Introdution
language
Physiology
Focus
Conclusion
Introdution
For many years research has provided data that demonstrate how a positive emotional state can have a beneficial effect on physical health.
An important book by C.Peterson, psychology teacher at the Michigan University, talks about a study where the optimism level of 122 men has been assessed. Those had suffered by heart attack.
After 8 years, they make conclusion that in the group of:
– 25 men with the lowest optimism level, 21 were dead,
– 25 men with the most optimistic, only 6 were dead.
It might seem just a case, but it is hypothesized that the mind power of the men who have stayed alive, has been so decisive to dominate any other risk factors such as cholesterol and high blood pressure.
Another interesting article was published by the “Journal of Personality and Social Psychology” in 1991. It is a study on the functional recovery of people who have been paralyzed by bone marrow injuries where the researchers studied that: the most confident subjects, had a greater recovery than those who, with the same injury, were discouraged.
Optimism improves the chances of recovery, even a depressive state could intensify the progress of several diseases.
In an article published in “Epidemiology”, out of 2832 middle-aged men and women, 3% were diagnosed as severely depressed. These people were examined for 12 years. The outcome was: the most depressed had a risk of death for heart disease 4 times higher than those were not depressed.
As written in the famous book “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goldman, very often “the nature of the correlation between emotion and physical conditions depends on the mental attitude of the person more than biological causes. In fact, a person with little motivation to heal, gets to listen less to the doctors’ indications, hardly takes drugs properly and rarely pays attention to the prescribed diet. All of this, however puts those individuals in a position of a great risk.
How can we have a “positive” state in the therapeutic cycle?
You have certainly been in traffic in the following circumstances:
- late for an appointment
- while you were well ahead in time.
How did you react in both cases?
In the first one you might have been enraged, in the second case you didn’t give so much importance to it. If you had someone with you in the car you got the opportunity to have a chat.
The same happens with regard to the pathologies or traumas we suffer: we can react differently depending on the emotional state in which we live in, and the physiotherapist can help his patient reaching a positive emotional state, which is more functional for improving his situation.
During my training in NLP – Neurolinguistic Programming, I studied there are three elements that define the emotional state in which we live: languaLanguagege, physiology and focus.
Language
The language we use is important because is a decoding of what we feel. It’s very important for patients to be aware of the words they choose and to be followed by a physiotherapist who can help them in this process, to reach a better state. An example? If you had a knee pain, would you rather call it a “question to be solved” or a “problem”? These are two different ways of defining the same concept, but surely the first will help you to access a more functional state than the second one!
Physiology
This term refers to all the chemical and hormonal changes that our body can undergo.
In addition to drugs, we know that the posture we have and the movement we perform, can change our physiology. If it is true that, in depressive states, we tend to assume a closed posture: the back flexed, the head downwards and the shoulders entwined. It also true that an open posture leads to greater serenity, like: the greeting in the sun in yoga, or the position that the runners take when they cross the finish line as winners, with open arms, and the head pointing upwards.
There are many studies about it, I mention one published in the journal “Health Psychology”, 2015, in which 74 participants were examined. Each participant had to be in a posture during reach all the values of heart rate, blood pressure, levels of stress hormone production, mood and self-esteem were analyzed. As you will assume, patients who were given an open posture showed better levels of mood and self-esteem than those who had been given a closed posture.
Focus
Is where we pay our attention. As a physiotherapist I could tell you that for a certain condition “80% of patients are better after 4 sessions” or that “20% of patients do not improve after 4 sessions”.
Which of the two expressions would make you live better and more hopefully your situation?
Today, theories that seem to demonstrate the influence of mental attitudes on health are constantly evolving and still remain much discussed. When in doubt I would advise you to rely on expert hands and maintain an optimistic attitude, certainly doesn’t show any side effects would come out.
Our Centro di Fisioterapia a Balduina is near : via R. Pereira, via De Carolis, Via delle Medaglie d’oro, Via della Balduina, via dei Massimi, via San Cipriano, via Proba Petronia, via Mario Fascetti and is between Piazza Giovenale and Largo Maccagno . We are in front of the Istituto Comprensivo “D. R. Chiodi” and Fermata Appiano della linea FR3 . We are near other neighborhoods like Prati, Montemario, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Piazzale Clodio e Trionfale.
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