Mind over matter
Mind over matter
Reader question:
When somebody is “described as ‘totally out of his depth’after being Please explain “mind over matter”, as in: “He played through many injuries…This is a true example of mind over matter.”
My comments:
Have you ever heard someone say “Back pain starts at the brain”?
Or have you had any back pain anyway?
If you haven’t, all the more power to you. In other words, lucky you but most of us other adults, who have a regular job which involves sitting at a table in front of a computer screen must have had it at one time or the other.
By saying “back pain starts at the brain”, then, they mean to say two things. First, if one stops thinking about how back pain, especially if it’s gone on for some time, is going to make your life miserable again today, then its effect may become lessened or even negligible.adj.可以忽略的; 微不足道的; 无足轻重的; 不足轻重; Second, they can even block out the pain by sheer will（sheer
[英][???(r)][美][??r]
v.（使）偏航，（使）转向;
adv.完全地，全然; 垂直地，陡峭地;
n.舷弧; 单锚系泊的船位; 偏离的方向; 船体型线;
adj.完全的，全然的; 极薄的; 几乎垂直地，陡峭的; 绝对的;
）. That is, if they are strong-minded enough to focus their mind on the task at hand and concentrate on getting the job done. At the end of the day, they may actually feel as if their back pain had gone away.
Anyways, in our example, someone playing through injury is being discussed as an example of mind over matter, using one’s will to enable oneself to overcome physical pain caused by an injury.
Mind refers to one’s free will. Matter refers to physical matter, here our physical body.
The body, when injured, is in pain. However, if the pain is to a degree manageable, players use their mind to block out the pain and continue to play.
Again, they do that by focusing their full attention on the task at hand, at trying to win a championship, for example. It’s not that the pain caused by the injury disappears –it is still there –just that it’s being ignored.
I am sure you’ll notice this sooner or later, but any time if our mind focus on something, be it a small illness or a family issue, it grows. It grows and grows till it becomes something dominating our whole thought process, making it impossible for us to get anything else done.
However, on the other hand, if we’re so occupied with something else important and manage to put the said illness or family aside for a while, then it begins to diminish in size and weight.
And, the best part of it is, when we come back to the illness or family issue some time later, we may sometimes find they’re gone, like, completely. Miraculously gone, varnished through thin air.
In other words, out of mind, out of sight.
All right?
Alright, here are media examples of mind over matter:
1. The fanciful（fanciful
[英][?f?ns?fl][美][?f?ns?f?l]
adj.（指人）富于幻想的; （指物）设计或装饰新颖奇特的; 奇怪的，稀奇的; 不现实;
）notion of “mind over matter”, where the mind can exert influence over the body, is not so fanciful after all. It is possible for the mind to impose lasting physiological（physiological
[英][?f?z??'l?d??kl][美][?f?zi??lɑd??k?l]
adj.生理学的; 生理的;
）changes on the brain to overcome psychiatric（psychiatric
[英][?sa?ki??tr?k]
adj.精神病学的; 精神病治疗的;
）problems such as obsessive compulsive disorder.
So argues Prof Jeffrey M Schwartz, one of the world’s leading proponents of mind over matter in a psychiatric sense, who was in Dublin yesterday to deliver a lecture at St Patrick's Hospital.
He discussed the complex interplay（interplay
[英][??nt?ple?][美][??nt?rple?]
n.相互作用
）between mind and brain in a lecture entitled, “The Mind and the Brain, Are They Related?”
Prof Schwartz is a research psychiatrist（psychiatrist
[英][sa??ka??tr?st][美][sa?'ka??tr?st]
n.精神病专家，精神病医生; 精神病医生;
）in the school of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has spent years studying conscious（conscious
[英][?k?n??s][美][?kɑ:n??s]
adj.有意识的，神志清醒的; 自觉的，有意的; （痛苦，感情，冷气等）感觉得到的; 同“self-conscious“;
）awareness and the idea that the actions of the mind can have an effect on the workings of the brain. “I use obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) as a model for the issue of the relationship between the mind and the brain,”he said yesterday evening before the lecture.
The brain is the organ that controls our experience of the world via the senses, while the mind is our ability to be self-aware. In a neuro-psychiatric disorder such as OCD, the brain malfunctions causing us to respond inappropriately to the world, seen in compulsive behaviours such as obsessive washing of the hands and overwhelming fears of contamination or violence, amongst others, Prof Schwartz explained. neuro
[英][n'j??r??][美][n'j??ro?]
神经;
- Mind over matter is not fanciful, says psychiatrist, https://www.docsj.com/doc/7414238711.html,, July 11, 2008.
2. The Lakers are monitoring things beyond wondering if an old team can push up the pace in Mike D’Antoni’s quick-strike offense.
Part of the Lakers’development also takes place on the trainer’s table.
The Lakers’backcourt currently misses Steve Nash (fractured left leg) and Steve Blake (lower abdominal strain), the team already penciling them out tonight at Memphis (8-2) and Saturday at Dallas (7-6).
Kobe Bryant has paid attention to his strained right foot, while Dwight Howard penned his play at 75-80 percent since having back surgery seven months ago. Jordan Hill constantly keeps tabs on the herniated disk in his back. D’Antoni has relied on physical therapy and pain medication after having recent knee replacement surgery.
The Lakers (6-6) took the day off Thursday to spend Thanksgiving with close ones. It also gave them time to heal. There's one former Lakers player who appreciates how the team handles such injuries.
“There’s so many fender （fender
[英][?fend?(r)][美][?f?nd?]
n.（车辆的）挡泥板; 防御物; 火炉围栏;
）benders（bender
[英][?bend?(r)][美][?b?nd?]
n.（一段时间）狂饮作乐，大量吸毒;
）that you have,”A.C. Green said in an interview with this newspaper. “At the same time, it’s fun.”
Green earned the “Iron Man”nickname for holding the all-time NBA record for consecutive games played (1,192), dating from Nov. 19, 1986, to April 18, 2001, while playing for the Lakers, Suns, Mavericks and Heat. Green led the Showtime Lakers in rebounding in six of his eight seasons, playing on two NBA championship teams in that span. He also provided leadership as a reserve for the Lakers'
1999-2000 championship squad.
Green lived by the motto, “If I can breathe, I can play.”He even played in a game a day after having an emergency root canal.
“It’s just mind over matter,” Green said. “You have to learn what that is and they can apply that to their own situation. They just have to put aside how they really feel and have your mind dictate what's going to happen instead of your body.”
- Former Lakers forward A.C. Green talks about importance of game time, https://www.docsj.com/doc/7414238711.html,, November 22, 2012.
3. It’s a weight loss regime that seems to guarantee success, but researchers may have to work on the name. Proving, it seems, that fighting the flab really is a question of mind over matter, psychologists in America “brainwashed”a number of volunteers into losing their taste for certain fattening foods by implanting unpleasant childhood memories about them.
Even though the memories were false, the psychologists from the University of California managed to successfully turn people off strawberry ice cream, pickles and hard-boiled eggs.
In each case they manipulated（manipulate
[英][m??n?pjule?t][美][m??n?pj??let]
vt.操作，处理; 巧妙地控制; 操纵; [医] 推拿，调整;
）the volunteers into believing that the foods had made them sick when they were children.
The scientists said they had also successfully implanted positive opinions about asparagus（asparagus
[英][??sp?r?g?s][美][??sp?r?ɡ?s]
n.芦笋，芦笋的茎; 天冬;
）by convincing subjects that they once loved the vegetable.
Elizabeth Loftus, a distinguished professor of psychology, social behavior and criminology（criminology
[英][?kr?m??n?l?d?i][美][?kr?m??nɑ:l?d?i]
n.犯罪学，刑事学;
）who led the team, told the newspaper that, if perfected, the technique could potentially induce people to eat better by implanting good memories about fruits and vegetables and bad ones about low-nutrient, high-calorie foods.
But according to Stephen Behnke, the ethics director of the American Psychological Association, implanting memories also “raises profound ethical questions”.
“Say, for example, we could change a person’s belief about their entire childhood,”he told the Los Angeles Times. “Would doing so be ethical?”
The food studies are the latest in a string of memory experiments by Professor Loftus, who is most famous for her work on recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. She has suggested that most of these memories are probably false. Prof Loftus told the newspaper that the food experiments were the first in which she had explored a positive, practical application of memory manipulation.
In the strawberry ice cream experiment a group of students were asked to fill out forms about their food experiences and preferences. Some of the subjects were then given a computer analysis which falsely said they had become sick from eating strawberry ice cream as children.
Almost 20% later agreed in a questionnaire that strawberry ice cream had made them sick and that they intended to avoid it in the future.
The results were even more startling in a second experiment, when students were asked to detail the imaginary ice cream episode （episode
[英][?ep?s??d][美][?ep?so?d]
n.插曲; 片段; 一集; 一段经历
）, during which a total of 41% said they believed the tale and intended to avoid strawberry ice cream in the future.
Prof Loftus, although acknowledging that the issue was ethically tricky （tricky [英][?tr?ki][美][?tr?ki]
adj.狡猾的; （形势、工作等）复杂的; 机警的; 微妙的;
）, said the techniques could be used by parents to persuade children to eat more healthily.
“People kind of cringe（cringe
[英][kr?nd?][美][kr?nd?]
vi.畏缩; 卑躬屈膝;
n.畏缩; 阿谀奉承;
）at the idea that anyone would suggest that they lie to their children, but they do it all the time when they tell them Santa Claus exists and so does the tooth fairy,”she told the newspaper.
But before it can be hailed（hail
[英][he?l][美][hel]
n.冰雹; 一阵;
vi.下冰雹; 如冰雹般地降下;
vt.致敬; 打招呼; 打信号示意（计程车等）停下; 赞扬（或称颂）…为（尤用于报章等）;
）as a cure for childhood obesity, the scientists will have to scale a major obstacle: so far they have failed to implant false beliefs about chocolate chip cookies and crisps （crisp
[英][kr?sp][美][kr?sp]
adj.脆的; 干冷的; 易碎的; 新鲜的，爽快的;
n.<英>炸马铃薯片; 松脆物;
vt.（使）变脆; 卷曲; 烘脆（面包等）;
）.
- Dieting? It’s all in the mind as volunteers are brainwashed, The https://www.docsj.com/doc/7414238711.html,, August 3, 2005.