The Importance of Relationships
September 27, 2010
Check out this interesting article about the science behind therapeutic healing. The author suggests that there is solid evidence behind the notion of a "sixth sense" and the healing properties of forming and maintaining relationships. Specifically, she says,
Gradually, it’s becoming possible to understand more about how important relationships can be to our healing process. How pivotal the other is to the self, and vice versa. And how other and self connect in relationship, in “moments of meeting.”... Some new research looks into this stuff a little more clinically. In a five-year study, where people’s brain activity was monitored during therapy sessions, it was found that a so-called “sixth sense” or physiological level enters the equation. An “alignment” of the therapists’ and clients’ autonomic systems take place, with “part of their nervous systems beating in harmony.”
My favorite part of this is in that final sentence, the notion of nervous systems "beating in harmony". Certainly through the years people have been striving to understand the relationship between the physical happenings of the body and the emotional responses that seems to follow. Perhaps the future will hold a commonly accepted notion that it is in fact the behavior of the mind that affects the body, and that in striving to heal our physical ailments, we will first look to our mental, or emotional well being. What do you think?
Comments
