Carnival of Healing #92: Mind-Body Healing

Welcome to the June 30th edition of the Carnival of Healing. For this week’s edition, I asked participants for submissions relating to mind-body wellness -- ways in which our thinking and beliefs affect our health and wellbeing, and ways in which we can use this to our benefit. I received many wonderful entries on ways in which we can nurture our bodies in order to nurture our minds.

At Brain Blogger, a post by Sudip Ghosh cites current medical research indicating that “exercise strengthens the brain’s interconnections, and rejuvenates the mind,” which gives us insight into one of the many ways in which scientists are beginning to observe tangible evidence of the mind-body connection.

Over at Be Conscious Now, Kara-Leah Masina describes how she overcame chronic pain by learning to connect with her body and understanding how her emotional states corresponded with her physical pain. She encourages readers to get in touch with their bodies through various healing modalities such as acupuncture, reiki, bowen therapy, and massage, and to “Explore different ways to connect your mind to your body - yoga, meditation, martial arts.”

And in this vein, Lynda Lippin of Pilates & Reiki in Paradise has found several articles showing that Pilates is an effective treatment for back pain.

Pamm at Spiritual Secret Dance describes the sensual mind-body healing modalities of Watsu and Water Dance, in which the practitioner cradles the recipient in his or her arms in a warm pool. “You totally surrender your body to the practitioner, who pushes and stretches the body into healing positions that articulate the joints, open the heart.”

In her blog entry, Lydia at Covert Effect recounts her recent experience at a Korean day spa. She points out that when we take time to de-stress and pamper our bodies, our minds will definitely benefit: "My mental state needed this spring cleaning: a new world of bathing rituals that really removed the stress from my shoulders."

Several more entries focused on how addressing emotional issues, or training our minds, can benefit our bodies. For example, Anmol Mehta at Mastery of Meditation, Enlightenment and Kundalini Yoga discusses the physical, mental and emotional benefits of practicing yoga.

Vishal Roa offers several tips for attaining better sleep, including the use of meditation to help keep one’s stress levels down and to “achieve a blissful state of mind” at bedtime. Rested mind, rested body.

Tupelo Kenyon, a composer, and host of Personal Development Inspiration of Uplifting Music, talks about his formative experiences with meditation, includes a few simple meditation techniques, then talks about his collaboration with a multi-faceted healer on a guided meditation CD.

And Linda Martin of Geniyyah Energy Healing proposes a five-step process for emotional clearing.

In addition to the mind-body entries, I received several others that focused on either mind or body. For example, Aparna over at Beauty and Grooming has posted a very informative article about the health benefits of the versatile Drumstick tree, or Moringa Oleifera. She offers ways to use every part of the plant – in infusions, teas and more.

The health implications of various forms of corn syrup are discussed by JoLynn Braley at Fit Shack.

And Mark30 at Hotstrategies reports on the role of body image in the prevalence of eating disorders in young people and at increasingly younger ages.

The topic of how our thoughts can either empower us or hinder our ability to be happy was approached from several different angles:

Raymond David Salas at ZenChill Power Tools Blog writes about the many ways in which our thoughts and beliefs influence our perception of the reality of our lives. Jenn Givler over at Thriving Business talks about how our “inner critic” can stop us from being our happiest. Lola Fayemi of Real World Spiritual and Personal Development offers exercises for identifying the self-limiting beliefs that our inner critics voice. Debra Moorhead offers a list of affirmations for taking responsibility. And John at Universe of Success encourages us to set aside some quiet time each day in order to reduce our mind chatter.

I hope you enjoyed this round up of mind and body blog entries. The next edition of the Carnival of Healing will be hosted at Real Women’s Fitness. And in case you missed it, last week’s Carival was hosted at Wisdom of Healing. For past editions, please visit the Carnival of Healing archives.

Namaste

Comments

[mary k]

Thank you for your kind words, and for your wonderful entry!

[Anmol Mehta]

Great job hosting this carnival and thanks for including my article as well. Cheers, Anmol :-)

[Lynda Lippin]

Thanks for adding me to your carnival!

Lynda

[Mary K]

You're very welcome. And my apologies for the broken links earlier. All are fixed. Thanks!

[Aparna]

Thanks for including my article.

[Linda]

I appreciate being listed in this carnival! However some of the links aren't working right, mine included, because there's an extra space before the URL. Thanks for looking into it, and thanks so much for hosting the carnival - all the articles look like great reading, for much to learn.