To achieve emotional well being it is important to understand where feelings come from and how they relate to the body and mind. With this knowledge you can engender emotional health in the body/mind complex.

I recently had the privilege of spending two evenings at a lecture by Dr. Candace Pert. She has written the intriguing book titled Molecules of Emotion. In her book she documents her work in the discovery that peptides are the biochemical basis for emotion in the body. Peptides are chains of amino acids. These chains can be as small as three amino acids in length, or as long as 100, wherein they become polypeptides. A peptide chain longer than 200 is a protein. Protein is the basis for all life.

In her research at the NIH, Dr. Pert discovered that peptides reside not only in the brain, but all over the body. They are the informational substances that allow the brain to communicate with the body in the effort to maintain homeostasis. The ability of peptides to bind with the different receptor sites on each cell determines the health of that cell.

Dr. Pert gives the following example in her book, "The same principle functions in the psychosomatic network, which is analogous to a boat sailing along as the result of a series of feedback loops. Cells are constantly signaling other cells through the release of neuropeptides, which bind with receptors. The signaled cells, like the helmsman or the sail trimmer, respond by making physiologic changes. These changes then feed back information to the peptide-secreting cells, telling them how much less or how much more of a peptide to produce. This is how both the body and the sailboat move forward, through a series of rapid feedback loops. A system is healthy - or 'whole', a word that shares its origins with the word 'health' - when these feedback loops are rapid and unimpeded, whether they are occurring between peptides and receptors or between the helmsman and his tiller.

" What is also evident is that the mind is in control of the body. When we speak of mind we are also including emotions, as the feeling expression of the mind. Everyone has had the experience of feeling embarrassment and consequently blushing. Or, feeling intense fear and the heart begins to pound, the stomach tightens and the bladder becomes excited. Sexual arousal in the mind results in marked changes to the body. These are all common knowledge and experience. Therefore, the question of whether the mind is the precursor to the health of the body has long been obvious to anyone paying attention. This is our first clue that the body is not only controlled by the mind, but is also heavily influenced by the emotions.

Emotions are important because it is how we feel about who we are and what we are doing that determines the success or failure of our efforts. The emotions are the bridge between the mind and the body. If you have little confidence in your problem solving abilities, your attempts to find the solution to even the simplest puzzles will be thwarted. If you are impulsive and don't have the patience, an emotional attitude, to apply prolonged concentration to an idea or project, your results will be as shallow as your focus.

We all have the ability to enhance our emotional self-image and well being. Dr. Pert's book not only reveals the scientific basis for how emotions are created and distributed throughout the body, but she gives a number of ways that old emotional baggage from the past can be released from the body/mind network. Emotions that have been suppressed do not just disappear into the ethers. They collect in the body. When emotions of fear, anger, lack or pain are held in the body they impede the ability for the affected organs to do their job efficiently. Science now knows that the receptors sites on the cells for particular peptides are disrupted or close down altogether. Since the body is a network of interconnected physical expression, any organ system that has been compromised will weaken the entire system, and reduce mental clarity.

Fear or anger actually creates certain peptide chains that are reintroduced into the living cells of the body through repeated DNA replication. Allopathic medicine is finally conceding that there are particular diseases that may be created through stress. Stress of certain organs, i.e. the stomach subjected to constant anxiety, fear or anger will impair the stomach lining creating an environment conducive to ulcers. There is a good deal of empirical evidence now that many cancers are stress related and the emotions that constrict the effected organs have weakened and deteriorated the bodily tissue, resulting in mutated cellular growth. Some prestigious hospitals are adding yoga, meditation and specific emotional release therapies to their cancer patient's survival regimes, with great success.

For the creative mind any emotional residues from the past need to be released from the body. There are a number of very good techniques for doing this. The following are all methods that I use to accomplish this. One or several could be right for you, it is your decision which works best for you.

• Yoga is one of the best, for it stretches all the body structures, relaxes the internal organs and releases stress, while allowing for focused concentration on the well being of the body. Circulation is increased, tension released and the entire organism relaxed and balanced.
  
  
• Wilhem Reich pioneered the idea that emotions were held in the body and with the help of Alexander Lowen developed the method called Bioenergetics. This consists of certain exercises in combination with vocalizations that release trapped emotions in the body thus, relieving organic stress.
  
  
• Keeping a dream journal is another excellent way to see what emotional residues are being held in your body that have been locked away in the subconscious. I have always been a lucid dreamer and remember my dreams every morning. Spending a small amount of time each morning when dreams are fresh will give you great insight into what emotional attitudes are still held in the subconscious mind, therefore having an impact on the physical body. Dreams are also a wonderful way reenact situations that are fearful, painful or demoralizing, allowing the mind to respond in a new way. Anyone can be taught to dream lucidly. This means becoming conscious during the dreaming process and making decisions about the outcome of dreaming scenarios. Once this is learned you can bring new responses to old habit patterns as played out in the dream.
  
  
• Meditation is a time honored method of learning to recognize emotional weaknesses in the body and release them. Whatever method you chose allows you to still the babbling personality and listen to the deeper self. Becoming conscious of your emotions in a detached way allows you to release them and adopt new emotional patterns of behavior.
  
  
• Humor is an excellent tool for reducing stress and negative emotions, adding clarity to the mind. Norman Cousins documented the healing effects of humor in his book Anatomy of an Illness. Very good book to read for understanding how potent humor can be in the healing of the mind and body. Laughter truly is the best medicine.
  
  
• Detachment is the result of meditation and humor. The eastern philosophies have long promoted detachment as a method of observing our world and ourselves. Cultivating the ability to become a neutral observer of your own feelings, how they effect the body, how they effect your moods, and how they benefit or harm you, will eventually give rise to releasing them as addictive behaviors. Observing your daily thought patterns for repeated attitudes in a nonjudgmental approach can show you what angers, lacks and fears you are holding that have no real basis in your current daily experience.

When emotions are negative or suppressed, the creative urge is either quelled or distorted. If you choose to express your full creative potential, learning to effectively release trapped emotional stress is imperative. The joy that results in unimpeded creative expression or creative problem solving is worth the effort expended to create emotional well being in the body and mind. The body and mind aren't separate, they are extensions of one another, interconnected and interdependent. Emotions are the bridge that weaves the energetic forces together, and the resulting pattern can be one of joy and appreciation for life. Clarity of mind, perfect health, and freedom of spirit is the pristine reward of emotional well being.