James Sebastiano Breaks Down the Relation between Physical Health and Mental Health

James Sebastino is a certified psychologist and holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Colorado. For 15 years, he traveled the world to explore the relationship between physical and mental health. Here’s what he found.

Talking about how he started, Sebastiano asked himself, “‘What is the culture of my mind? How did it come to be? Where is it taking me?’ When I was alone, these questions sounded like balloons bursting inside an empty room. The moment I stepped outside and entered the world they were reduced to a whisper. You know that creepy feeling when you have to constantly look over your shoulder fearing someone’s about to get you. I felt the same. Except, I felt it within me.”

He adds, “Clearly, my mind through the sources available to it that is, my senses and organs were trying to build a bridge towards me. Stress and anxiety were symptoms and like a circus flashlight, they were inviting me to look inside. The carnival of my emotions and the carrousel of my thoughts needed a ringmaster, in whose absence they were toiling in a counter-productive manner. I had to show up. I could ignore no longer.”

James believes that while the body is the servant of the mind, it’s incorrect to assume that’s all it is. Says he, “The body has a duty towards its well-being. Left to its nature, it heals, cures, and recovers naturally. But things go sideways when it has to bear the overlooked ailments of the mind. Anxiety does not cut your skin open, nor does fear create a wound on the body. Their effects are felt on the inner landscape. You can’t fix that with an Aspirin or a dermatological ointment.

The cure lies in slowing down, re-calibrating your pace of life, developing faith in your strength to heal your traumas and in the fertile land that lies beyond unreconciled emotions.” Indeed.