Your Emotions Determine your Health

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Every thought and emotion you have constantly contributes to the state of your overall health. Scientists have now proven that being kind boosts your immune system. Can you believe it, isn’t that amazing? But of course we already knew that didn’t we? The body mirrors the mind perfectly; so what takes place in the mind, takes place in the body, thus the mind- body connection.

When we experience an emotion, a chemical reaction takes place within our body. An emotion is felt and a corresponding hormone is released. For example when we feel stressed our body releases adrenaline into our system to help cope with it. Alternatively when we feel joyous our body releases endorphins which provide a sense of satisfaction and well being. It is this chemical release that connects the mind to the body and impacts our health.

The chemicals released into our system attach to our cells by way of receptors. All cells have receptors and are therefore capable of connecting with the hormones from every emotion we feel. When the chemical attaches to the cell, it sends a signal into the cell that in turn creates a biochemical event inside the cell. Enough of the heavy stuff though, basically what that means is it changes the state of the cell and therefore changes you internally.

We as human beings have an enormous array of emotions we feel continuously, whether we are aware of it on a conscious level or not. All emotions have a charge that we feel as positive or negative. Moment by moment we are releasing emotional charges into our bodies and most often unaware that we are feeling anything at all. In society as a whole, we have become so totally disconnected from our emotions.

When we experience any of the positive emotions such as happiness, joy, passion, inspiration, harmony, trust, optimism, freedom, appreciation, empowerment, peace, enthusiasm, jubilation or love, our bodies are in a state of homeostasis which is physiological equilibrium within our bodies involving a balance of functions and chemical composition. Basically our whole body is in balance and we feel amazing.

However reoccurrence of negative emotions such as boredom, anger, frustration, grief, disappointment, blame, worry, stress, loneliness, abandonment, sadness, fear, hate, rage, disillusionment, depression, anguish, resentment or guilt leave our body in a state of ill-health because of the way the cell is altered. From negative emotions comes a decline in our health.

Negative emotions are toxic to our cells and therefore our whole body. For example when we suffer from too much stress in our body, we experience an enormous amount of cortisol which has a detrimental consequence on how we feel physically. We may encounter such symptoms as muscle tightness, back/head aches, liver dysfunction, sluggish bowels, fatigue, inadequate kidney performance and eventually may be a casualty of heart attack or stroke. Then we feel miserable physically, and consequently we feel negative emotionally and so you can see how the cycle can escalate. This is how dis-ease originates in the body.

In a nutshell, the more you feel positive emotions, the healthier you will be! Your emotions determine your health and that is the bottom line. Think of a time you felt a negative emotion, how did your body react? Slumped shoulders, head down, tears, a sense of heaviness, shaking, tension, heart palpitations. This is how your body reflects your mind. What happens in the mind, happens in the body. I love what Louise Hay says in regard to skeptics of the mind-body connection; “Anyone who does not believe in the mind-body connection has never had a sexual fantasy.” Oh how she has the ability to get her point across.

Think of how your body reacts to positive emotions; a sense of lightness, smiles all round, shoulders back, posture straight, glowing face, a full state of relaxation. Positive emotions allow us to feel good physically, mentally and emotionally. The more we feel good, the more we feel good. So here is a perfect reason why we would endeavour to live our life from a place of happiness.

Yes, I know what you are thinking; we all encounter events and situations that provoke us to feel bad and I acknowledge it is all part of our human evolution. But this is where the desire for positive emotions is derived; us experiencing the polarity of the negative. To have the desire to be happy comes from knowing what it feels like to be unhappy. Having the desire for safety is from the feeling of being unsafe and scared. I am not saying you never have a negative emotion ever again, I am saying that we have the ability to take control and not fall victim to our emotions.

When you feel a negative emotion there are a couple of ways to change how you feel. Firstly, acknowledging how you feel and being in acceptance of it will take the power away from it; and you will begin to feel it dissipate. Don’t ignore it or try to make it go away, this gives more power to it. So when you are feeling angry, acknowledge it and allow yourself to be angry rather than trying to push the anger away. Don’t punish yourself by thinking you shouldn’t feel a certain way, that will lead to repression of emotions.

Acceptance of what emotion you are experiencing, frees you from feeling that way anymore and allows the emotion to move through you instead of being stuck in you; therefore allowing room for more positive emotions to enter. The acceptance of the emotion is already exchanging a positive emotion instead of the anger. Now your anger is gone, you can put your attention into a more positive effect. You can choose to feel positive about the same situation because you are seeing it through the eyes of a different emotion.

Secondly, if you are still feeling powerless to negative emotions, it is vital that you release them by expressing yourself. Expression can be in the form of talking to someone about it or writing it down in a journal, either way, the emotion is leaving your body and that is what is needed here. Rid your body of the harmful emotion by expressing it fully by words or pen. Unexpressed negative emotions cause sickness in the body. They block the flow of energy and cause a buildup of toxic cells creating incessant fatigue problems, illness and disease.

Long term emotional trauma stored in the body can cause serious disease such as cancer and the like. We repress our uncomfortable emotions in many ways including masking them by taking drugs (legal and illegal) or alcohol, overeating, excessive working, spending money (commonly known as retail therapy), obsessive sexual habits or even extreme exercising. These habits can turn into addictions and only serve to disguise the emotions within. These addictions enable you to numb the pain of the emotion so you don’t feel anymore.

So many times we see an obese person lose weight only to regain it again because the core issue of why the weight was there in the first place has not been resolved. In some instances they may lose weight, keep it off, but will fall prey to a new addiction to seek the same numbness until they are willing to look within for the cause. This process is known as being detached from your emotions, although just because you are ignoring their presence, doesn’t mean they do not exist. They are still causing major toxicity from within. The sooner you attend to hurt in the past, the healthier you will be.

If you are unsure of how to resolve past issues, seek advice from the experts. You may decide to leave bygones be bygones or sweep past hurt under the carpet so you don’t feel the pain of it again, but for the sake of your long term health and freedom of mind, resolution of emotional trauma is absolutely essential. Releasing past hurts is such a feeling of freedom and as I said before, it allows much more room to fill yourself up with the ‘feel good’ stuff.

In my practice I have found that those who choose resolution of deep- rooted emotional pain are able to move forward with a new passion and vigor for life. They have the ability to paint their future with the brush of freedom because they have released what it is that has been holding them back. They are able to step forward with newly recreated dreams on a bigger and more abundant scale.

Removing these self-sabotaging blocks allows processing on a physical, mental and emotional level all at once. It can also transpire at a subconscious level so you may not even be aware of what is being accomplished behind the scenes. So much can be achieved in a small amount of time. Years of cycling through the same patterns can be modified in a moment. Emotional potentiality is not a new concept for humanity to embrace; however being disconnected from it is the cause of the decline in our health.

So how do we strengthen our immune system by being kind? When I heard Dr. Wayne Dyer state this, I was absolutely blown away because scientists have now proven what I have always felt in my heart. Whenever you give an act of kindness to another, the recipient encounters a strong emotion within. This emotion, as stated earlier, causes a chemical reaction inside the body by way of serotonin. Serotonin is the hormone that makes us feel phenomenal. So when someone gives you a gift, that welling up of emotion you feel inside is from the serotonin. It is this hormone that strengthens our immune system and therefore our state of health.

But not only does the recipient increase their levels of serotonin, so does the giver because when you give in kindness, you also feel the emotional connection between the two of you and therefore release your serotonin accordingly. So you are both boosting your immune system at the same time. In this moment of kindness, the connection you feel is on a heart level, it is a connection of love between two souls. This is grace!

But if that isn’t amazing enough, when an individual simply observes this act of kindness, they also feel the act of love and it boosts their immune system as well. So if you don’t want to be kind yourself, you can always just watch someone else do it and get the same result. So you can see where this is all going. Just by being kind, everyone around you benefits and gets a stronger, healthier mind and body. Wow, how awesome is that? So being kind and feeling good makes you healthy!

So what you can do on a daily basis from a conscious perspective is to declare that you are the controlling factor in your health by seeing the positive instead of the negative; seeing the good instead of the bad. It is possible, but it is a choice, you can perceive things in a ‘feel good’ way. Tar you brush with the paint of love. Every single thing you encounter has an emotional reading to it. As the powerful human being that you are, you can override and change the way you think and feel about everything.

Choose to see the endless beauty in situations, rather than the ugliness; face each day with passion instead of dreading what is in store. Embrace the opportunity to spend time alone and be out in nature rather than dwelling on the fact you have to mow the lawn, notice the beauty in the snake rather than feel the fear. See the love in everyone and know we are all connected by the Divine, infinite intelligence that we all embody within. ‘When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.’ – Dr Wayne Dyer.

Permanent change means we need to abandon an old way of doing something and recreate a new and more effective way. Our common misconception is in believing all things happen automatically within our body. Now we have the understanding, knowledge and therefore the power to realise we are all in total control of creating our health. We now know how to give birth to optimal health. It originates from our state of mind and our wondrous emotions are the key. It doesn’t matter how well you eat, exercise and look after your body physically, if your cells can’t receive the nutrients and benefits because of emotional blockages, you will not become healthy for long.

As you think, so shall you be. Mind becomes matter. So when you change your thought, you change the way you feel about any given situation. Thinking a positive thought enables a corresponding ‘feel good’ emotion. Raising your consciousness allows you to think and feel positively more of the time, naturally creating a healthy mind, body and soul. When your health is in an optimum state, the possibilities you create for yourself are endless. Change your thought, change your emotion and create the life you desire. Change your emotion, change your cells and be the complete and utter picture of health. Source; http://www.articlesbase.com/self-help-articles/