The moment that changed your brain and body.

Psych research has found a link between stressful life events and chronic medical conditions.

When we experience sudden stress, like shocking news, loss, a feeling of being isolated or violated, crisis, or a big life transition, something curious happens inside of our brains - something that science has been able to measure…

For just a moment (20-seconds to be exact), our brain waves will dip from the fast high-beta frequency of extreme fear or isolation, down into a much slower theta frequency.

During this 20-second theta state, we’re no longer processing life events through our conscious mind. We’ve entered what’s commonly referred to as “going into shock,” (usually made visible by the gazed look in our eyes).

Inside of this 20-second blip, an unconscious belief is formed.

From this moment forward, without us even realizing it, our brain (the reticular activating system) will filter out everything that contradicts this belief while zooming-in on everything that reinforces the belief.

This causes a cascade of chemical reactions in the brain and body.

As found in psycho-neuro immunology research, because this unconscious belief is formed in a state of great fear or isolation, its existence creates a constant low-grade stress inside the body, straining the immune system, and in many cases disrupting organ and tissue function.

I experienced this when I was in the Peace Corps and suddenly developed adult-onset asthma. The doctor attributed it to “inflammation” and wrote me a prescription. But he failed to factor in that I’d recently experienced a frightening encounter with a man who crossed my boundaries on the street.

What he and the Peace Corps provided psychotherapist didn’t know was that in the middle of this shocking event, my brain waves dipped into a brief theta state, at which time I formed an unconscious belief that I was a target, and not safe to be alone in my community.

The pharmaceutical interventions the doctor provided didn’t provide any relief. The tightness in my chest, feeling unable to inhale, and the daily wheezing persisted until I began working with a body-centered psychotherapist.

In our sessions, I was guided to get really present with the sensations in my chest. As I did, something unexpected happened…

All of the fears that I’d buried in the back of my mind began to move to the surface. I shed tears. The tissue in and around my lungs began to loosen as I was able to process the emotions and my body’s response to the past events.

We continued working together, training my brain to orient to safety everyday, so I could transition away from the neural pathways that were holding my unconscious belief intact.

I stayed diligent, each day, noticing how my brain was constantly scanning my surroundings for signs that I was not safe. I learned to interrupt this pattern and instead use my senses to notice signs of safety in my environment.

I learned body-based techniques to help my body feel a sense of safety too, effectively building new neural pathways and lowering my stress hormones.

After sticking with this work for a while, my symptoms dissipated. No more chest tightness. No more pain. No more wheezing. It’s been nearly a decade now, and I’m still symptom free - from a medical condition that was so severe that I had to pack up after 14 months of Peace Corps service in South Africa and return to the U.S. to deal with it.

Have you ever been told something like that? That there’s no cure for your pain or illness or disorder?

If so, then I hope you know that doesn’t have to be the end of the conversation. Your journey might have something else in store for you.

That’s what David Patient, a longterm AIDS survivor and my former mentor chose to believe when doctors told him that he’d be dead in 6 months. He figured maybe there were other choices available to him. Choices that the doctors weren’t trained to offer.

Choices beyond just preparing for the worst.

He outlived his fatal prognosis for 34 years because he learned about the relationship between his mind and his body.

He unearthed and healed the unconscious beliefs compromising his immune function, and that not only extended his life, but allowed him to live a fully vibrant and meaningful one (I’ve included a letter from David at the end of this email if you want to hear it in his own words).

The moment that changed your brain and body

If you’re reading this as someone who’s struggling from a chronic medical condition - be it a mental or physical problem - here are some questions that might help you pinpoint the moment that changed your brain and body:

1. In the 2 years prior to the onset of your symptoms, did you experience any sudden loss, unexpected life change, an experience of isolation, or a big transition?

2. How did this experience change the way you felt about yourself and your place in the world?

3. Did this change result in a heightened sense of fear or pressure upon you?

Applied mind-body science interventions incorporate questions like these into the process of helping people improve their physical conditions by addressing psychologic roots.

You can learn more about that approach by clicking here.

The following is a letter from David Patient, world renowned social development pioneer, and former consultant to NIH and United Nations.

“AIDS entered my world on the 10th March 1983: The first person I knew with this disease – Michael Shortell – died on that day while the medical staff at the hospital frantically operated on him. In order to get him the experimental treatment from the NIH for what they believed to be PCP pneumonia, a confirmed biopsy was required. My friend died in the operating theatre. Little did I know that at moment of his death, my life would change forever.

Up until that moment, I was all of 21 years old, a fluffy disco bunny and having the time of my life. Nobody knew we were in was the twilight of the sexual revolution and we were living on borrowed time.

Based upon Michael’s symptoms in the months leading up to his hospitalization, I went to a doctor to test my blood. I had been experiencing similar symptoms: Night sweats, diarrhoea, weight loss, thrush, leg pains, and swollen lymph nodes.

The immune system results – received on my 22nd birthday, 1983 – confirmed that something was seriously wrong with my body: Helper T-cell count of 362. I was told that I had 6 months to live, and told to go home. I was also told not to return to the doctor’s office.

The next day the local newspaper published my home address with the headline “Plague arrives in Las Vegas!” And so it began .

Today, 13th March, marks my 25th anniversary of my diagnosis with HIV/AIDS. It also happens to be my 47th birthday.”

“If 25 years seems like a hell of a long time, believe me it is. I for one never thought I would still be here, one of the last original patients still standing.

In the early days, HIV took many different paths and none of them had signposts to guide me. My journey has taken me to the highest levels of joy and the depths of sadness.

I have experienced – first hand – stigma and discrimination, ignorance and irrational fear, hatred, religious persecution, governmental deception and blatant lies. I have witnessed the likes Dick Cheaney (USA) – then Secretary of the US Air Force – deliberately try and destroy the lives of HIV positive members of the Air Force, and then go on to become the Vice President of the USA. I waited for Regan and his administration to address the HIV issue but his silence was deafening. Sound familiar?

I’ve watched Mbeki, our esteemed President, set HIV/AIDS back by 20 years with his stubborn, arrogant and irrational behavior. So many politicians with so much blood on their hands.

I was even threatened with deportation by the INS in the States. I’ve lost jobs, been kicked out of homes and been denied medical care by doctors, despite their Hippocratic oath.

I had my own family reject me. I’ve had bomb threats, along with threats of other acts of violence, toward myself and those I love, including my pets.

I’ve had my name splashed across newspaper headlines, on the evening news and in numerous forms of graffiti in public areas.

I have even been labeled a potential threat to national security, as recently as 4 years ago by the US Government, while applying for a visa to re-enter a country for a conference – a country I called home for 18 years, and where I paid taxes, belonged to numerous research projects at various Universities as well as the NIH and the CDC in order to help them understand this disease better.

All of this happened because I am a person living with HIV. I also remember the millions of people who have died because of apathy, indifference and the biggest killer of all, bureaucratic red tape. So yes, I have seen humanity at it’s very worst.

Yet on the flip side, I have witnessed the very best that humanity has to offer. I have seen people rally to support those of us living with HIV, from the most unlikely of places and backgrounds.

I have seen the infected caring and supporting one another, as they confronted their own mortality. I have seen complete strangers caring for each other in ways I never dreamt possible.

I have seen communities form alliances that probably would never have happened were it not for HIV. I have seen apathy and desperation turn into anger and action as these victims shed that label and become empowered to take on the system and all its injustices.

I have seen sales clerks and hair dressers become self-educated immunology experts, lecturing at international medical conferences, leading the way to finding better treatments.

I have seen people struggle with their HIV status, and watched their liberation as they – some privately and some publicly – disclosed their infection, freeing themselves and clearing the path for others to do the same.

I have seen people, including myself, cross cultural, religious, political and ethnic boundaries to support each other despite our superficial differences.

I have witnessed people stretching themselves way beyond their perceived limitations, and in that process discovering amazing aspects of themselves that they never knew existed.

This all happened simply because they took the risk of caring for their fellow man. And most of all, I have learned and am still learning, many of the lessons HIV is here to teach us.

For me, HIV is a symptom, not a cause. HIV is not the enemy. It only enters when a door has been opened for it: Ignorance, fear, poverty, inequity, social injustice, isolation and greed are the guilty culprits, not the virus.

Man’s inhumanity to man is the demon we need to slay, not each other.

I wonder if we will ever learn the lessons HIV is here to teach us?

I for one hope that we learn these lesson fast because at the end of the day, hope is all we really have to hold onto right now –

a hope for change, a hope for a cure, a hope for treatment for all.

Hope is like a giant sheet that blows in the wind and all we can ever really do is hold onto one or maybe two corners of this flapping sheet. We must never let go of the small corner we hold onto so desperately because if we do, we and our dreams are lost. Also, all those people who have died, with their song still in them, unsung, will have died for nothing.

I started out life full of innocence and joy, with only instincts as my guide. As I grew up and life started with it’s lessons, fear entered. So I faced my fears head on and slayed those dragons, one by one.

With this, came courage – the courage to dare to be who God intended me to be, to live my truth, be on purpose and embracing the God within me. I am grateful for the lessons HIV has taught me because without it, I would not be the person I am today.

So what have I learned on my journey?

I’ve learned that dreams are essential because it is dreams that make the impossible possible.

I have also learned that without faith in myself, others and in God, the lessons of HIV are wasted.

The most important lesson is about LOVE, for without it, we are nothing. To know and love another is the only way we learn about who we are.

As I look forwards to my future – despite HIV – I am excited at all the possibilities, opportunities and lessons the next 25 years will bring.

If HIV were a race between myself and fear, with life as the prize, I can honestly say that I have won.

And here, by the grace of God, go I.

David Patient”

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To learn more about applied mind-body science interventions for improving chronic conditions, visit my website.