IT’S ALL ABOUT THE HYPOTHALAMUS

Over the past weeks, we have looked at how and why Parkinson’s disease develops, the physiological changes that take place over time and lead to the expression of these symptoms, and strategies for reversing this process. We’ve talked about loving ourselves, meditation, laughing, food, remedies, exercise, and other things to do.

We need to go back and revive our enthusiasm for BEING rather than DOING.

I’m going to make some guesses about you. I have to do this because, to my regret, we probably haven’t met. I would like to meet everyone who belongs to my program. I would love to sit in my consulting room with you and talk all about your life, how you are feeling and all the little things that can help make life better and more joyful. I can’t do that, so I have to guess.

I guess that, if you have come this far in my program, you have made some changes to your diet (perhaps big changes), you are exercising, meditating (perhaps not every day, but more than you were weeks ago), you are avoiding toxic chemicals and may have considered adjusting your medication a little. Well done! Give yourself a big pat on the back for all the good work you have done so far.

Everything you have done and achieved is helping your body to become healthier. But doing things and taking stuff won’t make you well all by themselves. My aim is to show you how to change the function of your brain so that you no longer need loads of supplements and remedies, or any medication.

Changing your brain function is all about the hypothalamus.

Bruce Lipton PhD, in his book “The Biology Of Belief”, describes in detail the process of hypothalamic guidance that we explored in my early classes. It is worth repeating. Bruce says “….. the hypothalamus receives and recognises environmental signals; the pituitary ……… launches the body’s organs into action. In response to threats from the external environment, the pituitary gland sends a signal to the adrenal glands, informing them of the need to coordinate the body’s fight or flight response.

Once the adrenal alarm is sounded, the stress hormones released into the blood constrict the blood vessels of the digestive tract, forcing the energy-providing blood to preferentially nourish the tissues of the arms and legs that enable us to get out of harms way.  Before the blood was sent to the extremities, it was concentrated in the visceral organs. Redistributing blood to the limbs in the fight or flight response results in an inhibition of growth related functions; without the blood’s nourishment the visceral organs cannot function properly. The visceral organs stop doing their life-sustaining work of digestion, absorption, excretion and other functions that provide for the growth of the cells and the production of the body’s energy reserves. Hence the stress response inhibits growth processes and further compromises the body’s survival by interfering with the generation of vital energy reserves.”

An important point to add here is that our aim is to bring the hypothalamus to a state of rest, so that we move away from the fight or flight response.

The description above implies that the hypothalamus responds to activity external to us, and we immediately think of attack or disasters; immediately recognisable dangers. But there are more intimate “environmental signals” that can trigger the hypothalamus into action, or inaction.

Earlier, we spoke about loving ourselves enough to be well. During the weeks, you have been working through that exercise of recognizing stressful times and taking steps to repair the hurt. The thoughts and actions in that exercise are “environmental signals”. So our own thoughts and actions can profoundly influence our hypothalamus to take action, or move into a restful state – and this greatly influences our ability to heal.

Many of our thought process were triggered at the beginning of our life; perhaps while we were still in the womb. Many pregnancies are greeted with uninhibited joy and gratitude. The child in the womb is loved and nurtured, spoken to, encouraged and cared for from the moment pregnancy is recognized. But this is not always so. Some pregnancies are unwanted. Some are greeted by shame, anger, hatred, desperation or hopelessness. The thoughts and feelings of the Mother (and the Father, as his feelings affect the Mother and are felt by the baby) change the chemical supply to the baby via the placenta. Grandparents and others in the extended family, even close friends, can have an influence too.

In his chapter on parental influence, Bruce Lipton (quoting Dr. Thomas Verny, a pioneer in the field of prenatal and perinatal psychiatry) says, “And that influence starts, says Verny, BEFORE children are born.”

Lipton goes on to say, “However, experimental psychologists and neuroscientists are demolishing the myth that infants cannot remember – or for that matter learn – and along with it the notion that parents are simply spectators in the unfolding of their children’s’ lives. The fetal and infant nervous system has vast sensory and learning capabilities and a kind of memory that neuroscientists call implicit memory.”

Does this mean we simply blame our parents for our illness? Of course not. Blame is an unhealthy action/emotion. I am explaining this to bring awareness and understanding of the process still going on in your mind and body, despite all the work you have done so far.

Why do I keep coming back to this? After all, I talked about some or all of the emotional aspects of Parkinson’s disease in earlier classes . Am I just filling in time, repeating stuff to make up more classes?

No.

Changing our subconscious memory, and the responses it controls, by changing the function of our hypothalamus is 80% OF THE HEALING PROCESS!

If I truly had this in proportion, I would devote at least 41 classes to this topic alone. Yes, it is that important!

If you do nothing else following all these classes, work with your hypothalamus and subconscious memory.

Okay, what are we going to do about changing the process of illness to a process of wellness?

• Be aware that the creation of Parkinson’s disease symptoms starts deep in your digestive system, vagus nerve and  brain, very early in life.

• Understand that we are not, and cannot be, aware of all the factors that began the process of degeneration, and it doesn’t matter.

• Stop looking for someone or something to blame for the disease, and accept that what is just is. There is no right or wrong; just life that is always a gift to us, and we can, and will, find joy and wellness in the life given to us.

Let’s stop here for a moment. How are we going to reach this level of awareness? Practice; that’s how. Yes, this will be a long, possibly slow, process for us all.

For me, it took years of patient work to fully understand how my hypothalamus was influenced from the moment of conception, then reinforced by many actions of many people, and my own automatic responses, until I was in my mid 50’s.

Everything I ask you to do, I have already done, and used to help me become and stay well.

• Go back to the history of your life you wrote. Read about the tough times in your life, especially the early times, and become fully aware of the emotions surrounding each time. If you have not yet written your life history, stop right now and write it. Do not go any further until you have completed this task.

• Stay with the earliest time. Is this in early childhood or pre-birth? Go back to your Mother’s pregnancy. If you can’t ask her (even if you can), dig deep into your own feelings and ask, “How do I really feel about the nature of care I received in the womb?”

• Become aware of how your body and psyche (your emotional response) change or are affected when you focus on this process.

• If you feel really comfortable about your pre-birth growth, move to the earliest trauma/tough time in your story and ask the same question – “how to I really feel about the level of support and care I received at this time?”

Is this hard for you? Do you want to throw this class away and move on? Do you feel like saying, “This is a waste of time; just tell me what to do to get well”? Stick with it. This IS what we do to get well. All the supplements, diet, exercise and remedies help us; but this is the core of the matter.

Once you are aware of how your body responds to these early stresses, you can become aware of how current situations “mimic” childhood experiences simply by realizing that our body responses are the same. For instance, one of my earliest experiences was criticism and being “put down”. Once I became aware of how my body responded when I remembered those incidences, I also realised that when I was criticized as an adult, I over reacted. I took it as humiliation, tried to defend myself and worked harder to meet this other person’s expectations. This awareness enabled me to realise that the criticism levelled at me was the other person’s responsibility, not mine. If they wanted me to change, the appropriate approach was to discuss the matter with me and negotiate.

This awareness helped me to become calmer, more confident, and more peaceful within myself. This, in turn, reduced my physical symptoms (tremor, stiffness, poor sleep, slurred speech, and so on).

Gabor Maté, in his book “When The Body Says No”, says, “Full awareness would mean that we would regain our lost capacity to perceive emotional reality and that we are ready to let go of the paralyzing belief that we are not strong enough to face the truth about our lives. There is no magic to it. …….

…… To develop awareness, though, we do have to practise, pay constant attention to our internal states and learn to trust these internal perceptions more than what words – our own or anyone else’s – convey.”

Awareness is very important, but we need to make changes in accordance with that awareness. Once we are aware of what adversely affects our emotional/physical wellbeing, our responsibility is to change that, either by changing our circumstances, or changing our response to our circumstance. Most of the time, we can simply refuse to be a puppet on the strings of someone else’s emotional needs. We can see that our responses have been imposed on us through circumstances beyond our control, and refuse to accept that response as normal, or a true expression of our being.

This awareness, and the changes we make, allows us to be ourselves; perhaps for the first time. It allows us to BE instead of DO. We become human BEINGS instead of human DOERS.

It is all part of loving ourselves without condition. If we act and behave from a basis of self-love, then our behaviour will be loving and healthy. So, instead of responding to situations to meet the expectations of others, we can say or assert that we are perfect as we are, and we respond with love.

Gabor Maté, in his chapter on “Assertion”, says that our knowledge of how and why our responses were formed, and our understanding that we may respond from love for ourselves, brings real strength to our creation of a peaceful life. “It is the declaration to ourselves and to the world that we are and that we are who we are.”

The point of all this is the realisation that we no longer have to DO anything that does not come from an aspect of deep love for ourselves, and consequent love for those around us. In fact, we no longer have to DO anything, but BE the radiant and perfect beings that we truly are.

Gabor Maté again – “Assertion challenges the core belief that we must somehow justify our existence.

It demands neither acting nor reacting. It is being, irrespective of action.

Thus, assertion may be the very opposite of action, not only in the narrow sense of refusing to do something we do not wish to do but letting go of the very need to act.”

Bringing our hypothalamus to a state of peace requires us to practice being peaceful. Jeff Victoroff, neurologist, says that “New evidence suggests that PD is powerfully influenced by environment and lifestyle.”

We CAN create a peaceful environment internally, and greatly influence our external environment by:

• Being aware;

• Asserting our right to a peaceful and loving response to each situation;

• Practicing being peaceful, and responding lovingly in stressful situations;

• Maintaining our practice of meditation, laughter and all actions that consolidate love for ourselves;

• Being ourselves.

Yes, it’s a hard class this week. This is a class to read over and over again, follow through, to come back to over the next few years, until you know, deep in your heart, that you and your hypothalamus are on a peaceful road.

THIS IS 80% OF THE HEALING JOURNEY

References

• “Stop Parkin’ and Start Livin’”; John C Coleman ND; Michelle Anderson Publishing, Melbourne Australia; 2005.

• VICTOROFF Dr. Jeff; “Saving Your Brain”; Bantam Books (Random House Australia), Milsons Point, NSW, Australia, 2002.

• McEWEN Professor Bruce; interview by Dr. Norman Swan on ABC Radio National “The Health Report” 10^th January 2005; downloaded from ABC website 11^th January 2005.

• MARJAMA-LYONS Jill, M.D.; “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Parkinson’s Disease”;  Warner Books, New York, USA; 2003

• KABAT-ZINN Jon, Ph.D.; “Full Catastrophe Living”; Delta Book; Dell Publishing, New York, USA; 1990

• “Meditation”; no author given; www.wholehealthmd.com ; downloaded from website 16^th January 2005