| That the thoughts in your mind have an enormous | | | | and awareness to that, and feel the universe flowing |
| effect on your body has become well accepted. | | | | through you twenty-four hours a day, you are |
| There's even a tongue-twisting name for a new field | | | | experiencing wholeness. This is why, as Deepak |
| of scientific investigation of the mind-body | | | | Chopra points out, there is no wear and tear in the |
| connection: psychoneuro-immunology or PNI. PNI | | | | universe-only rest, activity, and endless cycles of |
| studies the interaction between the mind, nervous | | | | renewal and transformation. As you read this, your |
| system, immune system, and endocrine system and | | | | mind-body is busily renewing itself. You know from |
| acknowledges the unity of our complex interacting | | | | experience that you constantly need to cut your hair |
| parts. | | | | and clip your nails. As Dr. Deepak Chopra points out, |
| Early mind-body studies showed that people were | | | | what you may not know is that... |
| more likely to become ill after suffering severe | | | | Ninety-eight percent of the atoms in your body |
| emotional trauma; recent studies have been able to | | | | are replaced each year. |
| actually measure the dip in immune defenses. In one | | | | The bones in your skeleton regenerate every |
| study the immune cells of students dropped | | | | three months. |
| significantly during exam week, presumably because | | | | The cells of your liver are made new every six |
| of the extra stress. In another, rats were taught to | | | | weeks. |
| shut down their own immune systems by conditioning | | | | You generate a whole new skin once a month. |
| alone. In 1990 a Stanford University Medical Center | | | | Your stomach lining is replaced every five days. |
| psychiatrist who set out to disprove the mind-body | | | | What this indicates is that if you feed yourself with |
| link provided strong evidence that it does exist. In | | | | the right "foods," you can influence the regeneration |
| the study, women with advanced breast cancer | | | | process. In the computer world there is a saying, |
| attended support groups in which they shared | | | | "Garbage in, garbage out." It's the same with your |
| feelings and information and learned simple re-laxation | | | | mind-body. remissions from cancer and many other |
| techniques. When compared with women who did | | | | diseases that appear to be otherwise inexplicable. |
| not attend the groups, the supported women were | | | | As a result of these and other experiments, modern |
| less depressed, felt less pain, had a more positive | | | | immunobiologists routinely refer to the immune |
| outlook and lived twice as long. Two of the women | | | | system as a circulating nervous system. Needless to |
| were still alive and disease-free ten years later, but | | | | say, this has immense significance in our daily lives. |
| none of the unsupported women survived. Many | | | | Press your fingertips to your lymph glands. Do they |
| scientists suspect that the mind-body connection is | | | | feel hard and tender? If so, your nervous system is |
| involved in the documented spontaneous The goal of | | | | communicating to you that it is tired. One system is |
| Ayurveda is to get in touch with the interac-tions of | | | | expressing the state of another, seemingly separate |
| your doshas, with other people, and with the | | | | system. |
| rhythms of the universe. When you bring your mind | | | | |