Latest / Spiritual Sense: Practical wisdom to quiet an overthinking mind and recharge your soul / The Mind / Body Connection | How mind impact your feelings, health and wellbeing

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The Mind / Body Connection | How mind impact your feelings, health and wellbeing · Spiritual Sense: Practical wisdom to quiet an overthinking mind and recharge your soul

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Welcome to this wonderful episode on the mind body connection. How does our mind affect our body, our health, how we feel? And also how does our body affect our mind? What is this connection? And this is very important because we are, of course, spiritual beings in a body, and what we think has an effect on our body. And a large percentage of how we feel physically is actually influenced by our thoughts and internal feelings and vice versa. So this is something to learn about because you can feel better all the time, and it's also useful if you get sick, you can use these methods to get well faster. So welcome, welcome, welcome. Here we are.
• 0:47
  Speaker B: Hello, Shereen.
• 0:48
  Speaker C: Hello, brother Michael.
• 0:50
  Speaker A: Wonderful to be here.
• 0:52
  Speaker C: Yes, yes. How are you doing?
• 0:54
  Speaker A: Fantastic. Yes. It's good to look after our health because we feel better spiritually as well, don't we?
• 1:02
  Speaker C: Absolutely. The body is so important. It is so important.
• 1:07
  Speaker A: Even a short nap can make a big difference, something as simple as that. So part of spirituality is learning how to live, isn't it? Learning how to have a good life, learning about to be happy, healthy. Because if we only focus on spiritual things and we neglect the body, then we end up not really experiencing the full joy of life.
• 1:32
  Speaker C: Right, right.
• 1:33
  Speaker A: But if we only focus on the body and we neglect our mind, then we have a very superficial life.
• 1:38
  Speaker C: Absolutely.
• 1:39
  Speaker A: Some of you both.
• 1:41
  Speaker C: Absolutely.
• 1:42
  Speaker A: So tell us more about.
• 1:47
  Speaker C: I wasn't expecting that. I wanted to share an experience of mine. This was about 15 years ago. I was really flying. Right. I was having such good meditations, I had such a good stage, and, you know, it was feeling so wonderful. And all of a sudden I got really sick. Really, really sick. Like my immune system gave up.
• 2:16
  Speaker A: Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah, it's very. Such a strange thing.
• 2:19
  Speaker C: Yes.
• 2:19
  Speaker A: You. All of a sudden, it just cut off, didn't it?
• 2:22
  Speaker C: Yes. And so I had to go to the hospital and I had to stay in the hospital for many days. And the only way they thought my internal organs would hemorrhage and my whatever. Right. All of this would happen. And so the only way to keep me alive was to pump me with steroids. Right. And there were other medicine drugs, too, but other medicines, but definitely steroids. So they had to pump me with a lot of steroids. Right. And I was feeling so good before I went into the hospital, and after they started pumping me with the steroids, I could feel how I was feeling. The difference was amazing. Right. Like the funk and the depression and just totally not feeling well. Right. Of course, it could have been the hospital, too, but definitely it was the steroids and such a vast difference before taking the steroids and after taking the steroids. And so at that time I came to this really amazing realization that whatever I put in the body will affect the soul. Right. Whatever I put in the body will affect the soul. What I eat will affect the soul. What? All of those things. Whatever I put in the body, right. Because I could clearly see that the steroids was affecting my mind. I could clearly see. So it's not just a one way street, right. If what I put in the body is affecting the soul, the mind, then whatever, I think whatever is going on will also affect the body because it's a two way street, right. If there is an opening for it to go this way, then it'll go this way too. And so that is my deep realization. The mind body connection is we say the soul is separate from the body, but actually the soul and the body are like this.
• 4:22
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 4:23
  Speaker C: Right. They're totally intertwined. If I can intertwine this even more, I would. But I can't intertwine it anymore. But they're totally intertwined.
• 4:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:34
  Speaker C: And so whatever happens in the body, whatever I put in the body affects the soul. And whatever I think affects, you know, whatever my beliefs, thinking, whatever it is, right, affects the body.
• 4:48
  Speaker A: Isn't it fascinating? What a wonderful thing to be alive, right? Yes, it's true. I mean, I've been into health and stuff for a long time because of this reason, you know? Because if, if we don't look after our health, right, then it's kind of like poisoning our feelings, Dave. Because even happiness is to some degree a chemical experience.
• 5:16
  Speaker C: Absolutely. Like dopamine or endorphins or even like.
• 5:21
  Speaker A: If someone feels like lots and lots of love, there's actually some chemical effect of that.
• 5:26
  Speaker C: It's not, it's not just the soul feeling. The soul feeling.
• 5:31
  Speaker A: You can feel love out.
• 5:33
  Speaker C: I feel there is a possibility of love and peace outside of the body, but there is a resulting effect on the body.
• 5:42
  Speaker A: It's true. And what I find very interesting about meditation is that when we go beyond the body where we're not aware of the body, because the meditation we do when we go deep, like, let's say I'm sitting cross legged and after a while sitting cross legged, it hurts your knees, doesn't it, really? And so I might be sitting here and I might have some, I'm aware of my knees and I'm aware of this. But when I go really deep, I completely become unaware of the body. So all the pain of the body is. Disappears and then I'm out of the body experiencing profound peace outside of it and love and light. And then this is what I find really interesting is that when I come back in, I feel less chemicals being activated in the body. Isn't that fascinating?
• 6:44
  Speaker C: Better than any drug.
• 6:45
  Speaker A: Better than any drug, right. And I have tried various drugs, right? So. And apparently DMT, which is the highest level, people who are like really into psychedelic drugs, all these drugs I've never tried. DMT is like the ultimate thing. And when you leave the body, it creates DMT. So the whole. The brain and the body is like a chemical factory. And if we are experiencing these higher states, it releases all these beautiful chemicals.
• 7:20
  Speaker C: Right.
• 7:21
  Speaker A: That make us feel great.
• 7:22
  Speaker C: Yes.
• 7:24
  Speaker A: And you don't have to spend any.
• 7:25
  Speaker B: Money and there's no side effects on it.
• 7:27
  Speaker C: Right. And also there's no diminishing return.
• 7:32
  Speaker A: No, that's right. It doesn't create tolerance.
• 7:34
  Speaker C: Yes.
• 7:35
  Speaker A: Oh, I need more meditation. I mean, you might need more meditation just because you like it, but it's unlike. I actually found out recently that the Nazis were taking speed, which is meth. Crystal meth.
• 7:54
  Speaker C: No.
• 7:55
  Speaker A: So this is unknown story about the Nazis. They were supposed to be the clean Aryan. They presented themselves as vegetarian and no drugs. That was Hitler's policy. Right.
• 8:08
  Speaker C: Really? Yeah, vegetarian too.
• 8:10
  Speaker A: Vegetarian. Because apparently it's good for his health.
• 8:12
  Speaker B: And they're the Aryans, right?
• 8:13
  Speaker A: They have the swastika and they're sort of like trying to take the aryan thing from India and try to like.
• 8:19
  Speaker B: It's all very twisted, right?
• 8:21
  Speaker A: But what it turned out is that they ended up. They discovered this drug called meth, right? They invented it. It was called a different name and it was good for the soldiers. That's why they did so well, because they could go for three days straight without any sleep and they took everyone by surprise. And Hitler was supposed to be like no drug kind of person. He was dosed up on cocaine, opiates, and hardcore steroids, animal steroids. So he had like multiple. Multiple injections multiple times a day. His immune system didn't work at all because he required massive amounts of steroids.
• 9:06
  Speaker C: To keep it going. Wow.
• 9:09
  Speaker A: And he was on opiates and cocaine. Right. So after 1941, Hitler was a total, complete addicted to steroids and heavy drugs.
• 9:19
  Speaker C: How did they find this?
• 9:21
  Speaker A: It's all in them because the guy, the guy who was his doctor, personal doctor, he was required to keep very strict records of everything for the government. You know, they wanted to know what's healer getting? And it just got more and more and more and more. I was listening to it on the plane when I came over here, and it's just shocking what he was taking.
• 9:42
  Speaker B: He didn't, Hitler didn't realize what he.
• 9:43
  Speaker A: Was getting, actually, because he was against drugs, but he was a complete drug addict, right? I did those, I did that meth the Germans were taking one time when I was like, I know, 17 or something, and it was, it gives you loads of energy. People used to go out dancing, so it's a lot of fun for dancing, right? You get all this energy, but the next day, everyone, all of us, like, we couldn't eat because it takes all your appetite. We were trying to, like, eat a piece of toast, and it was almost impossible to get it down because you just don't have any apple to, oh, God, this tiny little piece of toast. And everyone's just totally spaced out. And they were doing this all the time, day after day, week after week, year after. I don't know how they did it. It's amazing to the body.
• 10:30
  Speaker C: So, all right, back to the mind body connection.
• 10:35
  Speaker A: So you have a little mini history lesson.
• 10:37
  Speaker C: Back to the mind body connection.
• 10:39
  Speaker A: So let's not do that.
• 10:43
  Speaker B: Don't follow their example.
• 10:45
  Speaker C: I was, whatever I want to talk about seems very tame compared to that.
• 10:52
  Speaker B: So you got to spice it up a little bit. You never know what you're going to get in the podcast.
• 10:56
  Speaker C: You see, I was going to say that, let's say your body is ill, which all our bodies get ill, right? Once in a while we do, or some of us have chronic illnesses, but don't let it affect your mind. Right. It shouldn't be. There's like a belief system going on in your head, and the belief system keeps some version of, I can't handle this, this is too much. Right? That's the belief system that's going on every time you feel like there's some illness in the body, right? So you have to catch yourself from that belief system. And the one thing, having been through a lot of physical illnesses myself, the one thing I would tell people is just change that to, I will find a way to manage this. I am going to be able to do this, right? I'm going to be able to do this. I'll find a way to manage this. Not, oh, I can't do this. This is too much. You know, this is hurting. That's hurting. It's hard not to think of the body when it's in pain, right? When it's not in pain, you never think about it. But when it's in pain, you think about it, you want to talk about it. Try not to bring that into sound too much because that is the way you can heal it. Right. Ultimately, we don't want to be addicted to being sick. We want to be able to be healthy. Well, you know, thriving. That's what our aim is. Because the body can, the soul can even get addicted to being sick. Right. Maybe I like the attention and this and that. I get to sleep and all of those. Right?
• 12:41
  Speaker B: That's true. People get a lot sympathy.
• 12:43
  Speaker C: And so just make sure that you, what, what are your limiting beliefs and false beliefs around the body being sick? I can't manage. Oh, and subtly, you know, I have a pattern of thinking, oh, this, you know, I'm addicted to this. This is good. I'm getting sympathy. I don't have to do this and this. Right. So all of those things, you need to bring it out.
• 13:09
  Speaker B: Yeah. This is a very deep point, actually, because I've noticed that a lot of people I know have used illness as a way of either getting sympathy or getting out of things they don't want to do anyway. Let's say someone invites me somewhere and I don't want to go, but it will upset them if I say no. But if I say I'm sick, then they say, no problem.
• 13:36
  Speaker C: And if you keep doing that, right, who's losing in the long run? Who's losing? If you just tell people, honestly, I don't want to come, fine, they'll get over it. Yes, but if you keep saying I'm sick, then you'll make yourself sick.
• 13:50
  Speaker B: Then you always make yourself sick. And I know other people, many entrepreneurs, because I work with a lot of entrepreneurs who only stop when they're sick. They literally will never take a break unless they're sick, unless they're forced to. Isn't that interesting?
• 14:08
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 14:09
  Speaker B: So work, work, work. And you say, how about I sometimes say to them, why don't you just like take a week? Like, why do you need to work all the time? Take a break. Oh, no, no, I'm too busy. And then they get some random accident or something, get cold from the kids, taking the kids to, I mean, mothers. And this happens to kids, although they drop them off at the play school or whatever, and they come back with snotty noses and then the parents are both lying in bed and then they send them off again and they come back the next week with another cold, with a different virus. They're always going, all these parents, that's a different story. But if. If they can say, let me just take like one day a week off or half a day a week just to just relax, then they don't actually need to get sick. But there's an enormous number of people who just will never take a break unless they are knocked out. And also if they. Then sometimes they push through that situation so they have to be knocked out even harder. Do you know what I mean? Like, it has to be really bad to stop them. So we better off just. I'm just going to take the day off and avoid all the pain.
• 15:20
  Speaker C: Right, right. I. You're really coming up with some hardcore ones today, my brother Michael.
• 15:28
  Speaker B: Well, you know, this is, this is what, this is what happens, though, isn't it?
• 15:31
  Speaker C: Yes. So the other thing I was thinking about is getting too hardcore. It's too hardcore to hardcore. I thought that was my, you know, specialty on this podcast.
• 15:46
  Speaker B: You have to be very sweet now. You can just be very sweet and gentle. You are sweet and gentle.
• 15:50
  Speaker C: Are you implying that I'm nothing? Sweet and gentle.
• 15:52
  Speaker B: You are sweet. So you said the extra sweet and gentle.
• 15:55
  Speaker C: Okay. So the other thing I was thinking that is very important is I remember this so well. Dadi Janki. Dadi Janki used to be our head of Brahma Kumaris. And she became avyaktor, you know, ascended, you could say when she was 104.
• 16:22
  Speaker B: Incredible.
• 16:24
  Speaker C: You know, the incredible was that she was 104. And the year, which was 2020, the year she ascended, she passed on, she was 104. And that year. Right. She traveled about three or four countries that year. Right. She did it in March, just when Covid started. And the most incredible thing of all this is she became the head of the Brahmakumaris when she was 91 or 92.
• 16:53
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 16:55
  Speaker C: Right? And she had so much energy. And so if someone had a weird face, right, she would ask, what's going on?
• 17:04
  Speaker A: Right?
• 17:05
  Speaker C: Like, and then they would say, oh, I have a pain in the leg. And Dadi would say, well, if the pain is in the leg, what's happening to your face? Why is your face like that? And so to really separate out, I thought, oh, the first I heard. First time I heard, I said, dadi, that's harsh. Must have been strong, right? But then I realized what she was into.
• 17:29
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 17:30
  Speaker C: And she was really onto something. Is to separate out, separate the soul from the pain and allow the leg to feel the pain and don't let it get into your psyche. Right, right. Just separate it out and allow it to do its thing, but don't feel like, oh, my leg is hurting this, that, right? Yeah.
• 17:53
  Speaker B: It takes over everything.
• 17:54
  Speaker C: Yes. Because it just over, you know, it overtakes your life.
• 17:58
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 17:59
  Speaker C: And so you, you can separate. There is a possibility of separating it and to really separate it. And if you have pains in the leg, then don't show it on your face. Right. Be happy. Smile. Because then you will actually allow the pain in the leg to go away. If you allow the pain in the leg to come onto your face, then it'll just stay.
• 18:21
  Speaker B: That's probably why happier people heal faster, isn't it?
• 18:25
  Speaker C: Right. Yes. They have proven studies that happier people heal faster. Yes.
• 18:31
  Speaker B: Positive people in the hospital heal from the same injury or illness or surgery much faster than the complaining, negative people, even though they're both there with incisions and pain and whatever else. Yeah. It's. It's actually quite a refined art, though, isn't it, to practice that? I'll give a quick story about this. Luckily, I don't have that much pain and hopefully I won't. But who knows, right? But one time when I was in India, I had. I went for the mango season because I really like mangoes, and the best mangoes in the world are in India. And so I had approximately a thousand mangoes I ate, and there were different varieties, probably about 60 different varieties. And I was supposed to leave India on a certain date. And three days before I was supposed to get on a plane, I got really sick and I couldn't get out of bed, and I had this really serious migraine, and I had dehydration and I couldn't do anything. And it was, I would say that's the most severe pain I'd ever had, actually, I think, ever. And I couldn't move and I couldn't call anyone. I didn't know anyone's number. So I'm just lying there on my own. And initially, I was just very not happy about this situation because I'm like, what happened to me? I was having all these mangoes, everything's great, and I'm about to leave. So I spent about 12 hours just complaining about it, basically in my head. And. And then there's mosquitoes biting me, and I couldn't do anything about it because I couldn't barely move. And then after I'd had enough of that, I realized that I had to have a different method because it wasn't working. And I said, okay, just stop resisting. Just stop resisting it. It is what it is. It's not getting any because normally I fell asleep when I woke up. I think this might have been a day, actually. I think a whole day went past and there was nothing changed. And I managed to drink some water or something, and I said, stop resisting it. And that took a lot of. A lot of courage to not resist it. And as I let go, let go, let go, I found myself, like, looking from over here. Here's the pain and here's me. And even though the pain was there, I was over here, and I wasn't feeling. I wasn't. It wasn't affecting me anymore. And I remember that was, like, such a profound relief to. It wasn't that the pain went away, but it just didn't bother me. It was. It was over there. It was like. It was like having a noise, like a banging noise outside. And I was making a big deal about it, and I'm like, it's just a noise. It's just over. It doesn't matter. Someone's mowing the lawn. It's fine. And after I stayed in that state for a little while, it started getting better. And then I managed to get on, managed to, like, throw stuff in my bags randomly and ended up on the plane. I still. By the time I got back to England, I was fine. So that was a. That was a. It took about three and a half days for that to clear. It was pretty intense and a plane ride on top of it, you know, tenor. So it is possible to separate the pain from the suffering.
• 21:58
  Speaker C: Right? Right.
• 22:01
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 22:02
  Speaker C: You know, thinking of pain from suffering. I remember Dadi Gulzar, daddy Gulzar was our hero. Really.
• 22:13
  Speaker B: What a legend.
• 22:15
  Speaker C: What a legend, right? And so she. She had to sit for long periods of time. And one time, she wasn't able to sit for long periods of time, so they. Something was up with her. So they had to give her some injections in the spine so she would be able to sit for long periods of time. And so we went to meet her right after. Right. And I was asking Adadi, how are you doing? You know, because I knew the injection were going on, right. And she's such a sweetheart. Oh, my God. Right? She was so, like, she was very protected. Like no one could meet her. And, like, you know, she's very high up, but she's so down to earth, right? Like, she really meets you where you are and you feel so disarmed. Right? And the one thing I know about Dadi was she had equal love for everyone. Whoever it was, whoever came in front of her, she showed her love, right. It's not like I'm so special. I went to see, dadi, it was not like that. So I asked her, Dadi, how are you doing? How's your back? And I asked her, are you experiencing a lot of sorrow? And she said, no, there is pain, but I don't have sorrow.
• 23:28
  Speaker B: Isn't that fascinating?
• 23:30
  Speaker C: Right? She was so easy about it. Even with all of the injections in her spine, everything. Right? She was so easy about it. But at that time, right, when she told me that and just the love and the disarming nature of her and the equal vision, whoever came in front of her, right. And the way she's delivered that, right, it just stuck with me is I can experience pain without experiencing the suffering because we all have karmic accounts with the body we all want. You know, we all go through ups and downs of migraines or this or that or whatever. Right? Can that. We cannot choose, but we can choose not to suffer.
• 24:15
  Speaker B: Right?
• 24:16
  Speaker C: Right. That is a choice we can make. What is happening with the body, that is a choice we don't have, but we can definitely choose to not suffer.
• 24:29
  Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. What a wonderful thing that is. What a relief. And we can also change our thoughts that create different feelings in our body.
• 24:43
  Speaker C: Right?
• 24:44
  Speaker B: Isn't it? Because if we. This is like an experiment we all need to do on a regular basis. Like, the thoughts I'm thinking, how is that making me feel? You know, like, if I think this thing's gonna go horribly wrong, everything's gonna fall apart. My life's about to collapse. Right? What's that going to do? It's going to create adrenaline. It's going to create heart, fast heartbeat. It's going to create, like, shallow breathing.
• 25:14
  Speaker C: And it's an old way of thinking.
• 25:17
  Speaker B: Now, but it can build up into a panic attack.
• 25:20
  Speaker C: It's a very good point you're bringing up, brother Michael. It's an old way of thinking.
• 25:25
  Speaker B: It is, right?
• 25:26
  Speaker C: So let's say we all have washing machines at home to wash clothes.
• 25:34
  Speaker B: Thank goodness.
• 25:35
  Speaker C: Thank goodness, right? Absolutely. Thank goodness. And instead of washing my clothes in the washing machine, I continue to wash my clothes with hand. Right. I'm not using the technology that's available. Very effective. Right. So there's so much research and technology around our thinking. Right. This is old way of thinking, oh, things are going to go bad and this is going to happen. That's going to happen. That kind of stressed, right. It's not good for us and it doesn't work.
• 26:04
  Speaker B: No, it's a good point. Because this is the cutting edge technology, actually, because we all have phones and we all have all this, computers and AI and everything, but there's a technology in our own mind which is invisible, that is affecting everything, and we have to learn how it works and use it properly, because otherwise we end up wrecking our life, even though it might be fine.
• 26:27
  Speaker C: Absolutely.
• 26:29
  Speaker B: We've got other podcasts on this topic in more detail, so we're not going to get into it that deep now. But this is very important, isn't it?
• 26:39
  Speaker C: Yeah. Blessings.
• 26:41
  Speaker B: Blessings it is. Ladies and gentlemen, let's see what we have here. What's the number?
• 26:45
  Speaker C: Pick any pick. Random page.
• 26:53
  Speaker B: Detachment.
• 26:54
  Speaker C: Ah, it's a good one.
• 26:56
  Speaker B: There it is. Seated on the Lotus throne of detachment, you embody a remarkable equilibrium between loving and beautifully unattached. This unique stance of loving deeply while holding everything lightly endears you to God and the world around you. Thank you for being here. And think about what you have learned from this episode. How can you look after your health? How can you look after your mind? And remember, you have your own chemical factory, which is called the body, and you can use it to feel wonderful feelings, spiritually and physically. So enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. And thank you, Shereen, for the lovely presence.
• 27:54
  Speaker C: Om Shanti.