Today’s Brain Booster is: Visualise to actualise your healing.
Have you ever imagined something so vividly that your body responded as if it were real?
You imagine your child falling off their bike, and your heart skips a beat.
You picture success, and your posture lifts.
You visualise biting into a lemon, and your lips pucker.
Nothing has happened, but your brain activates the same neural circuits that it does when you’re having the experience in real life. Brain scans show that your motor cortex, planning networks, and co-ordination pathways are all active when you visualise moving.
How is this relevant to healing?
Several studies on stroke patients found that when the person repeatedly visualised moving a paralysed limb, they improved their ability to function, reach, and use the affected limb. The same goes for people unable to move because of chronic pain.
When they visualised, they actualised healing.
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Today’s Health Headline is: Pain is your friend, not your foe.
There’s an extremely rare genetic condition called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP), in which a person is born completely unable to feel physical pain.
At first glance, it sounds like a super power. ‘Go on, punch me in the face! Bring on the school bully because there’s nothing they can do to hurt me!’
However, it’s actually a life-threatening disorder, because you can have a massive wound on your back and be bleeding to death, and not be aware of it. People with CIP have a genetic mutation that blocks their ability to send an electrical signal to their brain to alert it to harm or damage. This translates into a life of unnoticed severe injuries, silent infections — such as appendicitis — and unrecognised trauma of all kinds. The consequence is that very few people with CIP survive to adulthood. Modern medical monitoring is slowly improving this, but it’s a treacherous way to live.
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What’s Missing From Modern Medicine is prescribing visualisation instead of sedation.
The exception, of course, is having surgery. Obviously you need to be put to sleep for an invasive procedure. But a lot of painkillers — especially opioid medications — can make you feel sluggish or sleepy, and they’re highly addictive.
Medicines like codeine, oxycodone, morphine and tramadol affect the nervous system, slow down brain activity, and cause drowsiness. They’re great for severe acute physical pain, but inappropriate for chronic pain.
I’m also using the word ‘sedation’ as a metaphor for simply trying to eliminate pain without treating the underlying cause. By not exploring the psychological and emotional factors that perpetuate pain, we are sedating ourselves from experiencing a more fulfilling, meaningful, and truly joyful life.
This episode explores the specific details of effective visualisation to retrain your brain to release chronic pain.
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Today’s Whether Report answers the question: I’d like to know whether a bigger brain means a smarter brain?
The short answer is no.
Brain size relates more to body size. Whales and elephants have huge brains but they’re not the smartest animals. Albert Einstein had a smaller-than-average brain.
Intelligence depends on how WELL your brain cells connect, not on how big your brain is. By intelligence, I’m referring to the nine different intelligences proposed by philosopher Dr Howard Gardner:
- Word smart
- Number smart
- Picture smart
- Body smart
- Music smart
- People smart
- Self smart
- Nature smart
- Life smart
No matter how good we get at all the ‘smarts’, our brain won’t grow out of our skull!
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Click here to watch the episode on my YouTube channel, or listen to Healing with Dr Helena on your preferred podcast platform. I’ll publish a new episode every Monday, and you’ll receive an email notification that morning. Please subscribe to my podcast or YouTube channel so that you don’t miss an episode, and send your whether questions to: podcast@drhelenapopovic.com
If you’re happy for me to play your voice on my podcast, you can provide an audio file. Otherwise, you can type your question for me to read out.
I very much look forward to answering your questions, and exploring how we can all build a smarter brain, stronger body and deeply fulfilling life.
Please share this Health-e-Byte with anyone who has chronic pain.
