Mind - Body - Mind - conection

When we think of "I AM", ( and I think you should spend sometime meditating on this, ((there are some good meditation practices in my blogs)) ) and we find this multifaceted, multidimensional aspects of the "SELF",   we cannot leave the body out of the picture!
it is a part of us, of who and what we are AND it is a direct link to how we feel and think.

Thoughts/feelings affect body and body affects thoughts/feelings
Have a look at this nice chart and see if it makes any scene to you ;) 

Buddhism: 50% of your State of Mind is dependent on your Posture.

Namaste
SjD @ yoga108Bali

pineal gland

Lets leave for a moment the mythical aspects and power of out 3ed eye and look at the anatomy behind it.
More and more importance is being given to the glands of the endocrine system and the necessity of their proper functioning as advances in healthcare progress,
Much is still to be researched and understood about the body’s endocrine system, particularly the glands located in the the brain. 

Endocrine system

The endocrine system consists of a series of glands that secrete particular hormones into the bloodstream. These hormones send messages to the cells of the body, which in turn help to regulate a variety of functions including metabolism, growth and development, tissue function and mood. From its unique perch between the brain’s two hemispheres, the endocrine system’s pineal gland secretes melatonin, a derivative of serotonin, which generally contributes to feelings of well-being and happiness. 
The tiny, pine cone–shaped gland is joined by the habenular trigone and the posterior commissure to make up the epithalamus, which serves to connect the limbic system to other parts of the brain. 

The limbic system influences both the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system and seems to have involvement (which is not entirely well understood) with emotion, behavior, motivation, long-term memory and olfaction (our sense of smell). 
Just in this brief description, we get a glimpse of the inextricable relationships amongst our organs, systems and their functions. 

Limbic system

Released by the pineal gland’s pinealocyte cells, melatonin is a powerful antioxidant that fights free radicals that damage neurons (or any cells, for that matter). 
The amount of melatonin found in spinal fluid is much higher than the amount in our bloodstream, and it controls our circadian rhythm—our sleep and wake cycle. 
The pineal gland creates more of the antioxidant at night, in the absence of light, which helps to dictate our sleeping patterns. Studies on the pineal gland and melatonin have contributed to chronobiology, the branch of science which explores rhythms in living organisms. We all know people who strongly identify with being a “morning person” or “night owl,” and chronobiology has ways of assessing these chronotypes. In the dark months of winter, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) seems to be the result of low melatonin levels. Interestingly, aside from our eyes, the pineal gland is the only other organ in our body that detects light.
 Melatonin is produced in response to another hormone called norepinephrine. 
Recent research shows that while the norepinephrine complex turns up melatonin in the evening (and the resulting sleepiness), dopamine and its receptor form a complex of proteins that does the opposite in the morning. 
The dopamine receptor on the outside of the pineal gland works alongside norepinephrine receptors to slow the melatonin-secretion signal in the early morning. 

Several diseases and conditions are affiliated with melatonin, including insomnia, fatigue, anxiety and, most recently, cancer. 
Since melatonin protects white blood cells against radiation damage, they provide a boost for the immune system. The blood flow through the pineal gland is very high and second only to the kidney, the body’s natural blood filter. 
This counts as another unique aspect of the pineal gland, as most other parts of the brain are separated from the bloodstream by the blood-brain barrier system (a separation of circulating blood from the brain extracellular fluid). 

The pineal gland also has an effect on our reproductive system. 
High levels of melatonin in children are thought to inhibit their sexual development, and pineal gland tumors have been linked to the onset of early puberty. 
In addition, when the gland is damaged, accelerated growth of sexual organs occurs. Dr. Rick Strassman, who conducted extensive research on near-death experiences in the 1990s, asserts that the pineal gland is also responsible for secreting the naturally occurring psychedelic hormone dimethyltryptamine (DMT). 
Structurally analogous to both serotonin and melatonin, it is believed DMT might help contribute to the visual effects of natural dreaming, near-death experiences, religious visions or other altered states. As we have attempted to understand its functions throughout history, the pineal gland has been associated with mystery and myth. 
René Descartes, for example, dubbed it the “principal seat of the soul,” suggesting it connected the body and intellect. Further, the philosophy of French writer Georges Bataille holds that the pineal gland can be thought of as a blind spot in Western rationality. 
This could serve to explain why science has merely a partial understanding of its function and secretory activity. 
From a profound sense of clarity and presence to an increase in physical and mental health and balance, the effects of its proper functioning are wide-ranging and can be difficult to communicate. 
Further study will provide the elusive link between science and spirituality.

Chakras in the Body by Ram Dass

If you think in terms of chakras, or energy systems in the body or connected with the body, there is the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, which are called the muladhara, sradhishthana, manipura, anahata, vishuddha, anja, and sahasrara. The first one is in the bottom of the spine, the second is sort of below the navel, the third is at the navel, the fourth is in the heart region, the fifth is at the throat, the sixth is between the eyebrows, the seventh is on the top of the head. These don’t necessarily have any physiological correlates. They’re just psychic localizations of psychic energy, let’s put it that way, in this Hindu system, a Sanskrit, Hindu system I was talking about. Now, instead of doing an MMPI or a Rorschach you could also do a chakra chart, just like you could do an astrological chart. And these all tell you certain things. An astrological chart is like an MMPI one level back in abstraction. In the same way, a chakra chart tells, in a way, where the energy is fixed or localized in a person, where it’s stuck.

For most people in the Western universe, in fact most people in the world, almost all of the energy is located either in the first, second, or third chakras. The first chakra can be characterized crudely as being connected with survival and the survival of the individual as a separate being. It’s like we’re in the jungle and there’s one piece of meat and who’s going to get it, you or me? It’s a survival-of-the-fittest type model. It’s a Darwinian assumption about the motivations of beings. When you’re at that chakra, your motivation is to protect yourself as a separate being, your separateness. And the channel up which this is all going is called the Sushumna – think of it as a big river. You go in the river from Africa and the next stop is like the Riviera. See, you’ve got your security under control and now you start to go into sensual gratification and sexual desires and reproduction. You can’t be busy reproducing if you’re protecting your life, but the minute your life’s protected a little bit, then you can concern yourself with the next matter, which is reproducing the species. So the second chakra is primarily concerned with sexual actions, reactions, and so on – at the reproduction level. Procreative. Sex.

The third chakra, that’s like Wall Street and Washington and London. It’s primarily connected with power, with mastery, with ego control. Most of the world that we think of is connected with those particular centers. All the energy’s located there. People justify their lives in terms of reproduction or sexual gratification or power or mastery. And it’s interesting that pretty much any act we know of in the Western world can be done in the service of any one of those energies. So that a man can build a huge dynamic industry or we can say, “Aha, phallic,” meaning second chakra. Or a person can seduce many women in order to have mastery and power over them and we say, “Aha, concerned with power and mastery,” meaning third chakra. Doing sex in the service of third chakra.

Jung is primarily concerned with the fourth chakra.
I would point out that there are still the fifth, sixth and seventh chakras, and these are in terms of other kinds of psychic spaces and ways of organizing the universe and understanding what’s happening. There are many theories that are nonmystical and there are theories that are mystical; there are theories that deal with transcendent states and there are theories that don’t. And when Jung starts to deal with his archetypes, collective unconscious and so on, he is starting to deal with the fourth chakra, which is the same thing as Buddha’s compassion. He is still in astral planes and he himself is afraid to go on, that’s quite clear. He goes just so far and then he stops, because he’s afraid that if he goes the next step, he will no longer be able to do what he does as Carl Jung. That’s a very tricky place, to be able to surrender to your game which you have certain mastery in, in order to go for more. But I’m afraid that everybody is driven to go for more until they can, in the depths of their inner being, say, “This is enough.” And they can only say that when it is. So the press of evolution on man’s consciousness is inevitable. There’s nothing he can do about it. He doesn’t really have much choice in the matter. He’s just got to wake up at the rate he’s got to wake up.
- Ram Dass, 1970