There is stress and trauma that come along with Mold Illness, Co-conditions, and Co-infections. Most people that go through these complex kinds of medical situations will end up with some sort of trauma, PTSD, or other deep emotional difficulties that will need to be worked through before they can recover fully.
Working on my brain as well as my body was one of the key points I can look back on during my recovery journey and see a real shift in my healing momentum. (I am still recovering and working on both my mind and my body.)
The Brain/Body Connection or the Mind/Body Connection is a real thing.
If you stop to think about the concept for more than 30 seconds, there is almost assuredly no doubt that you'll come to acknowledge its validity.
30 Seconds starts now:
Essentially there are physiological links between the mind and the body.
Our brain and our body are connected via neural pathways.
These pathways are composed of neurotransmitters, hormones, and chemicals.
....Stay with me...
All of those things send and receive signals in between the brain and the body- all day every day.
The signals that are sent and received help the brain control our bodily functions: for example, eating, breathing, digesting, sensing the world around us, sensing pain, moving, etc.
The signals sent and received also help then brain to think and feel.
If you can understand that the mind is physiologically connected to the body, and that what the body senses and experiences is sent to the sent to the brain via signaling- then you could also understand that what the brain thinks and feels can be sent into the body via signaling and will affect the body's operation.
The most simple example of this is a very commonly used visually imagining exercise:
Close your eyes and imagine that you are sitting a table with a lemon, cutting board and a knife in front of you.
Reach out and grab the lemon.
Touch it's surface and feel the texture of the lemon.
Look at the color of the lemon, notice it's bright yellow glow.
Grab the knife and hold the lemon on the cutting board.
Chop it in half.
Now take a half and raise it to your nose. Inhale it's sweet smell.
Bring the lemon half to your mouth and bite deeply into the fleshly chunk.
Do you taste the sourness? Can you taste the bitterness?
Open your eyes and take note.
Did your body react to the thought of biting the lemon?
Are you salivating? Can you still "taste" the lemon?
This is your Mind/Body Connection in action. Your brain thought something and your body physically responded.
...Ok, it's been more than 30 seconds and I am sure you are on board already.
The Body and Mind are connected. It has been established in tons of medical literature repetitively and a lot of studies show plainly that what we think affects how our body acts.
How does this concept help with Mold Illness and co.?
1) If we work on the state of our Mind, we can help strengthen our body's stress responses to triggers.
2) If we work on the state of our mind, we can help our body return to the Parasympathetic or "calm state" and out of fight-or-flight, thus aiding our ability to recover.
Negative thoughts and feelings create stress in the body, and can actually make physical pains, illnesses, or other health problems.
Before someone reads this and jumps the gun....I am absolute NOT SAYING that Mold Illness is all in your head.
I am saying that having a negative mindset or negative feelings in your brain often will lead to your brain sending signals to your body that you aren't safe or okay; your body will respond by staying in the Sympathetic state. (This is usually referred to Fight or Flight.)
The Fight or Flight Response actually has two more components that are less spoken about: Fawn or Freeze.
Fight- Fighting/Aggression toward conflict
Flight- Running Away from conflict
Fawn- People Pleasing Attitudes and Actions to avoid conflict
Freeze- Inability to Respond/Physically Frozen & tends to "Shrink" until conflict is over
A thought for reflection- Which one(s) are you?
Moving on,
If we are able to harness positive thoughts and feelings and re-teach or re-wire our brain to think in those types of patterns, then we can actually help our bodies cope with stress better, deal with pain better, and have better odds of recovering from our ailments and illnesses.
Our brains make hormones and chemicals that can naturally lower pain, and help our immune system function better. Your brain produces those chemicals partly dependent on thoughts. Thinking hopefully and positively boosts your brain's production of those chemicals. Your thoughts can help you heal.
An additional article about your brain and your immune system by Dr. Joe Dispenza https://drjoedispenza.com/blogs/dr-joes-blog/your-brain-and-the-immune-system
The following resources are from their own Websites and are linked to for your convenience. I would recommend finding one that resonates with you and giving it a go.
Any way that you can help your Mind/Body Connection become stronger and more positive- you can help yourself heal.
Healing your body is only half of recovery,
Healing your mind is the other half.
Happy Healing, don't give up.
RESOURCES:
Somatic Experiencing
EFT/Tapping
The GUPTA Program
Annie Hopper's DNRS
Safe and Sound Protocol/ (Poly-Vagal work)
EMDR Therapy
Neurofeedback
You can search online for a provider that offers this near you.
Here is an article about Neurofeedback: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4892319/
Biofeedback
You can search online for a provider that offers this near you.
Here is an article about Biofeedback:
What is the difference between Biofeedback and Neurofeedback?
(During a biofeedback session, a practitioner uses monitoring equipment and instruments to measure your body’s functions. Based on feedback from the instruments, the practitioner suggests how you can create physiologic changes. With education and practice, you can learn to make those bodily changes without equipment.
Biofeedback does not involve training the brain in any form, where as Neurofeedback focuses primarily on electrical activity within the brain and can map activity based on regions that exhibit activity that is deviant from normed samples based on age and gender.)
^ Info from The Cleveland Clinic https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/13354-biofeedback
(Image credit to myself, created on Canva)
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