I‘m sure you’re aware that there are many things that can damage your brain: for example, illness, accidents, injuries, toxins, infections, and medications.  On the other hand you could well be asking “What is good for your brain?”

But did you know that toxic relationships, stress, dissatisfaction with your job, loneliness, fear or a high level of anxiety, and depression are all factors that can damage your brain as well as your body? Your mind influences your mental health as well as your physical health.

The mind and the body are not separate. They work together to help you survive. In other words, a healthy mind equals a healthy body.

Does this topic seem a bit scary?

It shouldn’t be.  Reading this article will help you to learn more how to improve your overall health, both physical and mental.  But before you can accomplish this, you have to start paying attention to your brain. Why? Because everything starts and ends with it.

The first thing to remember is this:

Don’t think “sick” if you don’t want to get sick!

How many people pay attention to the connection between their illness and their unsatisfying or abusive relationships, chronic stress, or fear?

How often has your physician expressed an interest in your present relationships, your social life, your stress level, your fears, or your anxiety?  Not much, or perhaps not at all?  I understand.

The mind-body connection works, but many medical professionals ignore the knowledge and teachings to be gained from an alternative, non-traditional, holistic, Eastern approach to medical problems.

Even worse is the fact that some of them don’t believe in the placebo effect or spontaneous remission, which is defined as “a temporary or permanent decrease of manifestations of a disease.”

( http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/remission ).

A pill won’t save your marriage or reduce your stress, but understanding what’s going on in your life can save your relationship, reduce your stress, or even heal your illness.

Problems at home (relationships, spouse, job, kids, financial situation) are actually chronic stress, which negatively influences the immune, metabolic, and cardiovascular systems. Ultimately, it will attack the brain, causing changes to the brain structure.

These changes, which result in impaired function, causing problems with memory, decision making, concentration, orientation, and reasoning, are also associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

It’s important to remember, however, that you are the one in control of your health.

Consider the field of epigenetics. The term refers to “external modifications to DNA that turn genes “on” or “off”

( http://www.livescience.com/37703-epigenetics.html ).

Your genes are not fixed; rather, they are influenced by your environment, nutrition, exercise, social life, positive or negative thoughts, and your emotions.

When you accept a fact that changes your thoughts, emotions, and behavior, you are changing your internal chemistry, either for good or for bad. When these changes occur, you can clearly see the relationship between the mind and the body.

In terms of your health, your mind has only two options: to make you well or to make you sick.

Change your thoughts and your behavior’s for the better, and you’ll also change your biochemistry for the better.

Your thoughts could be your medicine, if you know how to properly address the cause of the illness.  Sometimes, however, even medicine can’t logically explain everything, such as phenomena like spontaneous remission or the placebo effect.

You need to keep your hopes high and believe that you can heal yourself… just by the ways in which you think and behave.

What you believe is manifested in your body. And what is manifested in your body affects your mind.

Make no mistake: The connection between your brain and your body is a strong one. Now it’s up to you to make it a good one.

If you would like to add some knowledge to this, check out this publication.

Please feel free to leave your comments.