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Stockwell's Biochemistry of What You Feel
By Shelley Stockwell-Nicholas, PhD
President of the International Hypnosis Federation and www.hypnosisfederation.com
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You were born with twice as many brain cells than you had at age three. With maturity, neuron loss is more gradual and as an adult, you have about fifty thousand, to one hundred thousand (50,000 to 100,000) less then when you arrived. MSG, drugs or alcohol, can cause you to lose more than that. But don't despair, your brain likes to "clone around" and throughout your life it can generate new brain cells and bio-chemicals. A neuron is composed of a central cell body with branches, called dendrites. Dendrites receive information aided by receptor "ligands." Ligands determine and fingerprint your behavior, physical activity, mood, and emotion.
Neurons also have long tendrils, called axons. Axons are thought to communicate by electrically pulsing and releasing small packets of chemicals throughout the body. These chemicals are called "information substances" or "IS." From the time you initially formed, your brain produced these chemical-bioelectrical impulses as communication links from one neuron to another.
Synapses are a sort of telephone line that communicates and stores information. If a synapse is destroyed, usually the information it stored slips your mind. In-formation that neurons send and receive travel long distances and form complex networks. Networks of brain cells and synapses are called a neural web.
A single neuron can receive more than fifteen thousand connections from other cells. Over 100 trillion neural connections have been counted; more than the number of galaxies in the known universe. As you age, and neuron numbers dwindle, and remaining neurons send out more dendrites, axons and bio chemical messengers. As you get older, it's good to have connections.
Hypnotically Soothe Your Neurons
Professional Hypnotists are very interested in soothing your neurons and helping you to relax. International Hypnosis Federation researchers (www.hypnosisfederation.com) have found that a simple suggestion can make quite a difference. You know how important touch is; without it a baby dies. Your skin is highly concentrated with receptors. Touch and acupuncture activates your touch receptors. Verbal suggestions like, "Focus your attention on your stomach and soothe that place with a pleasant glow of relaxation" actually influence your body in the same way as touch. A Hypnotherapist healing someone with IBS would call this a "gut specific suggestion."
Sensory Receptors
Someone gives you a pat on the back and you feel a rush of pride and confidence. You feel timid about speaking in front of an audience and you break out in a cold sweat. Someone you find attractive comes into the room and you get a flush of excitement surging through you. How in the world does do these things happen? Your sensory receptors take and give "in-formation" to determine how you feel, act and react. And how you feel act and react determines the structure and function of your sensory receptors. How your sensory receptors take and give "in-formation" also determines what remains unconscious, and what is moved to conscious priority.
Why do you get a chill up your spine when you are surprised, startled or thrilled? Your spinal cord is loaded with receptors and millions (or perhaps billions) of neuro-peptides in the rows of nerve ganglia. They instantly receive and return your brain messages. These amazing sensory receptors aren't only in your brain; your solar plexus and the ends of your organs (where you see, hear, taste, smell and touch) also sport the highest concentration of them. Receptors are on their surface of your cells and act like little satellite dishes. Just as your eyes and ears scan and sense, receptors scan or sense the right chemical messenger (neurotransmitters, hormones and tropic factors) that swim up to them. When the perfect chemical messenger "key" fits into their special keyhole they bind. This binding adds energy to the receptor molecule causing it to fidget, wriggle, wiggle, shimmy, bend and purr as it dances and modifies back and forth between two or three favorite shapes or arrangements.
Dr. Shelley Stockwell's Breath Exercise
Holding your breath or breathing rapidly, cause peptides to diffuse throughout your cerebrospinal fluid to hypnotize you so you feel and think differently. Many of the peptides that disperse are endorphins that are natural opiates that relieve pain. "Breathe from the top of your spine down to the bottom of . . . hold it . . . and let it out . . . good. Now breathe from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head . . . hold it and let it out . . . good. Now, breathe gently up and down your spine all the way into the spinal cord and bathe it with white light."
Cybernetic Bio-Feedback
Structure Influences function and function Influences structure.
"Might as well face it you're addicted to love." Emotions and body responses are the same. Jumping when startled or instantly "chilling out" when you hear good news is almost instantaneous feedback. Yogis control heart rate and blood flow with thoughts; so do you. But to do it consciously, you need to stay mindful and learn to control your thoughts first.
Every physical change creates an emotional change and every emotional change creates a physical change. Receptors interactively give and receive messages with the brain and other receptors. Repetitive thoughts and feelings can cause a body-wide neurological-biological cocktail. Over time you can become so addicted to thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions that you may habitually evoke the biochemical brew you crave. To control your thoughts, imagine yourself easily and powerfully resisting the seduction of any habitual neural thought/craving. Then choose thoughts that create proactive thoughts, feeling, actions and reactions. Then back up the pattern with a positive physical gesture, sit up straight, take a deep breath, look at something beautiful . . . perhaps your smiling face in the mirror.
Dr Shelley Stockwell-Nicholas, PhD is the President of the International Hypnosis Federation and www.hypnosisfederation.com. She may be reached by calling (310) 541-4844.
ihf@cox.net
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I love Orange Blossom. The first time I heard this there was an orange amaryllis blooming in Roger's office--it was the first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes. Ever since then, whenever I feel any tension in my body or feel the least bit upset, all I have to do is think Orange Blossom, and as I breathe in I am immediately calm.
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