 Once again, I take this opportunity to greet you with the evening, those who are present and those who are watching us, virtually. It's another privilege God has accepted that we be able to come again and continue with our series of mental health. As part of that, hope for families, family life, wake up prayer. For those of us who are not there yesterday, I just want to take one minute and say that we learned that indeed the mind is one of those engines in our lives that drives most of us and the functions that are very crucial in our lives. And therefore, I want to believe that that is why we are putting this together. You cannot hope for families unless your mind is in the health status that is supposed to be. And today we'll continue with our series and we'll be going actually intimately to see the connection between the mind and the body, which for a very long time we have actually tried to separate them, but they are inseparable as we've been looking at. So today we're looking at the mind-body connection and why we need to understand and appreciate that relationship. So far, I think we have seen where the mind is found, the difference between the mind and thoughts and even not the mind and the brain, we looked at it. And we are able to appreciate that indeed the mind exists and therefore we want to see that connection. Is it something that we can separate yet? We really try a lot to separate those two. The book of Proverbs chapter 22 was held as already prayed. Proverbs chapter 17, sorry, verse 22, I want to read. So even the spiritual realms, they are trying to actually demonstrate the intimacy that is between the mind and the body, though they use the spirit and the heart. I think I explained that. My Bible says in Proverbs chapter 17, verse 22, it says, a cheerful heart is good medicine, sorry, a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bone. Meaning that even when we are sick, the rate at which we recover, the rate at which we respond to even the medicine that is going to treat us physically has a lot to do with the state of our mind. And therefore we are looking at this and at the same time we'll be looking at how then do we make sure that we maintain a health or a sound mind in a healthy body? As we try so much to seek health, physical one, in terms of treatment, many at times you would agree with me that it is not very easy for somebody to even ask you what is the state of your mind? How are you? How is home? If you see, if you come and you have a problem, a bone like my friend just met, you know the doctor would go straight to the leg. They don't even know whether you have eaten. They don't even know how you reached there. They would be talking about the leg. No wonder then in our approaches, in the recent past we are seeing at least an effort to look at the person holistically, yet we still find that the mind is almost left behind. One of the things that was coined by a great philosopher, as I say it, the Romans, they coined a term called menesana in Copes Anno. That is a sound mind in a healthy body. That it will be actually, it will be an exercise in futility if we want to make our bodies healthy without considering the minds. And therefore, if you realize that in the first from the origin, in the old, it has been understood that the body and mind work closely such that if one is sick, then there is failure for actually the other side, the other part. And today I just want us to see that connection and even science has demonstrated that some diseases, their cause of the recovery and the prognosis actually depends so much on the state of the mind. Yes, the mental and physical diseases, it has been understood that mental states, for example, the attitude, the serenity, the hope, which we are talking about, hope for family, social interaction, they significantly affect a number of diseases. And allow me to take you very fast, way back in the early 90s and late 80s, when we first had the AIDS, or the HIV pandemic, we lost so many people because of the state of the mind. In fact, some people died in weeks, some in months because of the shock they got because they have actually contracted the disease. What was so special in that time? Nobody actually had seen the role of the mind, the acceptance, the positivity in terms of living and it really affected the outcome and the prognosis of the disease. I remember one person in Kenyatta had just gotten and it was a surprise, hello, it was a surprise, you could not imagine how he got that one because all that he did was actually to look for an in-law. How can an in-law have HIV? And he was so shocked, the sister to the wife, they said, no, it was my in-law, it was my in-law, hello. And for sure, we lost that person in four weeks' time because it was so overwhelming, you could not accept. At that time, the support, the psychosocial support was not there and that demonstrates the role of that mind together with the body that we are looking. At that time, most of the people did not actually die because of AIDS, they did not live to actually develop AIDS, the syndrome, but yet they died. What was the problem? The problem was the mind, the attitude, the acceptability, the shock that actually somebody got. Even currently, there are some diseases when somebody is diagnosed with it, we have taken it as a dead sentence. And unless there is a lot of support from the mental aspect, people are going to die, not because of, for example, cancer, but because of actually what the mind is telling them. That is why we are looking at the state of the mind in terms of our attitude. How are you looking at this disease that has been diagnosed? People have lived, some have lived, for example, with breast cancer for many years, yet others hardly go beyond the five-year whatever period. What is the difference is the way we have prepared them, the way we have dealt with the mind in relation to that particular disease. I remember one time, and with all due respect, some of my colleagues, we don't know how to package these things. You have taken a sample from somebody's, maybe a swelling, a breast mass and all that. And when you are coming to give the results, this is what this surgeon says. Mommy, we have found you have cancer and we have to come out with your breast. So this lady looks, she gets so confused. When I found her a year later, she was telling me, I don't know, this was in Nairobi West. She told me, I don't know how I crossed Mombasa Road that time when I was told that. She couldn't remember and she went all the way to Machakos and stayed there for one year, only to come back when she was in stage four. Actually, the new was in stage two. Are we seeing the connection? When we are telling patients, for example, that you are going to theater, you know some of us have associated theater with them. How much have you prepared the mind of this person to accept that theater is a place that you can go and come back? The connection is so intimate that many times we have lost even some people because of poor preparation in terms of their mind. And that is why brothers and sisters that it is important we may able to understand the connection. And because for a very long time the mental health aspect has always been left to actually talk about psychosis and madness. We have left out this particular aspect of the connection, which is so key. And I pray that as going forward, as part of the awareness, even within my colleagues and the medical fraternities are whole, we can be able to know the role of the mind and indeed take it seriously. Yes, as I've read that one Achiyafu Heart is good medicine, but a crushed soul drives the bone. We can be having the best medicines, the best approach to surgery, the everything, but if we are not prepared that what I am for me I'm calling the engine, then everything is wrong. Research showed that the people who went to surgery and they found the people who were visited and of course with a word of hope remember our topic is hope for families. When you are talking about hope, when we go to visit patients in hospitals, the Champlain's department, you don't know how significant that is because it is really talking and touching and that connection between the mind and the body. So research showed scientifically that the people who were visited with a word of hope in religion, isn't it, they actually recovered faster than those who were not visited. The visitors nothing, you know sometimes you may think that oh, the guy has gone into surgery, he is having the best medicine and all that and therefore it's okay. The psychosocial support is very key and of course it goes to a long way to give people hope, to have a cheerful heart and to actually tell them yes, there is one who knows beyond the surgery. So what am I saying that as we struggle to talk about the fundamental laws of health which are always listened and which all of you know, the new start, does the mind also have it's laws, yes. When we are thinking about the issue of the new start, the mind also has it's own way of looking at it to make the mind sound in that healthy body that we are always wanting to have. What are some of these laws in the end? I always use this when I am managing and we will be looking at that as part of the preventing mental illness. Stress management, one of number one I always tell people is to laugh. I wish I had time. Then I will ask you how many times do you laugh and you have put aside time specifically to laugh. Difficult to laugh. You see there is a way, we have been told that it's good to have time, me time you go and do whatever it is. How many of us have got, even if it is 10 minutes, you sit down and laugh. Hello, you know you are smiling and say how can that one be, isn't it? How, how, people might think you are sick isn't it? But do you know that that is one of the laws of actually maintaining a sound mind? And it is not just the mind that benefits from laughter. I want to tell you that when you laugh, I wish all of us could laugh. But some of us, even if I tell you to laugh, you will find it very difficult to laugh and that I would even know. Those who can laugh, when you find yourself laughing spontaneously, I know the state of your mind. There are some, even if I tell you to laugh, you will really struggle. Hello. When you laugh and that laughter that is okay, what happens is that there is that expansion of your chest. The diaphragm goes down, the actor is in increased intake of oxygen which goes to the brain and it relaxes a lot of tension which we have, which cause headaches. Some of us, especially ladies, we are always working with either mara moja, action, panadom. I wish I could have time to open your bags and you will tell me what is there. Instead of carrying those things, please take time, ten minutes, go to a corner and just laugh. If you want to laugh because there is, hello, just laugh. I know you are looking at me and saying now this one is telling us, yes, laughter, very, very important. In fact, research has shown that when you laugh, even there is increased production of saliva which produces more antibodies and therefore you increase your immunity. It has been demonstrated that people who laugh often and who are always cheerful, it is very, very difficult for them to even contract things like common cold. And I am sure you have seen even in some families where there is a very bad cold and a few people will contract others will not contract. Have you ever wondered why? The state of their mind. Hello, the mind connection. Yes, it goes up to that. Yes, and there is this guy who is always, he only needs to pass somewhere where somebody is sneezing and he picks that one. What is the problem? The body-mind connection. The state of that guy, if you were to examine their issues with the mind. And therefore, please laugh often. What is the other rule in terms of maintaining a healthy mind or a sound mind? Your mind is being, it's got to be optimism, practice optimism. Some of us, and even you wake up you wonder tomorrow what is it going to be? In fact, by the time you are waking up, you start having butterflies. Not the ones which Dr. Mesa was talking about which bands, but those ones which are telling you what do you think this is going to be? You are always worried about tomorrow. Your worries bring down your immunity. It causes you to actually even get confused. The body is, you wear down your body because you don't know about everything yours is negative. Please practice what? Optism. Have hope. One time when I was with the ladies, I can mention even here, I was telling them that sometimes it's good to give yourself hope. Maybe your guys has gotten somewhere, they knew that you were somewhere. Please tell yourself they will give you one day and you will come back. Hello? Having what? Hope and be optimism. Don't always cry. Just the way they met. One day it will work. They will come back to you. We must find a way of facing tomorrow. Isn't it? And when you have that, then your mind is clear. You will even find yourself, if you had a headache, it will go. The laughter, by the way I said laughter even acts as a painkiller. If you have a headache which is mild unless it is caused by a medical condition, just go somewhere and have a true laughter. You will find the headache going. And this is real. Hello? So let us run away from medicine because they have their own problems and practice. The health what? The good practices. Inoptism is like once you have contracted for example a disease, why the people died as I said for HIV AIDS is because they saw no future. They knew they are dead even before they die. And some of us whenever we get a problem, we just say we are finished. We are what? We are finished. And therefore you start the negative thoughts. And of course you have said you are finished. Actually you get finished because you have decided you are finished. So it is good to have hope. The third number is use memories to relax. These are tough times, even in this country. When the economy is really bad, when we are talking about issues of taxation and everything. It is a time we had a nice time. Kibaki's time was nice. Remember and you know sometimes you don't even matter because you say wow that time even the banks were looking for me to take loans. See it was a nice time. Memories to do what? To relax. Let us not always die on the situation which we find hopeless. When things are so bad in the family, sometimes remember when maybe the time when things were so well you would be told honey, if that name disappeared remember it. You would relax. At least this time I was called honey one time. Hello? Use memories to do what? To relax. Otherwise the mind will just be going its own. And there are many good memories. For those who are looking at the less in this quarter, even the Samis, there is a place where they were saying where is God? You see you reach a point and say I think God has stopped existing. No. Remind yourself of the good things God has done for you. Is that what we were told? Yes. Use memories to relax and that is how you are going to continually develop a sound mind. Then hope for families. I don't know why that topic was the fourth one is look the future with hope. You know when you look at that, when you look at the future, I am sure we are having hope for the families because things are not right. And there we are hoping that they will come back to where they were at one point. You look at the future with hope. If you have lost your job, please say the way you got this particular job that you have lost, you are going to get another one. That gives you, isn't it? It gives you peace. You can be able to sleep. Because many times when we are actually dwelling on the worst situation, we don't even see that tomorrow will actually make sense. And that is how we start developing the negative thoughts and of course the mind sometimes cannot be very kind. Number five is the social support. I mentioned about this. Unfortunately, we find ourselves with a lot of increase in mental health problems because of the so-called social support. In the olden, we used to have wonderful support, the grandmas, the grandfathers and all those children, the aunties, you know, talking things and people learned. And they felt they were part of our community. Nowadays, it is everybody for themselves and God for all of us. The social support is so look for social support system. This I must say with a kosher. Some of us we have issues and you go and combine to somebody without choosing and we have people who have what we call oral diarrhea. You know you are telling somebody about your issues and the next thing you hear them somewhere, somewhere more complicated. Can you be trusted to be a support to somebody? Can you be trusted or you are somebody when somebody combines to you, then you go and even add some soul to whatever it is and then you make it. I pray that you can be able to understand and have a social support. Many times the mind is sad that it wants to exercise that human beings are social beings and you don't have to be in isolation. It may, it helps you, it solves your problem at least halfway by sharing it out. But many of us we are so busy that we have not even time to listen to one another's issues. Social support has been seen a way, a one way of developing a healthy or a sound mind. Please at least let us take a minute especially as Christians to be our brothers keepers so that we can be able to understand when they have issues that they want to tell us. Social support system is very key. It is sad that if this person who has contracted an illness, if there are people who can reassure, if there is somebody who can say yes we can be able to look for finances. We are supposed to be able to go maybe for surgery and all that. That you have actually supported this person 100%. You have not touched whatever is supposed to be operated on but you have gone a long way to prepare this person even for a better recovery. This is what we call a sick role where people, they are those ones when you are sick you are supposed to concentrate on how you are going to recover and what you need from your friend is that motivation, that encouragement. You also expect them to play their sick role of looking for finances but many times we are left to just carry everything. Allow me to say that sometimes anger control and the practicing of assertiveness is another way to make sure that your mind is sound in this healthy body. Practicing religion as I said initially is very very key. Just the way we have really explained about the new start, we know about the new start, it is about nutrition. As far as it also goes a long way to make sure that our minds are alert depending on what you have eaten, it is the same way that also these practices are going to make sure that our minds are sound. Water is also something that is very special for the mind. So you can actually see that the connection is such that whatever is healthy for the body because we are always practicing that for our physical but the mind also needs whatever that we have talked about. What we eat determines our alertness, our soundness of mind and many many other things. So for you to even have that sound mind, the physical exercise because of that close connection, the relationship, the mind also benefits a lot from your physical exercises. Therefore if you can't do it for the sake of maybe keeping fit please do it because the mind needs it. Hello, isn't it? Choose what you eat not because you want to sleep or whatever but because the mind needs it. Sometimes we have overdone it to the detriment of our minds. When we are given so many health laws and about eating and everything please understand that the mind is also going to depend so much on what you are eating. And at one time when we were looking at the neuron which is the cell of the brain, I remember the late Professor Mungai told us and they didn't know that I was there that the mind, the neurons depend so much on their alertness. And he gave us an example of his parents that the father was one who knew that he has to eat and there is no question about it. And I'm not saying that people should not fast and he was alert up to 104 he could still tell him you know you are my son and I can still command you. But the mother who was not so keen and who was very religious and used to support and could actually deny herself meals and everything for the sake of the poor, at 80 she could not even know who she is. The relationship between diet and the alertness of our mind. And I said that the Adventist, I didn't know how he knew that but he is the one who told us that the Adventist who truly followed the health reform. It has been demonstrated that they live 15 years more and they are more alert in terms of the soundness of their mind than those who denote. Nowadays we don't talk about health reforms and even when we are talking about it we have to be very careful what we need to say. And I realized even the charge man was saying that we are convenient, please be 1, 2, 3, isn't it? But let me tell you those things that we are actually ignoring is what even the world is picking up and realizing this is the way to go. Not because of Christian, not because of religion, but because they want to maintain a sound mind. So this mind we must guard it. This mind is very important. This mind is ours to move. And let me tell you that some diseases like asthma, actually the number of attacks depends on the state of the mind. I know I am asthmatic, my husband is also asthmatic and we have children. But let me tell you the highest attacks that I have seen in the children is when they were in school and when they were about to do exams. Otherwise when they finished the asthma goes. Hello? Yes, that one I can tell you. There is another disease called mastic sclerosis who actually they have got to call crisis, including even sickle cell. Mostly the state of the mind determines the number of crisis they are going to have. So if you want to use less to manage the crisis, where do you start? Talk to this guy. Encourage them, remove the stresses. Of course exams and all that you may not remove, but reassure them. So that at least they are able to do what? To manage the asthma and the other diseases without necessarily running to hospitals at night with nebulization and everything. So I want to conclude by saying that the cause of our illnesses can be drastically modified if we were to work closely with the state of the mind. I talked about the attitude, the serenity, the hope and the social interactions. And actually my colleagues can agree with me that this is one of the areas that has been neglected for a very long time and it will determine even the length of stay of our patients in the hospitals. I pray that we are going to be able to pick up the mind and know it is rightful position. And when we are coming to be examined of your wound, when you are having a fever, we are not just going to look at the fever, we look at the person in totality. And of course ask did you sleep last night? How many of us are asked whether they slept well? How many? Hello, isn't it? How many? And yet that means a lot. If you have not slept for sure, even if I give you the best medicine, it's very unlikely that the response will not be as efficient as if you actually slept. It is my prayer that we may be able to understand and appreciate the connection between the two and actually address the mind for our better outcome in terms of managing diseases. May God bless you. Can we whisper prayer? Father Lord, we want to thank you so much once again for your masses that are everlasting and your love and your patience towards us. This moment you have taught about the connection you created us wonderfully, the connection between the mind and the body. How I pray that dear Lord you continually remind us so that we can be able to address the mind for a better outcome in terms of a healthy body. Thank you Father for giving us this chance and continually be with us until we finish in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.