‘Your Body Hears Everything Your Mind Says, So Be Positive’
Really ?
Indeed, our health and thinking are intertwined. We have always heard our elders saying things such as ‘Positive thinking will lead to better health while negative thinking will inevitably lead to poor health.’ Turns out that these sayings are in fact true. Researchers have proved these claims true by
providing scientific evidence.
● We are more likely to develop a heart disease due to depression rather than secondhand
smoke (Shively et al., 2008).
● Positive emotions can lead to better recovery after a heart surgery (Kubzansky et al., 2001).
● Anger can potentially trigger heart attack (Moller at al., 1999)
These are only few of the 1000s of researches done to establish a link between positivity and health. Let us first understand the mechanism of stress and its impact on our body.
Mechanism of stress in simple terms
Whenever we are confronted by a stressor (any stressful event) our body goes into FIGHT OR FLIGHT mode. So imagine a violent and aggressive dog confronting a person. So this situation is now going to cause stress to that person.
But does it mean to be in stress ? This person’s body will now prepare to either fight that dog or runaway from that situation. Now this will require energy or physical resources. So his heart rate will increase, his breathing will increase thus increasing oxygen, there will be decrease in digestive activity. Basically all the bodily functions required to either fight the dog or run away from it will be encouraged and the other ongoing functions such as digestive and excretory functions will slow down so that the person is able to protect himself. So this aroused state of the body is called Stress. As the stressor subsides, changes in our body also go back to normal.
However, this is only a short term stress which is actually helpful for our body. The major damage to our health is done by long term stressors such as ‘breakup from a long time relationship’, ‘unemployment’, ‘family quarrels’ etc. When we ruminate about these issues, our brain releases stress hormones. These stress hormones cause the heart rate, blood pressure, sugar levels etc to be elevated or increased for long periods of time. This eventually breaks the cycle of normal body functions, causing lifestyle illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes etc.
This is why it is so important to counter these negative consequences of stress with positive thinking. Each one of us will have some kind of long term stressor in our lives. There really is no way be completely free of stress our entire lives. All we can do is choose to think positively and use positive affirmations and protect ourselves from these consequences.
And if you are unable to resolve some stressful situations in life, you can always seek help from therapists.
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