Powerful Protection Against Environmental Health Dangers

Dr. Connie Hernandez, ND
Dr. Connie Hernandez, ND

The great modern master of yoga Paramahansa Yogananda would often remind his followers, “Environment is stronger than will power.”

What, exactly, did he mean? Was the great yogi speaking strictly to his disciples? Or did his statement hold a deep truth for us all?

Researchers at the Institute of Heartmath in Boulder Creek, California have found that people’s heart rhythms tend to synchronize at a distance of up to six feet.

That’s important news, because the Heartmath scientists found that our heart rhythms have a powerful effect on our emotional state. Positive feelings of kindness, compassion, forgiveness, for example, cause the heart to generate beautiful, harmonious sine-like waves, as reflected in the chart below. On the other hand, negative emotions of anger, resentment, fear, etc., make the heart beat erratically, like a car that’s running out of gas.

The chart shows how heart rhythms change in the presence of feelings of Anger, Relaxation, and Appreciation. Note the charts of “Power Spectral Density” (PSD) at right. In the presence of positive, expansive feelings, the heart’s electrical power increased by more than 400 percent. Click to enlarge
The chart shows how heart rhythms change in the presence of feelings of Anger, Relaxation, and Appreciation. Note the charts of “Power Spectral Density” (PSD) at right. In the presence of positive, expansive feelings, the heart’s electrical power increases by more than 400 percent. Click to enlarge

A major point is that these heart-vibrations, negative or positive, are carried instantly to our body’s major systems, including the brain. That’s why it’s notably easier to think, learn, and analyze situations clearly when we’re feeling calm and harmonized.

It’s also proof of the wisdom of watching the company we keep. Angry, resentful people can affect us powerfully in ways that we might not end up liking.

The environments we frequent exert a tremendous influence on our physical, mental/emotional, social, and spiritual well-being.

And this is the focus of environmental medicine.

When we think of our personal environment, we tend to think of our physical surroundings – the air, water, sun, and earth around us, as well as man-made structures and the plants, animals, and people that share our living space.

Environmental medicine addresses the negative influences on our bodies, hearts, and minds of the environment pollutants in the earth, air, water, and people around us. Note that these negative influences are carried to us by the plants, animals, and humans that imbibe the polluted air and water, and subsist on each other.

Environmental medicine addresses the effects of radioactive and gaseous elements, toxic manmade chemicals, and other physical pollutants in our surrou

A rose grown from a tissue culture. We we all have to live in glass domes someday?
A rose grown from a tissue culture. We we all have to live in glass domes someday?

ndings.

In our increasingly electronified world, we’re effectively swimming in an growing sea of electromagnetic energy. And the negative effects of this environmental burden are becoming abundantly clear.

Cell phones carried in hip pockets are known to decrease bone density. Held to the head, they heat up the brain cells, perhaps causing irreversible changes. Insomnia is rampant among individuals who live near cell towers. And the electromagnetic fields of all kinds in our environment disrupt the all-important electrical pathways by which our body cells communicate.

The dangers are everywhere, even in the medical therapies that purport to heal us! For example, the radiation therapies used to treat cancer also promote cancer.

The adverse influences are omnipresent – in airport scanners, memory foam (used in bedding), formaldehyde in fabrics, PCBs in plastic water bottles, toxic chemicals in cleaning products, lead and pesticides in vegetables, mercury in fish, and mold in our homes.

Okay – the picture is starting to look pretty scary! Fortunately, there are steps we can take to strengthen our defenses and protect ourselves from the daily toxic bombardment.

To continue. We mentioned the Heartmath studies on negative and positive emotions. But even the colors and sounds in our environment can have a significant impact on our physical and mental health.

Masaru Emoto demonstrated, using photos of frozen water crystals, that dissonant sounds and thoughts destabilize the structure of the water that constitutes a huge portion of the makeup of our physical bodies, and that harmonious sounds and thoughts create beautiful crystalline structures in the same water.

Similarly, the bliss, love, and peace we can experience in superconscious states of meditation have been found to change the physiology of the meditator. They even exert a powerful harmonizing influence on other individuals sitting nearby. Sitting next to a deeply meditating person can raise our serotonin levels, for example, making us feel more inwardly happy and fulfilled. It’s just one reason why saints and sages have always urged us to spend more time in the company of spiritually minded people.

Science is discovering what the saints have always known: that we are part of an interconnected whole, linked by countless, very real vibrational connections to all beings animate or inanimate.

What it comes down to is this: “Environment is stronger than will power.” Every thought, feeling, and encounter influences us in ways that can either disrupt and destroy, or heal and positively transform us.

We can choose to let ourselves be buffeted by our environment, or we can opt to be very conscious of our interactions with our physical and energetic surroundings.

Although there will always be environment factors over which we have no control, we can choose the influences with which we surround ourselves, and the energy we put out to others. Research has shown that cultivating a strong personal magnetic aura has a huge protective effect not only our own well-being, but on the happiness and health of those around us.

So, let’s not dwell too much on the dangers. Let’s be aware of them, but focus our attention on the habits that can protect us: eating clean organically grown foods, getting enough exercise, spending time in nature, cultivating positive, uplifting friendships, and meditating on the deepest part of ourselves where powerful vibrations of bliss and love are waiting to be explored.

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Read more about the medical services Dr. Connie offers here: http://www.naturopathichealthconsultations.com