By Melvyn Howe

Once upon a time getting sick meant visiting the doctor, reaching for a bottle of aspirin or simply toughing it out.

But attitudes are changing as studies around the world appear to show links between thinking and health.

It has long been recognised that stress, for example, affects the body and appears to be responsible for a whole range of ailments – both physical and mental.

However, research also suggests gratitude, forgiveness, humour, prayer etc., have a beneficial effect on our well-being.

This blog by Melvyn Howe was published on This is Bristol on April 12, 2012.

By Tony Lobl

Stress is not a new concept, but we live in an age which is constantly creating fresh varieties of angst to add to our mental in-tray.

Unsurprisingly, new technology and one of its central planks – the ubiquitous email – seem to be prime culprits.

This blog by Tony Lobl was published on the Independent on May 10, 2012.

By Steve Salt

The country's largest generation feels they have gone from boom to bust. And the situation is turning their mood rings dark. Baby boomers have a lot on their minds.

Living longer and healthier is getting some intense focus as Boomers begin turning 65. This year 10,000 of them will hit that mile marker each day. The trend will continue for the next 18 years.

Boomers are in a funk.

This blog by Steve Salt was published on the Cleveland Plain Dealer on May 10, 2012. 

By Keith Wommack

In the health care arena, there is an explosion of interest in spirituality’s ability to make physical changes. Harold Koenig, MD, associate professor of medicine and psychiatry at Duke University, is a senior author of Handbook of Religion and Health, a comprehensive examination of the impact of spirituality on well-being. The book details nearly 1,200 studies that explore the effects of prayer.

If prayer can help in times of physical crisis, how does it accomplish this? Perhaps, prayer heals because our bodies are more thought-based, than matter-based.

This blog by Keith Wommack was published on the Houston Chronicle on April 30, 2012.

By Linda Ross

How the approach to health has changed since I was a pre-med student in the 1970’s. Up to that point in my life and that of my family and friends, prayer was a way to experience peace. But a call from an insurance adjuster was the beginning of quite a change in my view of prayer and its transformative effect on the body.

This blog by Linda Ross was published on Creedible on April 30, 2012.

By Tony Lobl

After viewing this optical illusion with an Einstein mask, it's clear our eyes can deceive us. But are they to blame for the false impression made by an optical illusion?

Should that make us question the brain's reliability? After all, wouldn't we be wary of putting our trust in a friend who might at any time tell us a whopper?

Or could it even be hinting at something deeper when what you see is not always what you get?

This blog by Tony Lobl was published on the Huffington Post on April 23, 2012.

By Anna Bowness-Park

"The experience of aging in the 21st century will be very different from that in the last century. We need to reinvent aging," states the World Health Organization.

How we think about aging affects us all - from teething toddlers to Botoxed celebrities, from teenagers anxious about starting life to seniors who feel life is ending. Age surrounds every corner of our thought and stalks our days and years. But perhaps WHO, with its campaign sporting bungee-jumping seniors, has a better way to approach getting older.

This blog by Anna Bowness-Park was published in the Victoria Times Colonist on Apr. 14, 2012.

By Eric Nelson

Revolutions seem to be a dime-a-dozen these days. But the uprising being launched this week at theTEDMED medical conference in Washington, DC just might be the most far-reaching of them all, impacting in some way, shape, or form the vast majority of those living on planet Earth.

But perhaps the most interesting – and promising – rebellion of all is the slow but certain shift away from looking at the body as a purely matter-based construct to a more enlightened view that takes into consideration the individual’s spirituality as well.

This blog by Eric Nelson was published on The Washington Times on April 9, 2012.

By Keith Wommack

Apparently, our beliefs can help us. It’s been proven. If we believe we will be healthier, we can be. 

So, if our beliefs control our health, isn’t it important to know how to regulate our beliefs for the better? Here are some examples of how this has worked.

This blog by Keith Wommack was published on the Houston Chronicle on April 2, 2012.

By Tony Lobl

The acknowledgment that an "inner voice" and knowledge are both viable components of health care is significant. And the idea the latter backs the former, rather than the other way around, is intriguing.

Could heeding intuitions more consistently improve decision-making within medical practice and reduce mistakes? Might medical care change markedly if this were normal practice?

It would certainly highlight a quality that finds favour among many who use less material approaches to health care.

This blog by Tony Lobl was published on the Huffington Post on March 26, 2012.