With all the information out there about the mind heart and body, I am writing this post to help clarify their relationship to each other.
Please read through the list that follows. It supports how incredible the mind, heart and body are..
Mind, Heart, Body factoids
The “brain which is our “three-pound universe” contains 100 billion neurons, 50 trillion synapses and signals travel at 300 mph speed!.
The mind is home to approximately 6200 thoughts per day
We take 25000 breaths per day plus or minus.
Our hearts beat 100,000 times per 24-hour period and about 35 million times in a year. During an average lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 5 billion times!
Your heart generates the most powerful energetic field in your body.
The electromagnetic field your heart generates is 5,000 times stronger than the field generated by your brain.
Pretty amazing spec’s , people may appear like the silent type, but inside there is a lot going on.
Mind and Brain background information.
The mind is the seat of consciousness, the essence of your being. Without a mind, you cannot be considered meaningfully alive.
There are those who still believe consciousness is like an unexplainable. ghost in the machinery of our brain.
Yet the mind is not made up of any cells and is hypothetical, according to the chart below. You also cannot touch the mind!
Does a thought exist? A thought exists as electrical and chemical activity in the brain which can be measured both with an EEG and CAT scanner. So yes, thoughts do exist as organized electrical activity in the brain.
This does not really explain how electrochemical activity is translated into what we perceive as a thought or part of our consciousness.
Brain is the central organ of the human nervous system
Mind is a faculty that manifests itself in mental phenomena such as perception, thinking, sensation, reasoning, memory, etc.
It is made up of blood vessels and nerve cells.
It is not made up of any cells and is hypothetical.
It has a definite shape and structure.
It does not.
Brain coordinates, movements, feelings, and different functions of the body.
It refers to a person’s conscience, understanding and thought process.
You can touch the brain.
You cannot touch the mind.
However, “neuroscientists sometimes say that we have one brain, but two minds: a mind that makes conscious choices, based on self-reflection and awareness; and a mind that makes automatic responses based on instinct and habit.”
“We are aware of a tiny fraction of the thinking that goes on in our minds, and we can control only a tiny part of our conscious thoughts. The vast majority of our thinking efforts goes on subconsciously. Only one or two of these thoughts are likely to breach into consciousness at a time.”
The mind is much more powerful than most people might imagine. Within our minds we have the ability to change our perception of reality as well as to gain a much deeper understanding of what underlies our thoughts and actions.
The way your heart beats affect all other processes in your body. Your heart rate is intimately tied to your bodily functions and mental, emotional states.
Heart rate variability (or “HRV”) is the variation in time intervals between consecutive heart beats averaged over time. Your heart rate speeds up during inhalation and slows down during exhalation. Variability in your heart rate is good and desirable.
Experiencing emotional or physical stress causes an increase in heart rate, elevation of blood pressure, and release of stress hormones. All these result in a greater workload for the heart, which can be dangerous.
Concsious breathing exercises are an essential skill to help slow down our heart rate and reduce the stress on our heart from poor breathing techniques.
“Hyperventilation and other incorrect breathing patterns are often the norms for stressful people. They breathe too quickly, too slowly, too shallowly, or hold their breath frequently. These unconscious breathing patterns can lead to many complaints, both physical ,mental and emotional.
“Cardiac coherent breathing is a form of coherent breathing that focuses on matching your breath to your heart rate. Over time this can help with increased cognitive and emotional functioning.
Some cardiovascular benefits of coherent breathing include:
I also mention the gut or enteric system briefly to point out its relationship to our mind, heart and body health. It will be the subject of another post.
The gut or enteric system
Useful information next paragraph for learming where certain emotions and feelings are experienced in the body.
“Researchers have discovered that the gut and brain are closely connected; and that this relationship serves an important function not only in managing emotions and stress but also aiding digestion. Emotions are felt in the gut. Feelings such sadness, anger, nervousness, fear, and joy can be felt in the gut. The term “feeling sick to the stomach” describes a situation which involves mental or emotional anguish which can produce stress in the mind and the body. We can also feel excitement in our gut which can be described as “butterflies” in our stomach.”
The brain and the gut are connected and constantly in communication. In fact, more neurons reside in the gut then in the entire spinal cord, according to research published in the book Neuroscience.
The neural signals for your heart rate, breathing, digestion, and other bodily functions are carried by the vagus nerve which runs throughout your upper body ending in your brain where they’re assigned meaning. The health and function of your vagus nerve is referred to as “vagal tone.” Low vagal tone is linked to numerous physical and mental conditions.
Coherent breathing, in part works by improving the functioning of this nerve.
“Vagus nerve: The vagus nerve is the biggest part of the autonomic nervous system, which controls many of the body’s functions, such as breath rate, digestion, and heart rate. It is also responsible for fight, flight or freeze responses. Coherent breathing can stimulate the vagus nerve, which moves the nervous system out of fight or flight and into a more calm state.”
There must be divine intelligence behind the creation of human beings!
Staying in the present moment is the ultimate (yet elusive) goal of any meditation practice. There are many types of meditation. This post will focus on a breath centered meditation. Learning to meditate is like learning any other skill, it requires practice to develop, with the benefits making it time well invested
Swami Vivekananda is considered as the introducer of meditation to the Western countries. He defined “meditation” as a state “when the mind has been trained to remain fixed on a certain internal or external location, there comes to it the power of flowing in an unbroken current, as it were, towards that point.
Mind versus Brain
The three definitions of mind and brain below come at it from a more comprehensive perspective than those found in ; “A Primer on the Mind, Heart and Body.”
Dr. Jennifer Weinberg, MD, MPH, MBE, a preventive, and lifestyle medicine physician, describes the brain as “the hardware” that allows us to experience the thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and emotions that we collectively call the mind.”
Ray Oakley, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Psychiatry and Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University advises; “According to the mind–body or biopsychosocial paradigm, which supersedes the older biomedical model, there is no real division between mind and body because of networks of communication that exist between the brain and neurological, endocrine and immune systems..”
Quantum Consciousness
Dr. Dirk K.F. Meijer, a professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, hypothesizes that consciousness resides in a field surrounding the brain. This field is in another dimension. It shares information with the brain through quantum entanglement, among other methods. And it has certain similarities with a black hole.
In other words, the “mind” is a field that exists around the brain; it picks up information from outside the brain and communicates it to the brain in an extremely fast process. He described this field alternately as “a holographic structured field,” a “receptive mental workspace,” a “meta-cognitive domain,” and the “global memory space of the individual.”
In Dr. Dirk K.F. Meijer’s interesting quote above he writes; the mind “picks up information from outside the brain and communicates it to the brain in an extremely fast process. An idea of how fast this might be and the complexity of the brain is described next.
The Cleveland Clinic infographic above advises that signals in the brain travel at 300 miles per hour over 500 trillion synapses and 100 billion neurons!
What does Mindbody Connection mean?
Sandstone Care, a mental health provider states that;” The mind-body connection works by the feedback loop between your body and your mind.
Painted Brain, another mental health provider offers this excellent definition ;”One of these connections is the Mind-Body Connection, which is the link between our emotional and mental health (such as thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors) and our physical health. Our biology impacts our mood. How our body feels impacts our emotions.
An example of this mind-body connection is how your body responds to stress. Constant worry and stress over jobs, finances, or other problems can cause tense muscles, pain, headaches, and stomach problems. It may also lead to high blood pressure or other serious problems.”
I have omitted spirit in this post as in mind-body-spirit. There are two other posts on spiritual matters under the Resources tab on this website.
Awareness and Mindfulness
Self-awareness or mindfulness mean being fully present and aware of where we are and what we are doing. It means not being overly reactive or overwhelmed by what is going on around us, but just being aware and reflective.
Mindbody connection and mindfulness are the same, moving the mind and body in the direction of increased harmony, balance or coherence.
We can talk about mindfulness at length about it, but to understand it we have to experience it directly, through a breathing meditation or other practice. This is because mindfulness points to something intuitive and pre-conceptual.
How many thoughts per day do we have?
In 2005, the National Science Foundation published an article summarizing research on the number of human thoughts we have per day. It was found that the average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those thousands of thoughts, 80% were negative, and 95% were the same repetitive thoughts as the day before.
There was another interesting study (Leahy, 2005, Study of Cornell University), in which scientists found that; “85% of what we worry about never happens. The conclusion is that 97% of our worries are baseless and result from an unfounded pessimistic perception. Yikes.
We now understand with the help of advances in technology, that the 12000-60000 thoughts described above come together as thought worms that add up to about 6,200 per day. The thought worm study was released in 2020 by a group of Queen’s University researchers in Canada. This works out to approximately 6.5 thoughts per minute and seems more realistic. Maybe could have come up with a different name than thought worms!
Automatic Thinking
The conscious mind contains all the thoughts, memories, feelings, and wishes of which we are aware at any given moment. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally.
Automatic thoughts are the thoughts and images that involuntarily pop into our conscious. They make up how we “read” a situation
Our automatic thinking minds constantly process information without our full awareness. Many (even most) of our thoughts and mental images spring to mind without any conscious initiation or involvement on our part. They just seem to appear out of nowhere. While automatic thoughts may seem inconsequential, they can actually play a very important role in our emotional health.
Automatic thoughts have the potential to trigger intense negative emotions. Usually, we are more aware of the emotions themselves than the thoughts that trigger them. However, in most instances it is the automatic thoughts that play the largest role in determining how we feel, not the situation itself.
For many people, the mind stays stuck. It ruminates over negative events. It focuses on what should have been, could have been and wasn’t. It is self-defeating and self-degrading. The mind and the self-talk it offers is, for many people, their own worst enemy.
Neuroscientists sometimes say that we have one brain, but two minds; a mind that makes conscious choices, based on self-reflection and awareness; and a mind that makes automatic responses based on instinct and habit.
With practice, a Breathing Meditation allows us to make better choices by developing the observer mind..
The above is an eye-opening bit of information for me and certainly supports why conscious breathing and or meditation are ESSENTIAL SKILLS.
Meditation and Conscious breathing
Your mind is often underutilized because you aren’t focusing it on the right things. However, if you set a clearly defined goal, and point your mind there, your mind will help you travel where you want to go.
You are the one who should give instructions to your mind, not vice versa. If you do not learn how to use this amazing tool then it will use you for your whole life
Integrative psychiatrist James Lake, MD, of Stanford University, writes that “extensive research has confirmed the medical and mental benefits of meditation, mindfulness training, yoga, and other mindbody practices.
Conscious breathing also improves the quality and effectiveness of meditation by; assisting in changing the brain wave activity from the stressful beta wavelengths to more relaxing and healthier alpha and theta wavelengths.
There are many health benefits to intentional or conscious breathing.
When you meditate, you will have periods of time focusing on your breath as it comes in and out of your body. And other times, finding your focus being swept away by the automatic thinking mind, and then snap out of it and return to the breathing, again and again. Rinse and repeat.
It is a great investment of your time and energy.
I am including a short video on a breathing meditation. There are many online, you just need to find one that resonates with you.
The Indian God Shiva, at the ancient Khmer ruins Prasat Pueai Noi, in northeast ThailandYoga has been around for millennia; “the development of yoga can be traced back over 5,000 years ago, but some researchers think that yoga may be up to 10,000 years old.”
It is believed that yoga started in the ancient Samskrithi culture of Bharata, (India).
The origin of; “the word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit ‘Yuj’ which essentially means to join or unite. The union referred to is that of the individual or the self-uniting with Cosmic Consciousness or the Universal Spirit.”
If you’re interested, check out the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, one of the ancient Indian texts that is often cited as the basis of the philosophy behind yoga. There are eight limbs of yoga, made up of 195 sutras that focus on gaining mastery over the mind and emotions in order to grow spiritually.
Mind-Body
There is mounting medical evidence (MRI’s and other) confirming what was known long ago, that practicing yoga has numerous health benefits. This includes but is not limited to; increased strength, balance and circulation, better immunity, breathing and posture and reduced stress, anxiety, improved mood and greater self-awareness.
The remainder of this post takes an abbreviated look at that part of the mind known as ego. If you have a curious “mind” and want to know more about the ego and self-realization, there is an abundance of information about this subject online.
Some background
An article on Psychcentral.com advises that: “though the term ‘ego’ is commonly used to describe one who boasts, is arrogant, treats others with scorn, lacks empathy, and the like, the concept of ego is neutral in itself.
The word ‘ego’ is a Greek word for “I”, meaning the core sense of self, a distinct and unique expression of personhood, albeit one that paradoxically exists in connection or in relation to life and others.”
Our ego by this definition then, is necessary and when at rest, neutral. It’s also capable of misbehaving though, as described in the following paragraph!
Doing Yoga or Ego?
A post in the Elephant Journal comments: “when ego mind is the performer of postures, our mind is actively engaged in self-criticism, comparing our performance with others, and judging ourself and others. Our mind is agitated and engaged in internal conflict even as our body is engaged in performing postures. As a result of constant internal conflict, our mind is restless. Whenever we are mentally agitated, restless, emotionally reactive to whatever we are facing at any given moment, we are engaged in the posture of ego.”
Learning how to transcend or calm a “restless mind” is an invaluable life skill that is transferable outside the yoga studio.
I’m open to the possibility of “self-uniting with Cosmic Consciousness or the Universal Spirit” but also pleased to be doing yoga and not ego on a more consistent basis.
It does however require showing up, practice and some sweat!
If so, you have joined the Un-Retired club which has many members!
“Un-Retirement” is the growing trend either by choice or economic necessity to continue to work past 65. This post will focus on those un-retired persons who need to keep working longer out of economic necessity.
It doesn’t matter whether your collar is blue, pink, green or white, Un-Retired Boomers come from all occupations and income levels.
White collar workers (those that perform professional, managerial, or administrative work) may have more formal education, and a higher working income, but they are not excluded from un-retirement. These workers can find themselves impacted by global market changes, forced layoff, or job loss for other causes with their retirement savings interrupted. The news media is filled with numerous stories:
offshoring of white collar jobs and in some cases moving entire companies overseas;
corporate downsizing and the resulting reduction of management positions; and
automation through digital technologies with job redundancy or loss.
A large number of Un-Retired Boomers in North America never fit into the financial industry’s “freedom 50 Plus” model. This is due to the many personal and market events and circumstances that can prevent this from happening by or before, what was once the mandatory age of retirement at 65.
Zoomer Media Limited (2012) informs us “Data from Statistics Canada and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that a growing number of people are not retiring at age 65. In Canada, the percentage of participation in the labor force by people age 55 and up is at an all-time high. Experts believe the trend will continue, permanently wiping out the idea that 65 is a magic number signifying the end of the income-earning years. In both Canada and the USA, about 30% of people aged 65-69 are still working, either full time or part time. That age break captures only a tiny percentage of Baby Boomers, the oldest of whom just entered retirement age. The rest of the wave – now aged 47 to 64 – are still outside that traditional retirement benchmark. What will they do when they hit the number? The research is clear: they’ll keep right on working.”
Born between 1946 and 1964, there are approximately 76 million Baby Boomers in the USA and 10 million in Canada.
For the older worker who hasn’t accumulated enough assets to have the choice whether they want to keep working or not, the options are limited. Working longer (Un-Retired) and consuming less, saving more from any income derived is the primary strategy, ideally at a job you like and one that provides adequate compensation. This work could be in the form of part time, casual, seasonal, full time or self-employment, depending on the individual needs and employment situation.
Staying gainfully employed for an Un-Retired worker can be challenging enough if you are in good health. If a disabling health event occurs before a sufficient nest egg is established, then the strategy described above might not be available. This would depend on the severity of the disability and what level of recovery occurs. Working longer may not be possible and barring a windfall or other injection of funds, these folks essentially become unemployed and un-retired at whatever level their savings after the fact, allow. This may require downsizing and/or consolidation to reduce expenses or if there is debt with a decrease in standard of living.
There are Un-Retired individuals though, who work longer and achieve whatever their definition of financial freedom is, so all is not gloom and doom!
The Baby Boomers and the X, Y, Z generations largely make up the working population in the USA or Canada.
The latest capital letter of the alphabet added to describe the generations is “U” This applies to those un-retired Boomers who can’t afford to stop working or who can by 65 but prefer not to.
The upside is that work can provide a connection with others, a sense of purpose and structure, benefit plans, additional income and so on. This is especially true if your job is a match for your financial needs, strengths, and interests.
At the other end of the continuum; the reverse can also be true where certain employment conditions do not meet our financial needs or match our interests.
Talking about change or lack of, agencies like Statistics Canada and the US Census still refer to 65 as the age of retirement, when mandatory retirement at 65 was repealed in 2012 by Canada and 1986 in the U.S.
Results from the Ipsos Reid poll conducted for the 2014 Sun Life Canadian Unretirement Index found that: “As we have seen in past years, those who plan to work past 65 fall into two camps. Thirty-five per cent say they’ll do so because they want to. Sixty-five per cent feel they will need to. The gap between the two has been gradually widening since 2011.”
In the US, labor market participation rates of people 65 years and older has increased and according to the United States Census Bureau (2013) : “Within the 65 and over population, 65 to 69-year-olds saw the largest change, increasing from 21.8 percent in 1990 to 30.8 percent in 2010.”
There is a publication found on the United States Census Bureau (2022) website titled; On The Population 65 Years and Older in the United States ( 2016). “This report provides a look at selected demographic, social, housing and economic characteristics of the 65 years and older population in the United States based on a 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) one-year of data.”
On page 2 of this report the following is stated about Boomers working over 65: “In addition to the older population being a larger segment of the U.S. population, many of the social norms associated with old age have changed in recent years. Individuals are remaining in the labor force past the typical retirement age of 65.” On page 16 of this report the authors also advise ; “This is particularly visible for the 65 to 74 age group, in which around 30 percent of males and 22 percent of females were in the labor force.”. The numbers in this survey report appear similar to those reported in 2013 above, based on the 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) one-year data.
The demographics or age of the working population is dynamic, changing over the years. It is 2023 as I add this sentence and the changes are evident, I’m writing a new post to reflect these changes for interested readers!
