Positive Health Online

“Without energy, neither immune cells nor their potions can protect against infection.”

Sondra Barrett – The Secret of Your Cells

Immunity is the body's defence against illness and disease. When under attack it seeks to provide resistance to all manner of pathogens that harm the body's natural state of balance. Protecting the body is its main role and therefore it will be used to getting its main source of energy from the places that need protecting most. We are in a time when our immune system is needed more than ever and we need to ensure that making changes to our daily health regimen becomes a priority. Experts agree that it's a time to reflect, review and renew our energy reserves to ensure we have enough to see us through times of challenge and chaos. Our thinking, therefore, has to be on prioritizing our immune system in order to gain the best chance of being in a stronger place once things settle down.

We make changes based on what we feel is pertinent at the moment. Our minds make decisions on what needs to change through understanding the dynamics of the choices we make and their potential consequences. Creating change requires that we develop new habits in the direction of our goals. The perfect time to change is when circumstances require that we change our mindset and need a new solution to ensure we get the best outcome. An immune system that requires support via a focused mindset will be boosted by a few simple changes we can all make to our daily routine.

Breakfast Fruit by Erick Palacio palacioerick on Pixabay

The first change we need to consider is that of making sure we have enough vitamins and minerals to support the immune system. The best way to ensure this is through good nutritional practices. The mind can play a big part in helping this aim by making sure you have the fullest consciousness around what needs to change. Adding elements to your life that require thought and planning can ensure that you have a strategy that works for your particular circumstances. Supporting your mental state during a lock-down with good mood-boosting foods can be one way of making a choice to ensure a good mental state.

For example, bananas contain mood-boosting properties such as magnesium and potassium that allow the mind to rest to a more balanced nutritional state. Why this is important for the immune system is due to the ability to cope with stressful situations and make better choices for your health and happiness. Instead of seeing yourself as a victim, you may decide to see the situation as an opportunity to grow and flourish. Speaking metaphorically, you may be able to see the wood for the trees. Immune boosting thoughts such as happiness and joy will go some-way to helping you thrive in a time of challenge.

Woman Asleep by Gregory Pappas on Unsplash

The second change we need to make is that of getting enough good quality sleep. We feel refreshed when we have had a good night's sleep and can feel inspired to achieve more with our day rather than languishing trying to catch up with tasks that zap our energy supplies. Sleep is known to rejuvenate many of the processes that need the energy to produce actions required for the body's survival such as the production of ATP for cell renewal and repair. It's important to understand the role of sleep in our health regimen as it's a crucial element in how we make choices regarding the rest of our daily needs. Energetically, sleep will give us the boost we need to ensure that many of the elements that produce life-sustaining processes such as digestion, heartbeat, and cardiovascular function are maintained via the process of rejuvenation.

“Sleep...great nature’s second course, chief nourisher in life’s feast”

 Shakespeare (Macbeth, Act II, Scene II

Moreover, the Sleep Foundation recommend 7-8 hours a night and a 20-minute siesta to really get the benefits. However, if you cannot get a good amount of sleep there are a number of ways to induce the delta brain waves associated with sleep (0.5 – 4.5 Hz) during waking moments increasing a surge in ATP production. These are meditation and Havening Techniques.

Research has shown that meditation reduces brain wave activity to that of below-waking state (beta). Theta – in the frontal lobe and midbrain and is usually associated with meditative states. In a state of meditation, we can transduce the energies of the higher mind into more 'palatable' formations that create a nuanced perspective of our internal system. By this, I mean that we allow the process of meditation to become our system of interpretation in response to an actual stimulus., i.e., that of breathing deeply into our bellies and letting go of all judgment about our thoughts. We can peruse our minds' content without worrying about what means what. In A Course in Miracles (ACIM),  lesson 10 states “my thoughts do not mean anything”. In other words, our thoughts don't actually 'mean' anything except for the meaning we give them. So meditation can help us connect with our deepest essence by way of elimination thoughts that disturb our natural equilibrium. This, in turn, creates a homeostatic balance that supports our immune system’s ability to replenish its energy reserves.

We have to look at what can be done on a deeper level in terms of maintaining altered brain wave states on a more practical level. For example, Havening Techniques, developed by Dr Ronald Ruden, allows us to access delta wave frequencies whilst fully conscious in waking states. Delta waves are associated with non- rem sleep which in turn produces surges of ATP production. ATP is the energy currency of the body whose 'bank' is the mitochondria within our cells.

Bruce Lipton, Cell Biologist, believes that our DNA is not controlling our destiny, but that it is our response to the environment that is creating a specific gene expression. This process is known as epigenetics. Therefore, when we respond differently to our external environment, our internal environment is also changed. What does this mean in terms of the immune system’s response-ability? It means that we are no longer susceptible to the many influences that hijack our thoughts and feelings to the point of believing we are all being controlled by external forces. This is relevant because it means that we have the power to decide what we think and how we manage the content of our mental media platform to support our immune system to ensure it doesn't lead to a weakening of it. Therefore, we are responsible for getting in touch with our innate ability to use our mind for support instead of suppressing our immune system.

References:

www.havening.org

www.brucelipton.org

https://acim.org/workbook/lesson-10/

Lesson 10: My thoughts do not mean anything. • Foundation for Inner Peace: Publisher of A Course in Miracles (ACIM)

LESSON 10 My thoughts do not mean anything. 1. 1This idea applies to all the thoughts of which you are aware, or become aware in the practice periods. 2The reason the idea is applicable to all of them is that they are not your real thoughts. 3We have made this distinction before, and will do […]

https://acim.org