Dr. John A. King broke a tooth after ignoring a warning, then traces a pattern: a dislocated hip while emotionally distraught, torn muscles, a high-speed bike crash, sciatica. Each injury followed periods of stress. He argues unmanaged emotional turmoil adds invisible weight to the body, and the mind-body connection, ignored, becomes dangerous.
I broke a tooth today. I did something I knew not to do. Well, I did something I knew better than to do, and I broke a tooth. And it got me thinking about the relationship between emotional stress and your body, because there is definitely a connection. And I think of the injuries I've had just leading up to this trip. I broke a hand, Broke a wrist, broke a hand. Since I've been here, I've had a— since May, I've had a sciatica pain that's been all but totally debilitating. I find it very hard to walk most days. I chipped a tooth today. I've done hamstrings, knee, you know, if you count spider bite foot, we can throw that in as well. But then I think back through my life At every major injury I had, I've had, I dislocated a hip on a leg press machine because I was so emotionally distraught about something I didn't count the numbers of weights that I was putting on there. So instead of like, you know, 600 pounds, it was 1,200 pounds. It's a big difference. I came off a bicycle doing 22 miles an hour and Head straight into a concrete wall. I was lucky to get out of that one. That was 2 years ago, but very emotional time, just very distressing time in my life. Torn bicep, torn pecs. And I understand I'm, I'm an athlete, I push things all the time, and I'm in soul. But what I've come to realize is a connection between body, soul, and spirit. And I've always taught of it, and I've always thought of it. But what I've realized is internal stress for me, it does things like I hold 20 pounds of extra weight. I just can't shift it. And I'm an old bodybuilder, so I know how to manipulate my body. But what I don't know how to do yet is manipulate my stress levels. And coming into this last phase and leading up to ceremony starting on the 26th, And today I've been incredibly stressed. Just some things I can't change, some challenges I'm facing. And, um, I just realized how much it affects me, or how much I allow things to impact me. Things that, you know, I've got no control over, and things I really shouldn't be worried about because it's not, you know, I'm borrowing trouble. And yeah, so If breaking a tooth has taught me to slow down and just look at this and examine this challenge internally over the next couple of days and think about it and try and find a way to get myself to a place of peace regardless of what is happening in life around me, then I think, you know, to be honest, I'm going to believe my tooth is going to grow back. Now call me crazy, do whatever. I've had one grow back already. Leave it with you. Yeah, so just food for thought. The connection, the mind-body-spirit connection between stress and body performance is, is very, very real and can be very, very dangerous if we're not careful of it.
