The Science Behind The Woo-Woo

So yeah, I tend to write a lot of “feelings” posts. In my previous post about self-acceptance I shared an exercise I use that helps me practice self-acceptance. I didn’t create that exercise all on my own, but sort of cobbled it together based on things I’ve read and heard.

Of course, I’d heard the expression “mind-body connection” many times, but the first time it really hit home for me was when I interviewed Dr. Christiane Northrup in 2007 for a local magazine prior to her speaking at a women’s conference sponsored by a local hospital. Her talked was entitled  “Becoming An Exceptional Woman While Remaining Human: 10 Principles For Health and Happiness.” I asked her to give me a preview of what she was going to say.

“I am going to provide a whole new way for women to think about their health and their bodies…that it’s more pleasurable and fun than they think. The old expression ‘no pain no gain’ only produces more pain.”

She went on to say that she believes we women have “enormous power” in our bodies and that it can be used to heal.

“The first step is to understand that your thoughts are translated through your emotions and that your emotions physically affect your tissues, for better or for worse. So the path to good health is through pleasure not pain. I will also be talking specifically about how thoughts and emotions affect your heart. The electromagnetic field of your heart is created by your emotions and beliefs…and they profoundly affect your health and circumstances.”

At the time she was working on a book called The Secret Pleasures of Menopause, and in it she writes:

“The electromagnetic field around your heart (the center of your emotions) is a hundred times more powerful than the electromagnetic field of your brain (the center of your thoughts).  This means that no matter what you think, what you feel always wins!”

She then directed me to her website where she has an article called Ten Steps for Creating Breast Health. Step 4 is:

“Give yourself a love and compassion rinse. Think about someone or something that you love unconditionally—a baby, a puppy, a sleeping child. Think of how much that being brings to your life and how much you love them. Now imagine yourself as a little child who is totally loveable and vulnerable. Take yourself into your own heart. Visualize yourself both as you are now—and as you were as a child. Bathe both you and your child-self in pink light. Enjoy this feeling for 30 seconds or more. Note: You may feel a tingling sensation in your chest or breasts similar to the milk “let-down” reflex experienced when you’re nursing a child and she cries. This feeling is physical proof that the “milk of human kindness” is no mere metaphor. It is a physical reality in your body that helps create breast health.”

Fast forward to early 2009, which is when I started the Living Lighter classes that became the muse for this blog. During those classes, we were often lead in visualization exercises that involved soothing ourselves as if we were scared little children. And I remembered what Dr. Northrup had said about breast health. I figured if it was good for my breasts, it might be good for all of me and so I started experimenting. And I realized that combining the two turned what I was doing into a super-charged affirmation.

So developing those googly feelings actually does something physiologically. And as my friend Nancy wrote in the comments section of the self-acceptance post, “acceptance is quite tranquil.”

And when we’re tranquil, we’re not stressed, and when we’re not stressed, our bodies are not over-producing the fight-or-flight hormone cortisol, which is known to have such negative effects as increased abdominal fat, higher blood pressure, lower immunity and inflammatory responses in the body.

So yeah, there’s science to back up the woo-woo. And no, I am not a scientist and I can’t prove what I just wrote, all I know is that it works for me and that’s proof enough.