The Mind Body Prescription

M.D. John Sarno shows us just how important it can be to heal emotional and mental wounds for the sake of the body. In “The Mind Body Prescription,” he shares the concept of psychosomatic disorder/illnesses, their causes, effects, and prevalence. The basic idea is that, evolutionary, it is better to suffer individual pain than to let out uncontrolled emotions which could cause us to lose our pack and thus our lives. Counterintuitively, the pain created by the mind is our body’s survival mechanism. Most people live in a setting where they can express their emotions without horrific repercussions. He told a story of a woman who was severely abused as a child and suffered from chronic pain of which doctors could find no physical evidence. Within days of learning his method, she had a major emotional release and her pain began to subside. An interesting sidenote is that psychosomatic illnesses change from society to society and based on time period; whatever pain is most common will be the pain which the body manifests. Now one of the most common psychosomatic disorder occurrences are as back pain.

I have my own experiences of dealing with psychosomatic disorder. Before I started meditating and doing yoga, I was sick often. I never thought that thoughts and subtle actions could make you sick. Never did it occur to me that negative self talk, breathing, and poor posture could affect my physical health. One day, while in the yoga forest (hostel/yoga retreat), I had a breakthrough. I was playing chess, then a couple came and sat next to us. When i was in my default slumped over posture, I knew there was no way I could engage them and I felt weak and achey. Then I sat up straight, assumed what I knew to be a healthy posture, and automatically I was filled with energy and confidence. I started breathing deep into my lower abdomen and felt a surge of calm, collected, confident tranquility. The subtle shift in mindset and posture took me from a weak, sickly disposition into a powerful, healthy disposition. Yogis call this practice of finding grounding through the breath pranayama, and have practiced this technique for thousands of years.

Basic diagram of the subtle body

Reference:

The Mind Body Prescription: 

https://www.amazon.com/Mindbody-Prescription-Healing-Body-Pain/dp/0446675156 

Light on Yoga, one of the central texts of modern yoga: 

https://www.amazon.com/Light-Yoga-B-K-Iyengar/dp/0805210318/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1496412714&sr=1-1&keywords=light+on+yoga+by+b.k.s.+iyengar