Visualise to actualise your healing (EP22)

<p>Today’s <strong>Brain Booster</strong> is: <strong>Visualise to actualise your healing.</strong></p><p>Have you ever imagined something so vividly that your body responded as if it were real?</p><p>You imagine your child falling off their bike, and your heart skips a beat.You picture success, and your posture lifts.</p><p>You visualise biting into a lemon, and your lips pucker.</p><p>Nothing has happened, but your brain activates the same neural circuits that it does when you’re having the experience in real life. Brain scans show that your motor cortex, planning networks, and co-ordination pathways are all active when you visualise moving. </p><p>How is this relevant to healing?</p><p>Several studies on stroke patients found that when the person repeatedly visualised moving a paralysed limb, they improved their ability to function, reach, and use the affected limb. The same goes for people unable to move because of chronic pain.</p><p><strong>When they visualised, they actualised healing. </strong></p><p>* * * * *</p><p>Today’s <strong>Health Headline </strong>is: <strong>Pain is your friend, not your foe</strong>.</p><p>There’s an extremely rare genetic condition called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP), in which a person is born completely unable to feel physical pain.</p><p>At first glance, it sounds like a super power. ‘Go on, punch me in the face! Bring on the school bully because there’s nothing they can do to hurt me!’</p><p>However, it’s actually a life-threatening disorder, because you can have a massive wound on your back and be bleeding to death, and not be aware of it. People with CIP have a genetic mutation that blocks their ability to send an electrical signal to their brain to alert it to harm or damage. This translates into a life of unnoticed severe injuries, silent infections — such as appendicitis — and unrecognised trauma of all kinds. The consequence is that very few people with CIP survive to adulthood. Modern medical monitoring is slowly improving this, but it’s a treacherous way to live.  </p><p>* * * * *</p><p><strong>What’s Missing From Modern Medicine</strong> is prescribing visualisation instead of sedation. </p><p>The exception, of course, is having surgery. Obviously you need to be put to sleep for an invasive procedure. But a lot of painkillers — especially opioid medications — can make you feel sluggish or sleepy, and they’re highly addictive.  </p><p>Medicines like codeine, oxycodone, morphine and tramadol affect t