Mind-Body Unity In Health & Illness

In the youtube video 'Gabor Maté M.D - The Biology of Loss and Recovery', the Canadian physician and author of 'The Realm of Hungry Ghosts', talks about the impact of childhood attachment and development, generational trauma, mind-body unity in health and illness, and the importance of a dynamic mindfulness trauma-informed practice to create present individuals who can really connect with other people.

In the talk, which took place at the 2015 Building Stress-Resilient Schools & Communities Conference and is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17eS_lQNtdU, Gabor refers to research literature on trauma and addiction, and on what he has been able to distil from his own experience of working for many decades with patients in Vancouver, primarily cancer patients and addicts. He highlights the 'huge' correlation between addiction and trauma, defining addiction as a response to the biology of loss, with addictive behaviours functioning to temporarily regulate the brain as adaptive responses to pain avoidance.

Referring to the spiritual teaching of Eckhart Tollé, he stresses the importance of children learning how to be a human beings. That is, we all need to learn how to just BE without having to DO, how to be with our thoughts and emotions without reactivity or resistance, how to be with ourselves with mindful awareness so we can be truly present, connected and engaged with other human beings just as they are, without any judgement.

Gabor notes that the impact of stress - historical, social and economic - which is widespread and the cause of the majority of illness and addiction, requires mindful trauma-informed practices for treating individuals and mindful social activism, not just activism, to change society.