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Welcome to this Health Minute episode where we’ll discuss how negative thoughts and feelings can influence us in either positive or negative ways. I will try to explain as simple as possible how thoughts become chemistry in our body, and how the body will transform based on what we think and feel.
Living in Fear is living in Survival
Living in fear that something negative could or might happen is living in anticipation of the worst case scenario. If living in fear becomes chronic (if it happens day by day) we call it living in survival emotions or living in survival mode.
When we live in a constant state of fear, we always try to anticipate all the negative situations that could happen. Doing this enough times and we end-up not knowing how the normal feels like; we slowly forget how to live free from the anticipation of the worst case scenario.
Our negative thoughts become chemistry
When we anticipate a certain negative situation over and over again, we basically train the brain ahead of the actual event. We make neural connections in our brain related to that imagined situation. We also put all our focus on solving this imaginary problem making it more real, in our mind, than anything else.
Furthermore, since the mind does not know the difference between what is real in the world and what we project mentally, and since the mind manages the chemistry of the body, we can say that we also “train” the body to anticipate a negative situation ahead of the actual event.
Remember that this negative situation has not yet happened in real life, yet we are feeling like it has already happened. This is possible due to the connection between our mind and the chemistry of the body. Please allow me to briefly explain …
For instance, someone could become sick to the stomach just by seeing or smelling a certain food, or by repeatedly thinking about it. The same is true when we imagine a sexual fantasy and, in a matter of minutes, our body starts transforming in anticipation of the sexual event.
The same is true if you mentally rehearse a negative outcome making it real in your mind. For the mind, the event is happening in that moment and so the mind will communicate to the body at a chemical level what it thinks. As a result, the mind will inform the body of the negative event that it perceives happening, literally preparing the body to deal with that event.
How we get sick from emotional stress
We could say than the mind influences the body chemically, literally telling the body what chemicals to make in every moment based on the perception that the mind has of the world.
So now we are training the body to feel as if the negative outcome is happening in this moment. The body complies and it transforms at the chemical level (peptides and hormones) in anticipation of the negative event.
This mind-body loop becomes a problem when we constantly rehears mentally something negative (like a negative situation or outcome). Rehearsing a negative outcome in our mind will eventually lead to a negative effect on the body. Doing this enough times and we’ll deplete the body of its resources that keep it healthy, nourished, in balance and in harmony.
When the body becomes weakened, that is when dis-ease starts to appear. Now we have a few real problems to deal with and we are now starting to really feel sick. Welcome … chronic stress, digestion issues, bowl movement issues, colds, anxiety, panic attacks, depressions, arthritis, and even cancers.
The solution for getting (and staying) healthy
The good news is that many people are now identifying chronic emotional stress as the number one cause for almost all dis-eases.
The not so good news is that we need to start addressing the emotional-psychological issues when treating any kind of diseases … something we aren’t doing right now. Dealing solely with the body will not make people well in the long run.
We need to find ways to get out of the survival mode and embrace a new different mode of living.
We have to literally create a new mind and observe the world with that new mind.
We need to transform ourselves and change our personality.
We need to have new thoughts, new feelings and emotions, and to observe the world from this new state of mind.
We have to become someone else, a new person with new thoughts, feelings and emotions, a person in which there is no place for dis-ease.
There is one more thing to note here: when living in survival mode. we always choose to focus on the worst negative outcome and we make it more real than anything else.
Now that you know all the above, here are a few questions to reflect upon:
- Why aren’t we focusing daily on a positive outcome instead?
- Why aren’t we making that possibility of a better life real in our mind?
- Why aren’t we obsessed with being healthy and happy?
- Why aren’t we embracing mentally, emotionally and chemically a new future where everything is exactly as we wish it to be?
Think about these questions for a minute …
Instead of conclusions
I hope that all of this makes sense to you, as it’s not easy to understand or to present the mechanics of negative thoughts and feelings. I believe that understanding the mechanics of negative thoughts and feelings is something that can literally change our life for the better.
I truly hope that you’re now able to see that you are in control of your health and your life. By mentally and emotionally rehearsing a new future, a new way of being, we can slowly change ourselves and eventually change our whole life.
