‘Let’s be radical. Let’s Change things’

These are the words of Gaga last Saturday. Vulnerable and wise she asks attention and acceptance for mental Health. She shows she is bigger than Life itself. Gaga always has lived extremes and explained gracefully the contrast of extreme suffering in a décor of extreme fame. What makes her so wise and much bigger than life is her ability to go beyond suffering and literally diminish neuropathic (all body) pain.

Besides her gratefulness for healthcare and medicine, she explained that chronic disease is an inside job. ‘After a phase of “Radical Acceptance”, you have to dig deep’, she tells Oprah and a huge audience in Florida. ‘I have the chronic pain for a reason. Everything that happened to me has a reason…….Wisdom came from the pain’. She referred to trauma earlier in her life that she mentally relived and as a result showed up as chronic disease.

The big awakening for her is that she has an understanding now she’s best at the center of both her rational and emotional brain. It took her a lot of years of suffering and a plethora of therapies to arrive at the point that with medication, meditation, daily routines and mindhacks (going out of the house even though she does not feel like it), she is better than ever. She explained it served her well to detach from former negative identities she had given herself, since verbally or mentally identifying feeds back to the brain. And that creates a reality for the body. We could all see what a beautiful, authentic woman Gaga is, now with a big mission.

A mission to solve the mental Health crisis within the next decade. She explained 44% of the American population is suffering depression. ‘Let’s be radical, let’s change things!’ she called on Oprah and the audience. Not only as an artist, but also as a human she touched the audience, she sure touched me….a lot.  

Let’s be radical, let’s change things. That is a very, very good idea for planet earth. Not only about half of the population suffers mental dis-ease, the same amount holds for physical chronic dis-ease. The thing is, we suffer our thoughts. When you hold a thought, your body is taking instructions by how it would react as if the thought was real. Next to the rational prefrontal cortex and the emotional limbic brain that Gaga referred to, the reptile brain works with anticipation to prepare the body for a reaction to a sudden event. As it needs to anticipate, that part of the brain works with perception, rather than reality. Holding a negative thought or reliving past trauma prepares the body for defense. Over time, as these chronic thoughts result in chronic defense, the body develops chronic inflammation. Next to mental dis-ease, physical dis-ease is at hand as well.

In one way or another, we all have unexpected, negative experiences or even trauma. We cannot control life. But, as Gaga explained, there is a possibility to consciously respond to thoughts and pain, instead of react unconsciously by automatic patterns. The solution to this is making sure your body is taking instructions from you as conscious, centered Self. Becoming the Boss of your Mind. A MindBoss.

The past decades new sciences came about like Epigenetics and Psychoneuroimmunology, explaining how these thoughts become mental- and physical dis-ease. The good news is, these mechanisms also work the other way around. The brain is very resilient (called neuroplasticity) and the body is very resilient (called homeostasis). By letting go of resistance the body relieves as well, regaining itsB natural healthy state. That is good news. No let’s radically change things! I’m in!