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NEW FILM - The Connection: Minding Your Body

LOL, Forest

I am very interested in seeing this, it's the kind of thing that can really help spread the word.
 
Oh, how thrilling! I saw Jon Kabat Zinn's name and did a little happy dance! You know it will be good. Thanks for posting this, Caninesense! And yes, Forest, I always check out the expert list so I appreciated you posting the link.

PS Jan, hee hee…yes, I do "like that sort of thing"...
 
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I love this video. It is strong reinforcement of TMS that the mind has the power to heal.

We have to find ways to counter-balance the stresses of modern life.
That began at the start of the Industrial Revolution but actually I believe every age
even before that had its own stresses that had to be deal with. Economics, wars, famine, floods,
disease all caused stress down through the ages.

We are so fortunate today to know about TMS and Mindbody techniques to heal our physical
and emotional pain. We also are very fortunate at TMSWiki to be part of such a caring community
that wants to help each other heal.
 
That's so true, Walt. I found a fascinating clip from the producers about a little town called Roseto:

It very much touches upon your point - both in terms of how things have changed (you would know!) and in terms of how important community is.
 
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Hi, Forest. The Roseto video is very interesting.
My dead-end block of homes in Glenview is not very community-friendly.
Like most other blocks everywhere, people tend to stick to themselves.
We do have an annual block party but half the block doesn't attend.

Before I loved to Glenview about 13 years ago I lived in Evanston
on a block where everyone was more community-friendly and visited each other.
In good weather six or twelve of us would gather with our dogs and drink wine.
That was an unusual block and I miss it.

Roseto the town shows how times change and how we have lost the friendly community life.
People definitely were healthier from being more neighborly.
 
I signed up for emails from the website, which are enjoyable - today's email links to a February blog post from Shannon Harvey (she's the director of the movie). It contains great information from Dr. Howard Benson of the Relaxation Response:

This was a break through moment in my own healing journey. Doctors had told me that my autoimmune disease was genetic in nature, that I just had bad genes and there wasn’t much to be done. But here was a professor of medicine from Harvard telling me that even the expression of the genes causing my illness could be changed. The next question I had was how could I ensure that I was evoking the relaxation response when I meditated and the answer was remarkably simple.

When we meditate we’re encouraged to focus our attention on just one thing such as our breath, or sensations in the body, or the sounds around us. When other thoughts rise up, we’re encouraged to let them go and return to our focused awareness. According to Dr. Benson’s research, this is central to evoking the relaxation response in the body. “The two basic features of evoking the relaxation response are a repetition and the disregard of other thoughts when they come to mind. And what those two things do is break the train of everyday thinking,” says Benson.

Dr. Benson explains that it’s often the train of everyday thinking that is causing stress in our lives. We’re worried about things that have happened in our past or may happen in our future and those thoughts are causing stress chemicals and hormones to be released in our body.

When Dr. Benson returned to the literature of the world to see whether these two steps that are breaking the train of everyday thinking had been described before, he was astonished to find that every single culture of human kind had these two steps. “There’s a commonality. So if a person argues my technique or my religion is better for bringing this forth than another, it’s foolish because it’s a bodily response. Just as there are scores of techniques that are stressful – same fight or flight response – so there are scores of approaches that evoke the relaxation response,” he says.
 
Thanks for sharing that, Jan. I just signed up for their email list as well. It sounds really interesting.

Herbert Benson runs a mind-body institute in Boston at the Mass General Hospital. They have a two day conference every year that is really stunningly good. (Last year Jon Kabat-Zinn, the pioneer of scientifically demonstrating the positive effects of mindfulness meditation, was the the keynote, but there were many other excellent speakers as well.) They also have a structured educational program of their own that I hope to attend. It can be paid for by insurance and because they've been doing it for so long, they have some amazing institutional knowledge in the people (primarily women) who run the institute. It is a terrific mixture of Harvard/MGH-level science and an open-minded approach that is willing to try different things and see if they work.
 
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I found another excellent video from the movie. Apparently there is evidence to suggest that mind-body approaches to calm the stress response, including the autonomic nervous system can double the chances of successful infertility treatment.

Here's the short version:

And the extended version: (also good)

One thing I liked in this video and the Roseto video above was the emphasis on social support. It's completely free and connection with other people makes a world of difference.

On the other hand, it makes you a little angry that these ideas aren't more widely known. Could the problem be that mind body treatments are too cheap? Our nonprofit shows that a huge amount of services can be offered for free, but that also means that people will have a hard time making money providing mindbody services. If there are no revenues in mindbody, then all of the marketing money and attention goes to things that are more profitable. Right?
 
Forest said:
On the other hand, it makes you a little angry that these ideas aren't more widely known. Could the problem be that mind body treatments are too cheap? Our nonprofit shows that a huge amount of services can be offered for free, but that also means that people will have a hard time making money providing mindbody services. If there are no revenues in mindbody, then all of the marketing money and attention goes to things that are more profitable. Right?
Click to expand...

Absolutely right, Forest. And I wish there was an alternative to "Liking" a post - I totally agree with your post, but I don't like it! (Well, I'm sure the video is good - haven't watched it yet :oops:) This issue makes me very frustrated and angry as well.

~Jan
 
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Forest said:
On the other hand, it makes you a little angry that these ideas aren't more widely known. Could the problem be that mind body treatments are too cheap? Our nonprofit shows that a huge amount of services can be offered for free, but that also means that people will have a hard time making money providing mindbody services. If there are no revenues in mindbody, then all of the marketing money and attention goes to things that are more profitable. Right?
Click to expand...

I agree, but am going to play devil's advocate by making a couple of counterpoints:

  • There is no money to be made in the AA model, but it spread world wide and is widely accepted as a highly effective strategy for many people. And it coexists with the disease model of substance abuse and the high profit Rehab Hospitals that have poor outcomes and high recidivism rates.
  • There is an industry with a financial stake in wellness--the health insurance industry, especially HMOs, both for-profit and government (Medicaid, Medicare). I think we should be hitting them up for contributions/grant money to fund the tmswiki and associated non-profit. Think of all the money we are saving them when we give up our high cost medical treatments for journaling and meditation! They should definitely be helping us with marketing.

OK, I'm getting off my soapbox now....
 
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Those are really terrific points, Ellen. I love the way that you challenge me to refine my thinking. Dialogue like this is, I think, the high point of what a forum can be, and as our forum matures, (it's still a toddler, only 2 years old!) I think we'll be seeing more and more of it, as we attract more and more people who have thought deeply about these subjects.

My dream has always been to build this organization up to be the AA of mindbody/psychosomatic medicine. Early in the process of incorporating, Alan Gordon suggested that I look up other nonprofits to benchmark ourselves against. AA was a clear first candidate. Two others are the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) and Recovery International, two other tremendously inspiring nonprofits.

Because it is the most evidence based, I think the DBSA is the best model for us, going forward. It is an incredibly inspiring organization. They have more than 700 peer-led chapters worldwide:
http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=peer_what_they_do
The Boston chapter has events every week at the famous Maclean and Mass General hospitals, serving about 150 people a week in about 13 breakout groups, with no cost of admission. For their facilitators, they have therapist-led trainings twice a year and mentoring after that. I attended one of their trainings and have been very impressed by their evidence-based approach.
 
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caninesense said:
Hi All,

I've attached a link to a new film with limited openings. From what I can gather, it does NOT address pain syndromes, but strives to includes most other diseases caused by the Mind. I thought we'd all might be interested in knowing about it, nevertheless.

https://www.theconnection.tv/

Perhaps it will help to open a fuller discussion of how our minds and bodies function together.

Lynn
Click to expand...
Incrediable information Lynn thx for sharing
 
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