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Today we're continuing my series on the power of the mind-body connection. I'm going to be reading from my book, The Christian's Guide to Holistic Health, specifically chapter 22, where I break down the anatomy of a thought. Our thoughts and our beliefs have the power to heal and the power to destroy. If you've been struggling with health challenges that no one seems to be able to figure out, it could be related to your beliefs and your thought life. Let's talk about it.
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Welcome to the Christian Healthy Lifestyle Podcast, where I help you navigate natural health so you can stay out of the doctor's office, age gracefully, and live abundantly. I'm your host, David Sandstrom.
Our brains are very similar to computer chips, able to receive, store, and process information. See the previous chapter. The brain, part of the body, is the hardware. Beliefs and thoughts, part of the mind, serve as software for our brains. Computer geeks sometimes use the term, guy-go, or garbage in, garbage out. The same is true for our brains. If we want our brains to serve our health building efforts, we must choose to
program them with positive, stress-reducing, health-promoting thoughts. The thoughts we hold in our minds create real changes to our physiology. This concept is difficult for many to grasp. Even though the process is exquisitely complex, the application is not. It's so plain as day and right in front of us that we tend to overlook this fascinating sequence of events. For instance, if we want to raise our hand,
The process starts with an idea in our minds. This idea must somehow be turned into a tangible reality. Our minds send impulses or directions to our brains. Our brains then send signals through the somatic or voluntary nervous system to release certain chemicals. These chemicals stimulate bioelectrical reactions in our bodies. The appropriate skeletal muscles receive this signaling and react by contracting. This lifts our hand in the air.
Countless similar processes take place continuously during our waking hours. While raising a hand takes place at a conscious level, most of the things the brain directs in our bodies happen at a subconscious level through the autonomic or involuntary nervous system. These include temperature regulation, digestion, cellular repair, hormone balance, detoxification, pH balance, etc. To a large extent,
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Our level of health and well-being is governed by these processes that operate seemingly on autopilot. We'll have more on this process in the next chapter. So how can we affect a positive change in our physical well-being? Believe it or not, our self-talk has the power to change our physiology. See the previous chapter. This effect can be positive or negative. It all starts with our thoughts and how those thoughts affect the brain. Brain Neuroplasticity.
It was not too long ago that scientists believed the brain and all of its 100-plus billion neurons to be fixed and hardwired at a very young age. Brain damage was thought to be permanent and irreversible. Anyone who suffered brain damage from something such as a stroke or a car accident was told to focus on compensation rather than restoration. In other words, they were taught to forget trying to get back what they lost, just figure out another way of doing things.
We now know this is not true. Neuroscience has proven that our brains have a remarkable ability to adapt and grow. Our brains can be reprogrammed. At any age, each morning we wake up with new baby nerve cells. This birth of new nerve cells is called neurogenesis. These baby nerve cells are just waiting to be acted on by our thoughts so they can grow and make stronger, more complex neural connections in the brain. This is referred to as
neuroplasticity, or the ability of the brain to react and adapt to our thoughts and make lasting physical changes to its structure. Interconnected brain cells act as channels or roadways for thoughts. The image of brain cells looks a lot like trees with interconnected branches. What we want is for the branches associated with positive thoughts to grow and connect with one another, making our positive thought trees denser
This happens when we ruminate or rehearse an idea over and over. Geek's corner. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF. Fertilizer or weed killer. There is a particular chemical aspect to this reprogramming process that is very helpful in our understanding. At certain times, brain cells are bathed in a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF.
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BDNF acts like fertilizer for new neural connections. When BDNF is present, the thought branches grow and the neural connections are strengthened, making this thought channel in the brain stronger and more efficient. The trouble is, our bodies don't produce raw BDNF. They create a more complex, longer chain protein called pro-BDNF. When pro-BDNF is present, it has the opposite effect.
It acts like weed killer to our neural connections, destroying them. So how do we make sure we have BDNF on the job and not pro-BDNF? We need an enzyme that cleaves or slices the protein molecule, pruning pro-BDNF to its simpler form, BDNF. Where does this enzyme come from? It comes from activity in the synapses of the neuron. This activity is stimulated with repetitive thoughts.
When we ruminate or meditate on certain thoughts, we convert Pro-BDNF, weed killer, into BDNF, fertilizer. In other words, repetitive thoughts ensure that our thought channels in the brain grow. This is how we learn new skills. This is why the Bible admonishes us to meditate on whatever things are true, Philippians 4.8. This process works just as well for negative self-sabotaging thoughts as it does for positive uplifting ones.
This is excellent news because if we've programmed or hardwired our brains to think negative thoughts, we can certainly delete that programming in the same way. To maximize our health potential, we need to stop dwelling on negative thoughts that trigger our stress response and spend more time ruminating on positive thoughts that trigger our relaxation response. We'll have more on the stress response in the next chapter. This way,
We let our brain chemistry work for us, destroying the neural connections associated with negative health inhibiting thoughts, while simultaneously allowing our brains to reinforce positive health enhancing ones. Lust in the heart. Now we can see the brilliance behind Jesus' teaching on adultery. Quote, you have heard that it was said you should not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her
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has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Matthew 5, 27-28. Jesus internalized unproductive or sinful behavior. This was radical teaching in his day. Since all sin begins with thoughts, James 1, verses 14 and 15, Jesus' advice is to avoid the idea in the first place. This verse is one of the most potent biblical teachings on the mind-body connection.
Jesus of course understands brain neuroplasticity. He knows that if we rehearse a thought over and over, it becomes physically hardwired or programmed into our brains and therefore more difficult to resist. Jesus is not trying to put limits on our joy. He's trying to spare us the heartache that comes along with broken relationships by putting the brakes on unproductive thinking. This puts us on the fast track to wholeness. Use it or lose it.
When I was a kid, my parents had me in piano lessons. My instructor was low energy and what I considered to be boring. Therefore, I dreaded my once a week lessons. Besides, when I was 10 years old, I'd rather be playing outside than sitting at the piano practicing. Despite all the negative energy surrounding the piano, I did learn to play several pieces of music from memory and I did enjoy the sound of music. After much pleading by me at age 11,
My parents finally relented and allowed me to quit taking piano lessons. I didn't look at a piano for the next 20 years. One day, I sat down and tried to play a piece. To my astonishment, I was unable to remember a thing. Everything I'd learned was gone. The point I'm making is this. When it comes to neural connections and gray matter in the brain, we either use it or lose it. Let me ask you a question.
During my 20-year hiatus, what if I had sat down once a month and played for five minutes? Would my playing proficiency have been any better? Of course the answer is yes. What if I didn't actually sit at a real instrument but I simply imagined playing the piano in my mind? What then? Neuroscience research would suggest that imaginary playing would have virtually the same effect on neural connections and memory as actual playing.
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This is what Jesus was talking about when he told us to avoid rehearsing lustful thoughts in our minds. Hanger flying. When I was in my early 20s, I was a flight instructor teaching people to become pilots. We would always have a pre-flight briefing and then go up in the actual airplane and practice what we went over on the ground. Sometimes students would have great days and sometimes not so great. Running a plane and an instructor is expensive. So if a student had a couple of not so great days in a row,
I'd recommend they do some hangar flying. I told them to come out to the airport, find a plane that wasn't being used, sit in the pilot seat, and imagine they were practicing their maneuvers. This type of hangar flying had the added benefit of taking much of the stress out of practice. The student didn't have to worry about navigation, how much fuel was in the tanks, or talking on the radio, et cetera. The results were astonishing. In nearly every instance,
the student's performance in the next actual lesson was dramatically improved. Their confidence would soar, and they ended up saving a lot of money on additional flying hours to gain their proficiency. Elite athletes. Most, if not all, high-performance athletes use visualization to improve their performances by refining muscle memory. I once watched an interview with an Olympic platform diver where she was asked why she used visualization before a meet.
She remarked that anyone that made it to the Olympics was capable of a gold medal performance. The person that would take home the gold executed that gold medal performance at the right time. She believed that visualization or virtual practice in her mind would give her an edge over the competition. My research and personal experience say she was right. I want to be like Mike. Michael Jordan used extensive visualization to improve his performance on the court.
I once heard him say in an interview that he would rehearse the entire game in his mind before playing in it. He went over every possible thing that could happen on the court, including him sinking the game-winning three-point shot at the buzzer. This way, nothing took him by surprise. He also said that his visualization dramatically boosted his confidence on the court. Bringing it home. In summary, what I'm saying is this.
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Our thoughts have the power to change our physiology, whether for good or for ill. If we want to maximize our health potential and experience the healing power of wholism, we must remember the thoughts we choose to ruminate on have substantial potential to help or hinder our health building efforts. Now, let's look at what happens in the body after a thought leaves the brain. Chapter 22, summary. The thoughts we have in our brains have the power to change our physiology.
The physical structure in our brains changes based on our thought lives. Brain neuroplasticity explains how we learn new skills and unlearn old ones. Jesus taught that thinking sinful thoughts was just as bad as committing the act because it has the same detrimental effect on us. Most, if not all, elite athletes use mental visualization to improve their athletic skills. Well, that's it for now. Make sure you stick around for the next episode.
It's going to be Chapter 23, Anatomy of a Thought, Part 2, where I continue this discussion. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you. Go out there and live abundantly. Be blessed.
