I realized I often write about the mind-body connection, and you might be wondering why. Turns out, it’s incredibly critical because the health of your mind-body connection is directly related to your physical health and how you experience life.
Did you ever hear about the study of basketball players who improved their free-throw percentage by just visualizing successful free throws? True stuff. The control group physically practiced free throws and for the same amount of time, the experimental group visualized successful free throws. And the ‘visualization’ group improved by the same percentage as the group who physically practiced. THAT, my friends, is simply one example of the power of the mind-body connection.
So you might be wondering, what connects the “mind” and the “body”?
Great question! There are actually multiple facets of the mind-body connection including, chi, meridians, chakras, neuropeptides, and your nervous system, to name a few.
The most simple of these to explain is your nervous system because it’s a tangible part of your body. Your nervous system connects the part of your body that IS your brain with the rest of your body through physical pathways - nerves!
In order for our body to function, the master control system has to talk to the rest of our body – both sending instructions and receiving feedback. This is exactly what our nervous system is designed for. Our brain is the master control system, and our nerves are the highways which carry the signals back and forth from the brain to our organs, immune system, muscles, skin, etc. and vise versa.
One way to improve our mind-body connection, is to be sure the nerve ‘highways’ to and from our brain are free from congestion, or interference.
This is exactly what a chiropractic adjustment accomplishes – removes the interference or congestion along the nerve highways. When the nerve highways are clear, there is direct improvement in the mind-body connection.
So if you were on the fence about when to get your next adjustment, consider how much better life could be with a clear mind-body connection.