A HEALTHY SPIRIT IN A HEALTHY BODY

What's happened? Are you depressed again?

Feel tired and abused?

It means a system in your brain

Requires a major boost.

Location of the soul in the body

The title of this chapter may seem like a re-phrasing of the adage. Not that simple. Modern neurophysiology offers intriguing new insights into the links between a healthy spirit and a healthy body. The so-called limbic system located in the middle of the human brain (sometimes called the subcortex or the prototype of the cortex) is the center of our emotional life, the core of our personality, or, if you want, our soul. When this system is overexcited we feel as if we are wearing dark glasses. Everything provokes anguish, fear, and anxiety, we become irritant and aggressive, and we make hasty short-sighted decisions. When this system is balanced and peaceful, we are good-humored, optimistic, vigorous, and resolute. 

What impairs the limbic system?

The term “limbic system” was first introduced in 1952 by Paul McLean, an American researcher.

What are the factors behind the over-excitement or, even worse, inflammation of the limbic system? First and foremost, it is the presence of essential nutrients such as glucose, fatty acids, amino acids, and some vitamins and minerals in one’s diet.

A deficiency of certain nutrients excites our lizard brain and prompts us to start looking for the missing components. We often try to e feed this craving by increasing our food intake or to suppress this frustration by stronger means like tea, coffee, alcohol or medicines.

The food of the healthy spirit

A healthy spirit needs a healthy diet enriched with the right vitamins and food supplements

In fact, a healthy spirit (a.k.a. the well-being of the limbic system) requires a healthy diet enriched with the right vitamins and food supplements. What is missing from our “soup” can be found by simple tests. There are also clear physical  symptoms indicating that the body suffers from too much sugar, animal fat, urea (derived from red meat) or a lack of water, unsaturated fatty acids, or vitamins from the C, B or D groups. Even a simple switch from potatoes, bread, and meat to cereals, vegetables and fish (incidentally, recommended by the church on fast days) can largely quell the fire in the limbic cortex.

Love also heals

The limbic system determines our ability to love and become attached.

Believe it or not, our relations with friends and family are the second most important factor. The limbic system determines our ability to become attached and to love.

By learning how to be kind, generous, spontaneous, and sincere you calm your emotional brain, and it responds by blessing you with a productive mood, confidence, and freedom from obsessive fear and aggression.

A person whose limbic system is overexcited tends to suffer from suspicion, obsessive mistrust, emotional withdrawal, and coldness.. Once the limbic system calms down, the same person again sees people around him as kind and honest, opens up to them, and can start strong and lasting relationships. Note that the subcortex’s impact on behavior works both ways. By learning how to be kind, generous, spontaneous, and sincere you calm your emotional brain, and it responds by blessing you with a productive mood, confidence, and freedom from obsessive fear and aggression.

Hormonal balance

The last key component of a healthy limbic system is the right hormonal balance that depends on the work of the adrenal glands, the thyroid gland and the epiphysis. The first two are responsible for the body’s energy supply. Their sound functioning can be maintained by a proper diet, moderate exercise, and reasonable temperature stress activities, such as hot and cold showers or the sauna. The third gland produces melatonin, a hormone that the limbic system uses to control the sleep/wake cycle. This is why sleep disorders are so detrimental to your disposition, concentration, creative powers and the general quality of life.

Anyone seeking peace, joy and productivity should focus on healing the limbic system.

Anyone seeking peace, joy, and productivity should therefore focus on healing the limbic system. The reason you cannot love, create or rejoice is not your bad character, an evil boss, or a bad family. The reason is the health of your emotional heart, a structure hidden deep inside your brain.

You should learn how to detect and address any inflammation of the limbic system at an early stage. If you do, you will stop caring for numerous previously frustrating situations. Your unbeatable optimism will tear apart the nets of bad memories and obsessive thoughts. Always remember that happiness and health are two sides of the same golden coin you get as a reward for taking good care of your mind and spirit.