Silver Cups

How Healing Happens

To a South Georgia Baby boomer, the image may be a silver cup grown tarnished. To the gardener, a rusted trowel. To the mechanic, a corroded engine part. To the inner-city dweller, buildings in disrepair.

Each of us experiences natural corrosion over time. Loss of the shine that glows from our original wholeness. We adapt to the roles and expectations of our culture. And, we develop protective defenses to the hurt and pain of toxic relationship and experience. We create “false selves” in order to get by.

It’s called coping.

Yet, each and every one of us can also experience the natural transformation of emotional and spiritual healing. The shining of our cups, trowels, and parts.

So, how does this healing happen?

Gradually. Over time. Moment by moment. Month by month. Year by year.

Last blog post, we were introduced to the teaching of Dr. Cathy Snapp on neuroplasticity, the science of “how healing happens” in our minds, bodies, and brains.

Please enjoy this beautiful description of the emerging knowledge from neuroscience as described by Dr. Snapp and her writing partner, Kitty Crenshaw. It is excerpted from their website: www.thehiddenlifeawakened.com.

Science and Faith-Based Practices

“Emerging science now affirms that the organic path Betty traveled has the power to heal the broken body, mind, and spirit. By changing her thought patterns, Betty changed her life.

Neuroscience is growing in its capacity to map, through stunning new technology, how our thoughts, emotions, and choices register in the brain by a cascade of physical and energetic changes in the structure of its cells. Scientists now affirm that how and where we focus our attention dictates the content of the brain structure we create. By choosing to focus our attention (mindfulness and prayer) on uplifting emotional content (positivity and hope) and sustaining that moment for twenty-five seconds (installation), we little by little change our brain structure, which changes mental activity, which changes biochemical communication in the body, which epigenetically changes gene expression and thus our physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Think of it this way: the act of replacing negative thoughts with good thoughts physically impacts the synapses in our brain, causing them to disconnect and make brand new connections, creating new pathways and cells devoted to right thinking. We turbocharge the process by engaging in positive lifestyle choices such as exercising, adding nutrient-rich foods into our diet, sleeping and resting well, and cultivating positive relationships. These combine synergistically to provide critical nutrients to grow healthy brain structure. Literally, in a process scientifically described as neuroplasticity, a new brain can be created to replace the old brain!

The effects of this self-directed neuroplasticity are cumulative, so every time we make a choice for hope, we are turning the part of us that chooses into something different than it was before. Just as it takes more than one footstep, though, to create a new path in the ground, it takes more than one thought to make a new pathway in our mind. We have to choose to cultivate the good we want in our mind over and over again. Somehow, the Apostle Paul understood this when he said, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Next post, we will explore mindfulness and meditation as means of “polishing our cups” by changing our brains. Until then, may we all be about the business of: