Dr. Candace Pert.
William “Bud” Hart, of Haverhill, shares “Success Principles”—ideas for living a greater, better and more accomplished life, and building habits that stick. He also coaches clients to incorporate strategies for boosting their mental and physical performance during everyday living.
“I wanted there to be a field that looked for the biochemical substrate of psychology,” she said. “That field didn’t really exist at the time. But I began to search for it, and it began to exist.” These are the words of Dr. Candace Pert, a world class neuroscientist whose search for the field that didn’t exist ultimately led her to become known for, among other things, her basic contention that our bodies are actually “wired for bliss.”
Pert died in 2013 at age of 67. She was a research professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC. The branch of learning that didn’t exist prior to Dr. Pert was her pioneering study of neuropeptides. These are molecules produced by our nervous systems that affect all the cells of our body. Her work implies that not just our minds, but every cell in our bodies experience emotions, all together, all at once.
Pert’s research proved that the entire body is one giant receptor. So when we experience an emotion like sadness neuropeptides characteristic of sadness are produced that circulate throughout the body binding to every type of cell. In other words our ears, eyes, mouth, arms and legs are sad right along with our thinking (which can explain why a person might display a dejected looking demeanor).
I’m fascinated when I read stories about people like Pert’s. In the later years of her relatively short life and career her work led her to find that it is unnatural for humans to live without experiencing bliss (a state of perfect happiness). And she became an outspoken advocate for scientific research into the mind body connection.
In short Pert’s investigation verifies that positive thoughts, like negative thoughts, are converted to chemical messengers that attach to every cell of our body. Think about what this means. If we feel an endeavor is hopeless, then every cell in our body responds in this fashion and the situation is likely to be doomed to failure.
The take away for me is we can control pessimistic causing emotions. We can stop the flow of unhelpful hormones (neuropeptides). We can generate and control thoughts and create a body more receptive to positive feelings in every part of our body. When we do we are more likely to find work that we like to do and succeed in doing it (as Pert did).
William “Bud” Hart is a certified “Mindset” Coach, Accountability Partner and Business Consultant. Visit Hart Group, www.hartgroupma.com for more on coaching.