METANOIA- Change your Mind for Healing, Wellness, & Wholeness

Metanoia is a Greek word meaning “to change one’s mind.” It is used in the original Greek scriptures to indicate a change of mind or direction which came into English as “repent” or to have a change of heart. It is also used in psychology to indicate healing or reintegration after a trauma or psychotic break. It is descriptive of the experience that many have after a psychedelic experience which is now being utilized as another intervention in psychotherapy. We are all familiar with the concept of “changing our mind”, but for most of us this usually means changing a decision regarding an action we are undertaking. Metanoia is more about a change of perspective or an increase in awareness of and in ourselves that of course may lead to different decisions. In my experience as a mental health counselor, I have seen this play out multiple times when a person suddenly develops an awareness of their underlying cognitive habits or patterns of thinking that resulted from family of origin dynamics or traumatic experiences.

Over the past 50 years there has been a shift away from the artificial Cartesian split between mind and body. In 1978, the American Psychological Association created division 38, Society for Health Psychology with a focus not just on behavioral health conditions but also on behavioral interventions for medical conditions. Research in psychoneuroimmunology and other disciplines continues to erase this artificial division, and physicians and other healthcare practitioners are beginning to integrate this new paradigm into clinical practice. Integrated practices consisting of physicians and behavioral health clinicians are increasing in number. There is well documented evidence of Tibetan Buddhists monks and other meditative practitioners’ ability to slow the heart rate and lower blood pressure among other seemingly impossible physiologic responses to these practices. The placebo effect is another example of the complex interaction between mind and body. Neuroscientists and other researchers are hard at work to determine the underlying physical and chemical mechanisms for these physiologic responses. The mind and body are not separate units. What affects the mind affects the body. What affects the body affects the mind. David Field in the novel Death Among the Nightingales states “It has been my experience that those who enjoy health of mind are less susceptible to maladies of a purely biological nature; likewise those who are sick in mind are more inclined to fall prey to contagion.”

Mindfulness can best be described as a relaxed state of awareness that includes both the external environment and our internal environment including our bodies and thoughts. Although this description is straightforward, anyone who has attempted mindfulness meditation knows that it takes regular practice to attain the benefits. The most difficult aspect is to not get caught up in our thoughts. This involves a detached awareness of our thoughts. One way this is often described is imagining our thoughts as clouds floating through our minds and gently returning our attention to our breathing or whatever anchor we use for the practice of mindfulness. There is no right or wrong way to practice and there are a variety of techniques. Please contact me if you are interested in “changing your mind.”