Less is More

Hi Everyone,

I’m writing this on a rainy Friday in New York city, early afternoon – the perfect time for a nap. Likely some of you will quiver at this mention. You may find naps unproductive, a waste of time, an inherent impediment to leading a meaningful and fruitful life.

For those of you who finds naps unappealing and maybe even incompatible with your daily existence, please consider otherwise and read on. In this piece, I’ll be explaining how being more and doing less actually supports your health and wellbeing, and thus, all aspects of your life.

Many of us live our days and lives as if on a treadmill, keeping up the pace to a pre-set rate and rarely getting off to exhale, to rest, until the very end of our day.

What is the reason for this treadmill craze? I’ll say quite simply: fear. Fear of all the “what ifs”: what will happen if I stop the treadmill and get off? How will I survive? And sometimes the fear is just about the fear of feeling feelings.

For many of you readers from my hometown of Manhattan, where we have lots of treadmill walkers and runners, you may relate well. Please forgive me, you city slickers, don’t take this personally. It’s a natural inclination we all have, myself included. And please forgive me, others of you, either here or elsewhere, who may not relate so well. Likely you’ve cottoned on to the age old wisdom long ago.

Continuing on for all of you: what is fear? I’ve heard the popular slogan that it’s “False Evidence Appearing Real.” In modern psychiatric and psychologic cosmologies, fear is considered an emotion, an “affect.”

In my work as a holistic physician, drawing from many non-Western healing traditions (traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda, in particular), fear is merely a vibration (as all thoughts and emotions and even physical entities are) that can be shifted quite easily and instantaneously, using simple techniques to which we all have access.

The How’s and the Why’s
Here’s some more about these techniques – hoping that what follows can be helpful to you on your journey: it’s about how you really can and do affect your own health and well-being. And in ways that are easy, effortless, and available to you now.

A little background
For eons, modern medicine has held that our genes determine our destiny, and are the fundamental root cause of whatever happens to us health-wise. Yet for many more eons, prior to modern medicine’s entrance into our dynamic lives, ancient wisdom has held otherwise.  But now, modern science is proving our genetic beliefs to be incorrect, and in fact, supporting the truths of ancient wisdom.

Here’s what we’ve come to learn, via the fields of epigenetics and neuroscience:

• Our thoughts and emotions affect our physical health, and instantaneously so.
• Unresolved or repressed emotions affect our physical health, and instantaneously so.
• We can change our physical health, and instantaneously so, by practices and techniques that address our thoughts and emotions.

These techniques are simple and accessible and completely available to you, now. They are the techniques of being versus doing. They are the techniques of stillness and mindfulness. Breathing is one of them. Meditation another. And also, quite simply, rest. And sleep. Obviously, these latter two are not really techniques at all. Rather, they are the necessary and natural experiences of our bodymind.

Modern science has now shown that these techniques (and rest and sleep, too) have significant and lasting effects at the physical level. They can, just to name a few:

• Affect gene expression (what the genes actually do), for example, genes that control aging.
• Affect neuroplasticity in the brain (literally, changes in the brain’s grey and white matter).
• Affect physiologic parameters in the blood, neurochemicals in the brain, that support healing, repair, rejuvenation.

And the most wonderful side effect is peace. Peace of mind, and peace of body. It’s simple, it’s easy, and it’s available to you now, in this very moment. And you don’t even need to make time for a nap. It’s literally, only a breath away.

For more details on Breathing, Thoughts, Emotions and Your Health, see my articles in The Epoch Times:

The Omnipotent Power of Breath

The Power of Mind

Emotions and Your Health

I hope this post was interesting and helpful.

As always, I welcome your feedback.

Yours in service of healing, wellness and living,

Dr. Muehsam (aka Dr. Trish)