. It will always be part of us, like scars that don’t heal but this doesn’t mean we have to live in grief and it also doesn’t mean we will ever forget.
We have to chose wisdom or woe. It’s our choice.
3, Take risks. Don’t always take the “safe path” 17:32 Don’t look backwards for guidance. The reason you are where you are, is because that part of your life is over. When it’s time to make a decision about what to do next, do not go back to who you were or what you did. Be in the newness.
The life-changing power of words
Kristin Rivas at TEDxRainier
This next one is unbelievable! It accentuates the power of words and the power of thought over our bodies. (spoiler alert) This woman was PHYSICALLY PARALYZED after hearing a few words as they pertained to a traumatic experience in her life.
She went to all kinds of doctors. Nobody could find out what was wrong with her. Her illness left her wheelchair bound and wearing a helmet so she wouldn’t hurt her head in case of seizure!
Watch and see how a few magic words brought her back! The cure was as amazing as what put her there in the first place!
This talk also echoes the one above in that they both learn that we can’t change the past but we can learn to live again in spite of great traumas.
the Power of the Mind
Two years ago if somebody told me about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) I would have said, “Get over it”. Today I can sincerely and unfortunately conclude that PTSD is very real. It WILL fuck you up, mentally and physically if not dealt with! I know now how important it is that we really have to be fit. That means mentally and physically. Plato wrote “Without a well conditioned body, the mind would certainly suffer” He knew this back in his time, 428/427 BCE to 348/347 BCE. It’s like a fucking spiral you know? The worse the mind is, the worse the body gets and visa versa. They play on each other and the spiral can either spiral up or spiral down and it’s our choice.
Most know how to strengthen the body though exercise. That seems fairly straight forward. Strengthening the mind is another thing. It seems intangible, like telling someone to “pray harder” or “vote harder”. Strengthening the mind is like above, making better choices with the way we talk to others and most importantly, our selves. If we keep telling ourselves bad things, the mind and the body spiral downward. Conversely, the mind can’t tell what’s good or bad, so feed it good information. Be kind to yourself. Give yourself credit. Do a little exercise, no matter how little. Don’t overdo it because you won’t want to go back and do it again. Arnold used to say “Starve the mind”. He’d give himself an hour in the gym for instance. If he didn’t finish what he set out to do in that hour, he’d just leave which tricked the brain into wanting more, to finish, next time, what he set out to do. Exercise helps the mind body connection, stimulating not only muscles, tendons, ligaments, increase bone density, burns off some calories as well as helping the mind to focus.
I’m no brain surgeon and as far as I know, not much is really known about the brain. We know the brain sends signals to the muscles to make us move voluntarily and involuntarily. Movements like the heart, lungs and processes work without us willing them to work but we don’t know things like where thoughts and dreams come from.
There have been numerous studies and experiments about increasing athletic performance just by thought. Some examples that come to mind are that of the
Detroit Pistons basketball team. They were in last place in the league. Their coach talked to the players asking them if they could each do 1 or 2% better. The guys were like “1 or 2%? I can do way better than that!” Coach got them to shoot hoops, practice their offence and defence but they were also told to visualize what they were doing before doing it. Well some of the players increased their baskets by way more than 1 or 2 % and when you multiply these small gains by a team of 15 (including both 1st and 2nd stringers) you get 30% team increase overall. The team went from dead last place to winning NBA championships in 1989, 1990 and 2004!
Bodybuilders and powerlifters were split into groups. Some would do only weight training, others would do nothing but visual training. They would imaging their muscles and strength growing and the third group would do both. I forget what the exact results were but the results were astounding. If you guys can find this study, maybe you can mention it in the comments. The point is to show the power of the mind over the body.
People have actually undergone major surgeries without anesthetic, but rather the suggestion of the mind (aka hypnosis). So ya, the mind has great power but it’s underestimated. We think of strength (at least men mostly) think of strength as how much we can lift but mental strength is equally important.
The brain is better than any computer ever built. The brain takes things in consciously and unconsciously. As we drive down the street, we see signs, we hear things on the radio, maybe things from outside. Although we think we forget, everything is taken in and stored in the subconscious mind, the good the bad and the ugly. Everything gets stored for future reference. Good things are stored but bad things are also stored. Things we thought we forgot about. Things we thought we had dealt with, yet they are still there.
Though unknown how, the mind references experiences and stores them either in the Reactive side of the mind or the Analytical side. Trauma is first stored in the Reactive side and for good reason. I imagine this started back in the cavemen days when they first discover fire. They probably tried to touch it and got burned. Now that experience tells them Don’t put your hand in the fire! They feared fire because the trauma stayed in the reactive mind.
The more we understand something the less reactive we are to it. Today most have good understanding of fire and learn to enjoy it but we also know when to fear it.
Similarly, traumatic events can be stored in the reactive mind, sometimes without us even realizing it. When we go though major trauma, we may feel we’re over it but like the fire, triggers can recall the event causing the trauma to return. When the trauma returns, the physical pain can return as well.
An example I remember;
A woman is out jogging on a nice day. She had earphones in her ears playing her favourite songs. Along the way, a sprinkler was watering the grass. A dog was barking. The smell of lilacs was in the air when suddenly, tires screeched and BOOM! She’s down on the road in front of a car with a broken leg!
A year later, she’s been though much therapy for her leg. Doctors say she made a full recovery and she’s back out jogging again. Fully healed (physically).
Then one day, she’s doing some housework. The sprinkler was running on her lawn, a dog was barking and her favourite song was playing on the radio. She doubles over in excruciating pain in her leg! As bad as a day she was hit by the car!
The pain doesn’t go away. She goes back to the Dr. They take xrays. Physically, she’s fine but she can’t even walk! She thought it was something she did while doing house work.
After this reoccurring pain doesn’t go away she is finally referred to a psychotherapist specializing in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and the pain was cleared from the body. One or two of the triggers alone was not enough to manifest the pain like this, but add two three, four or more and the reactive mind takes over. Of course this depends on the individual.
I’m no psychologist but I do know that there are various methods of this. I had a first hand experience with this method, although I can’t recall what it was called. The subject was asked to review the traumatic experience as vividly as possible from start to finish. Then when they were finished, they were asked to do it again, start to finish. The second time, they subject would recall things they didn’t the first time. This process would be repeated over and over and over again. Details, scraps leftover of the incident would be recalled that the subject totally forgot about. They didn’t forget. It was stored in the reactive mind. The process of going over and over the same incident shifts the trauma from the reactive mind to the analytical mind. The subject still knows what happened but it’s no longer a threat. The physical and emotional trauma is no longer affecting their every day life.
There are, as I understand, several methods of achieving this same result but the goals and the results are the same. Sometimes this can be done in a day. I had this method applied to myself years ago for one small incident that I thought was nothing. It was done more less as an experiment. In my case we started in the morning, had one break at lunch and went though till late in the day like 1700h. I went thought many emotions from being mad, saying “thats all I know!” to balling my eyes out but when guided to go over it again, there was always more. By the time we were finished, I walked out of there feeling lighter then air. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shouldered that I had been carrying for many years and not even knowing it was there! I felt stronger and more focused.
Imagine if this process was applied to several incidents or ultimately ALL traumas? The mind gets cluttered. It deserves as much attention as the body.
I hope this helps someone out there who might be struggling with their own traumas or perhaps at least points them in a direction of support.
Though we need to know the Truth of what's going on in the world, keep in mind even the prize fighter doesn't fight every day.
Peace be with you all.
