Full-Bodied Living: Embracing Pleasure in Everyday Life
Pleasurable states and behaviors, particularly when creative and numinous, engage the healing and transformative power of Eros. Special genes, called immediate early genes and clock genes, appear to be involved with healing. In exploring the new field of psychosocial genomics, psychologist Ernest Rossi has investigated how we can modify gene expression at the cellular level, for healing and self-recreation. He emphasizes the role of play, novelty, creativity, numinous experiences, happiness, humor, curiosity and wonder in the psychosynthetic process of neurogenesis.
Profound states of comfort, relaxation, trance and sleep maximize healing potential, and permit deep inner work and creative reorganization to occur. Doctor’s suggestions to the subconscious minds of severely burned patients brought about their speedy, near miraculous recovery. Techniques such as yoga, biofeedback, hypnosis, creative visualization, meditation and prayer reduce sympathetic nervous system activity and stimulate parasympathetic responses. This shift benefits endocrine and immune function and creates an integrated hypothalamic response, increasing the organism’s “quiescent cathexis” and ability to bind energy.
Entering deep comfort and relaxation during hypnosis has helped my patients with chronic pain and illness. In such a relaxed state, learning is also enhanced. Moishe Feldenkrais employed meditative movement in his revolutionary approach to healing and neuromuscular re-education. He believed learning should be pleasurable, and that goal setting impedes progress by creating resistance and removing us from the present moment. As in creativity and play, one’s attention should be focused on the immediate sensate experience.
We need pray for no higher heaven than the pure senses can furnish, a purely sensuous life,” wrote Thoreau. Any one of the senses is a portal to the pleasure centers in the brain. Our brains release opiates that heal and give us pleasure when we experience music, beauty, nature or art. One of the first fetal sensations is rocking, floating and moving in the womb. From subtle internal movements to martial arts, dance and exercise, endorphins are released and we derive pleasure from the motion of our breath, cells, fluids, tissues, muscles and limbs. Gentle holding, rocking and stroking soothe the ANS and activate our body’s healing mechanisms, as do hot baths, the warmth of the sun, and petting an animal. A sauna raises serotonin and endorphin levels. Hugs and kisses, laughter, and even purging tears can heal.
Our next prenatal sensual experience is the vibration of sounds and our mother’s voice. Our voice, singing chanting creates a vibration that reverberates through our tissues and bones. Innately, we both make and respond to rhythm. Song and music can bypass the cortex and stimulate spontaneous movement, memory and emotion. Certain frequencies, such as a waltz, have been shown to positively affect the ANS and the release of endorphin hormones, while reducing stress hormones. Common measurable improvements are to respiration, heart rate, blood pressure and conductivity of the skin. The beneficial effect has been compared to 2.5-mg. of Valium. Hayden’s Cello Concerto in C and Bach’s Air on the G-String are used in ICU to reduce pain and anxiety and speed post-operative recovery, and to supplement treatment for cancer, stroke, arthritis, and kidney dialysis. Music reduces the need for anesthesia and pain medication.
Some patients with Alzheimer’s disease and autism respond positively to treatment with music. It also helps some Parkinson’s patients to relax their rigid muscles, and move their hands over a piano keyboard even though they are frozen when attempting to feed or dress themselves. The sound of babbling water, rain, waves, or chimes, wind in the trees or a caring voice may have the same calming effect.
Views of water and plants induce alpha brain waves and relaxation; in fact post-op patients who had a tree view required less medication and were released sooner. Aquarium gazing is as effective as hypnosis in reducing pain, anxiety and blood pressure. Spending time in nature, looking at a fire, animals or babies play, seeing beautiful art, a sunrise, sunset, or rainbow can spark feelings of awe or unity associated with Eros. Watching an hour of comedy lowers stress hormones and boosts immunity by increasing lymphocytes. Norman Cousins completely reversed painful ankylosing spondylites by supplementing medical treatment with visualization, the love of family and friends and laughter. Watching five minutes of Charlie Chaplin videos relieved his pain for several hours. After a heart attack he did the same, and ignored his doctor’s warning to have by-pass surgery. He attributed his healing to laughter and the endorphins that elevated his mood.
Aromatherapy has been effective for treating insomnia, anxiety, panic attacks, back pain, migraine and food cravings. Imagine the smell of flowers, soap, incense or perfume. A whiff of spiced apple can modify stress responses and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system.
Although primarily sensual, the erotic can be extended through creative sublimations afforded by art, crafts, music, dance and hobbies that gratify the pleasure principle. For clients and me, creative activities are relaxing and a powerful channel for Eros. The healing power of creativity was highly regarded by Carl Jung. It stimulates the intuitive, “feminine” or “yin” side of the psyche, and is an outlet for the unconscious. Whether its creativity, knitting, cooking or sports, people are happiest when they are in “flow,” losing themselves in an activity. According to researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, “flow” generates a sense of well-being, that life is good.
An instructor at a stroke rehab facility told me stories about two stroke patients, one formerly a professional dancer, who now walked with a quad cane; but when her favorite music was played, she danced with grace. Another was a biology professor and gourmet cook, whose love of nature and teaching aroused Eros. For several years, he had lost his speech due to the stroke. However, one day, while sitting by the window, he saw a clump of mushrooms, and began talking fluently about the species and how to prepare them, until his caretakers noticed and commented, when he stopped abruptly. For many years, although I couldn’t walk without pain, I could still dance.
Most notable is the story of cellist Pablo Casals. He suffered from rheumatoid arthritis as well as emphysema. Each morning, with his head bent forward he shuffled to the piano bench. He unclenched his hands, his back began to straighten and his breathing relaxed. As reported by his guest, Norman Cousins, Casals began to play Bach’s “Wohltemperierte Klavier” with the skill and alacrity. He hummed as he played, and he moved into playing a Brahms Concerto. His fingers became extremely agile as they flew across the keyboard. His whole body became fluid and moved with the music. He rose, now standing several inches taller, walked to breakfast, his breathing barely audible. After a hearty meal, he went for a walk.
Creativity uplifts the soul, providing pleasure and inspiration, particularly if engaged in as play. From a biochemical standpoint, play heals by increasing our expressive range, loosening the flow of information that is stuck. However, focusing on effort, technique or an expected outcome restricts that flow, and takes us further from the awareness and joy of the moment. During play, we are united in the timeless present with the object of our experience. A child’s play is purposeless yet meaningful; it is not self-conscious. We all carry that latent memory of childhood pleasure and play — a time to which we yearn to return when we were at one with the world, with love and pleasure.
Like the Greeks, Freud equated love and pleasure, where the Self enjoys the world as it enjoys the Self. This love of life and blissful sense of oneness is what Eros represented in the Orphic mysteries.
“Self-love,” says Bernie Siegel “is an acknowledgement of the spark of the Divine that is in each of us, no matter what our imperfections.” Only in the full acceptance of our own imperfections can we fulfill the ultimate aim of Eros.
CONCLUSION
Although we haven’t been able as yet to fully understand or quantify how mind and emotion improve our health, we are able to see signs that it does, both from neuroscience research and from the effects on cells and patients. Although we may know that certain emotions are linked to certain chemical reactions, such as release of stress hormones, how thoughts can create this in ourselves, our disembodied DNA, or in people for whom we pray is still not understood.
This is the conclusion of a lengthy article on the neuroscience, psychology, and metaphysics of pleasure and healing. Go here for footnotes or to read the entire article.
©Darlene Lancer 2004, 2014