Surrounded by ancient banyan trees and fountains, Prince Aryavrat frolicked in the beautifully landscaped garden while King Yajuvendra gazed at him from the palace window. Although his kingdom flourished, the piercing sorrow of Aryavrat’s hunchback lingered within him. The king summoned healers from near and far, offering lavish rewards; yet nothing proved effective.
One dawn, an elderly woman healer visited the king, her eyes gleaming with calm certainty. She proposed: "Craft a life-size statue of the prince, a replica—but upright, strong, flawless—the way you would like to see him. Erect it where he plays."
Though sceptical, the king complied, erecting a majestic marble statue in the courtyard. Over time, the prince inadvertently mimicked its posture, aligning his thoughts and identity with it. Within a year, his spine straightened; by the next, his deformity nearly vanished.
This ancient parable echoes a profound truth that psychoneuroimmunology, the science that studies the mind-body connection, is now uncovering.
The Mind-Body Connection: Illness as Feedback
But how does this work exactly? Can we really rewire our bodies just by changing how we think and feel?
It all begins with how we interpret the future impact of an event, often unconsciously and instantly. Evolutionary lessons and our beliefs, shaped by conditioning, influence these interpretations. Depending on our interpretations, our brains trigger the release of chemicals that are felt as emotions.
Over time, this Interpretation >> Chemicals >> Emotion >> Sculpt (disease or health) or “ICES” cycle becomes habitual and shapes our bodies like clay. Therefore, alongside genetics and lifestyle, years of habitual “ICES” cycles of dismal interpretations, corrosive chemicals and destructive emotions may contribute to health challenges, offering clues to possible inner patterns causing them.
No wonder, Eastern traditions view illness as a guide, not an enemy and suggest that corrosive emotions like stress, or grief can disrupt the body’s harmony. Modern researchers, including Dr Candace Pert (neuroscience), Dr Dean Ornish (lifestyle medicine), Dr Bessel Kolk (trauma research), Nobel laureate Dr Elizabeth Blackburn (telomere research), and Martin Seligman (positive psychology), while exploring how chronic disempowering emotions may influence overall physical well-being, support this mind-body connection.
Reprogramming the Inner World
To leverage this understanding of the mind-body connection, try these five strategies proactively to stay healthy, but never substitute, medical care.
1. Treat Your Body as the Holiest Temple:
• Prioritise maintaining it in excellent condition.
• Guard your senses to honour the sacred being within.
• Avoid bringing harmful food, thoughts, emotions or motives into your body-temple.
• Note any violations with honestly and be more vigilant.
2. Transform How You Interpret Events:
• Ask: What story am I telling myself?
• Mentally rehearse one charged event of the day. Multiple perspectives dilute their emotional intensity, and lead to better future responses.
• Journal to spot stress triggers and pessimistic interpretations.
3. Release Trapped Emotional Energy:
•Sit quietly, close your eyes and recall an emotionally upsetting moment of the day. Notice the details—how you felt and where the emotion sits in your body.
• Locate the emotion within your body as a balloon of dark energy. Explore its shape with attention while moving outwards to its extremities.
• Imagine squeezing the balloon until it bursts. Experience the release of its energy—spreading and nourish every nook and cranny of your body.
4. Try Aryavrat’s Trick:
• Morph an image of your ideal, healthy self.
• Place it where you see it daily.
and identify with it everytime.
• Align choices with the vision.
5. Use These Additional Tools:
In addition to meditating every day, pause frequently to understand your thoughts, emotions.
• Thoughts. Detach from your thoughts to view them objectively. Disidentify with them and observe the superfluity of most. Shift your focus from grievances to five things you are grateful for.
• Emotions: Rate your emotions on a scale from -5 (extreme despondency) to +5 (extreme joy), explore and address their causes by reinterpreting your fears, and strive to remain above +2.
• Breath: Take five deep breaths, observing each one and letting it pass without a thought.
Small daily shifts in how you perceive and respond to life’s events can gradually reshape your overall well-being.
Your body is the marble and your mind its sculptor. Like Prince Aryavrat, begin sculpting a healthier ‘you’ by gradually including these five strategies, starting with one today.