A Healthy Diet Can Be A Powerful Catalyst Of Emotional Healing

[Dorado]

I agree that taking care of our overall well-being by adopting healthy lifestyle habits (e.g., balanced eating - this does not mean perfect eating) is a tool. That said, I do think that having this honest conversation can be useful. I concur that it's critical to emphasize that such tools are not going to be the cure for someone's RSI that began after a loved one died. However, I do believe it's useful for those of us who can more easily manage our mental health with such tools. The mind and the body do affect one another - and I am more empowered to balance my emotions when I generally sleep, eat, etc. well. It's easier for me to stay in parasympathetic mode when my physical well-being - in addition to my mental well-being - is addressed and balanced.

 

[Benjiro]

I agree that taking care of our overall well-being by adopting healthy lifestyle habits (e.g., balanced eating - this does not mean perfect eating) is a tool. That said, I do think that having this honest conversation can be useful. I concur that it's critical to emphasize that such tools are not going to be the cure for someone's RSI that began after a loved one died. However, I do believe it's useful for those of us who can more easily manage our mental health with such tools.

I agree with this and @miffybunny that it is a tool… not a cause or a cure in itself..

And you hit on the word, balance. Where extremes exist, it may make the most sense to emphasize this one. Unfortunately, I do think the mainstream (at least in my country, the US) is quite out of step on this one.

 

[Dorado]

Agreed. I also think this discussion can be useful because - if executed correctly - it can contextualize the science demonstrating that healthy eating can positively impact emotions. This conversation allows us to explore that truth while acknowledging that it isn't the cure for RSI, etc. Not contextualizing these facts can lead to confusion and the belief that perfect eating is the cure.

 

[miffybunny]

Dan Buglio is a likeminded coach and here is his take in context:

 

[Dorado]

I agree that fear doesn’t help.

I do believe that physical well-being tools can be useful, even if they are not a cure. Sleep, for instance, helps me restore my energy. What happens when my energy isn’t balanced? I’m definitely not as empowered to balance my emotions.

The intention isn’t to say that one should obsess over diet. I think tools can have a place in the mind-body discussion - and I view this as being very separate from the discussion that paints such tools as cures and requirements. Another positive is that addressing this can prevent those false beliefs. I believe it can also promote balance in the sense that we can acknowledge the link between emotions and diet without becoming obsessed or misled about its role in mind-body conditions (demystification).

 

[mbo]

My two cents.
Healthy food/diet, swimming, gardening, hikking, cooking, etc. are good things ... but not useful for adressing/overcoming TMS issues.
Self help books are full of "don't worry, be happy" messages, positive thinking and so on: nothing to do with TMS diseases.
Imagine the loss of your much-beloved son. Imagine hi is a very conflictive boy (drugs, crime, robberies,...). In his death you feel your sadness, your sorrow, your grief, your sorrow,.... but probably you don't feel your releasing, your relief, even yor happiness, your enjoyment for the end of a terrible nightmare.
And that's the core of the new paradigm proposed by Dr. Sarno. TMS pain and mid-body equivalent diseases comes from the repressed/unfelt emotions. Nothing to do with "somatization" or "conversion" concepts related to felt emotions, to feelings.
The pain in your leg, back, neck,... you'll have after the loss of your conflictive son (see example) d0esn't come from your conscious, felt emotions but from your hidden, unconscious, unfelt, unebarable, unnacceptable emotions.
So, please minimize any kind of "smoke screen" (healthy food, swimming,...) till you discover your repressed emotions whereby.your inner child is entrapped.
M.

 

[Dorado]

Directly addressing repressed/unfelt emotions was not the focus of my healing and I suspect there are other people like me out there. For me, a persistent state of anxiety triggered fight-or-flight mode and was the culprit behind my mind-body symptoms. In my situation, it truly is about balancing my daily feelings/emotions - especially anxiety. The intensity of my anxiety was not something I had ever been taught to manage. I always felt stress in a such catastrophic way because that's what I learned from the adults around me as a child (it seems as though nearly every little incident elicited an inappropriately severe response that would have you thinking the world was on fire), and patterned thinking truly got me stuck in sympathetic overdrive. I had to learn how to break those patterns and activate parasympathetic mode.

Fixating on my repressed emotions was fruitless for me back when I started down the mind-body road. I kept searching and searching for the right unfelt emotions until I made the connection between my anxiety and how it directly activated fight-or-flight mode. This makes sense given how anxiety alone has been shown to cause many symptoms: https://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-disorders/symptoms/ (Hundreds of Anxiety Symptoms Explained)

Just a thought. My intention isn't to say this applies to everyone, but I think it's important to note for other people like myself who weren't helped by the approaches centered on unfelt emotions. I believe some of us need to focus on balancing our feelings/emotions (e.g., responding to and managing anxiety), not letting them dominate us, and establishing new habits.

Tying this back to diet, I’ll never view it as a cure or a requirement, but I do like to incorporate some nice tools into my life to help me balance my feelings/emotions. Tools are to be used within reason, of course. It’s equivalent to what we deem a “nice to have” - versus an “urgent need” - at my work. I think we are aligned there.

I don’t mean to hijack this thread! I’ve enjoyed discussing the intricacies of this topic and appreciate the conversation. I’ve said everything I can say, but look forward to observing the discussion!