Mind over Matter

I'm sure every one of you has heard the term, "mind over matter." Have you ever, though, had it fully demonstrated? You've probably heard of amazing feats of people curing themselves of cancer and other diseases through mental effort alone. Well, what about your everyday, non-miraculous examples?

Let me tell you a story about what I'm talking about:

A few years ago I taught Psychology courses at a 2-year college in North Carolina. My favorite was Intro. to Psych. One semester I had a large class in that subject, situated in one of the largest lecture rooms at the college. We were going over just that subject, mind over matter, so, since I had a perfect size class to do it with, I decided to conduct a little experiment. (Some people might call it a dirty trick!) I gave my students a few minutes to get settled while I lectured just long enough to induce a slight trance in most of them. Then I had them take their own pulse rates and write down the number. I then proceeded to lecture a few minutes more, before lowering the boom. I told them that I was going to start individual, in-class testing, for a grade, starting that very day. The tests would cover their homework assignments and would involve randomly picking out a student, having him/her stand and answer the question I put to him/her. Well, anxiety-wise, this was a double-whammy situation: first, it activated their fear of public speaking and second, their fear of taking tests. I drew an imaginary line down the center of the classroom and said I would start with the students on the left side of that line just before class ended that day. (Are you beginning to get an inkling of what I was up to?) I continued with my lecture until a few minutes before class was up. I told them it was about time for the testing to start, but first I had them take their pulse rates again and write that down below the first reading. Now for the clincher! I asked the students whose rates were higher the second time to raise their hands. And, of course, almost everyone on the left side raised their hands while almost no one on the right did. Naturally the students looked around at each other and had to laugh at what they saw. I did tell them that I was only kidding about the in-class testing, but there was no kidding about how easily the mind and thoughts influenced the body. In this case, their fear of being tested in class caused their pulse rate to go up.

The point I'm trying to make through the above true story is that, in our everyday lives, our minds and thoughts are constantly influencing our physiological processes, usually without our being aware of it. Anxiety involves a particularly pernicious feedback loop:
fearful thoughts cause physical changes in the body, which in turn, add to the mind's fear and dread. The upside of all this is that you, yourself, have more control over this process than you think. That's why there's such a proliferation of relaxation techniques out there. Relaxing the body has a calming effect on the mind. Exercise has a similar effect.

Or you can do it the other way around. There are mental exercises that are extremely effective. My favorite involves the application of Rational-Emotive psychotherapy. I've been using it on myself for many years now and have really benefited from it. I'll tell you more about this process later.