Your THOUGHTS
- Affect your health
Unresolved emotional issues and stress will take you down!
Some well-known effects of stress on our mental state
• Commonly – Fatigue, anxiety, sleeping problems, mood swings, the blues, and memory recall problems, etc.
• More seriously – Chronic depression / anxiety, ADHD, autism, schizophrenia, and suicide.
However . . .
Stress / negative emotions induce other hidden "goings-on" in the body . . .
Unresolved emotions / stress prevent cell communication
Holding on to unresolved traumatic experiences or distressing memories causes blockages in the body’s cellular communication pathways. “Trapped” negative emotions (E.g. anger, fear, resentment, pain) disrupt communication between our cells, which can result in a compromised immune system, physical problems and emotional unrest. No system can operate efficiently without communication between its components.
Make peace with your past, so that it will not mess up your present
No baby is born depressed. Infants are full of wonder and awe. Provided their basic needs are met, they breathe deeply, relax completely, radiate energy and sparkle with the light of life in their eyes.
Emotional (and physical) stress affects hormone production.
Our entire body’s operations are controlled by the hormones produced by our endocrine glands and other organs, such as hypothalamus, pituitary, pineal, thyroid, thymus, adrenals, pancreas, testes and ovaries. An imbalance in hormones can upset neuro-hormonal pathways and block communication between cells;
Stress increases damaging oxidants
Stress induces production of tissue-damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS).
Effects on glands / organs
When a person experiences emotional trauma or stress, that emotion expresses itself somewhere specific within the body. Researcher Louise Hay identified a correlation in over 300 conditions with their respective organ/gland. Some of those correlations we are familiar with:
• Nervousness shows up as “Butterflies” in the stomach. E.g. when giving a talk
• Anger can give you a cold
• Fear / anxiety leads to bowel problems
• Sadness can bring tears
This author is not convinced of the degree and extent of the correlations being espoused, but for those who would like to dig deeper . . .
Emotional causes of physical symptoms according to Louise Hay
However - you may be surprised at what matters most! . . .
The results of a meta-review of 148 studies (308,849 participants) by Julianne Holt-Lunstad, professor of psychology and Neuroscience at Brigham Young University revealed that:
"Having stronger social relationships predicts a 50% increased likelihood of survival, consistent across age, sex, initial health status, cause of death and follow-up period!"
Factors that most predict whether you will live longer
In reverse order:
(10) Breathing clean air
(9) Taking hypertension Rx
(8) Being lean vs. overweight
(7) Exercise
(6) Cardiac rehab
(5) Having flu vaccines
(4). Quitting boozing
(3) Quitting smoking
(2) CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS. Friends you can rely on
(1) SOCIAL INTEGRATION. Having daily social interactions with people, such as how many people do you talk to throughout your day and whether you live alone;
"Being connected to others socially is widely considered a fundamental human need - crucial to both well-being and survival,"
– Juliannne Holt-Lunstadt
Loneliness, social isolation and living alone increase mortaility
Another meta-review of 70 studies from 1980 to 2014 (involving 3.4 million people from N. America, Europe, Asia and Australia), Holt-Lunstad and her team found that loneliness, social isolation, and living alone all increased likelihood of mortality ~29, 26, and 32% respectively. The researchers also mentioned that:
“Affluent nations have the highest rates of individuals living alone (since census data collection began) and also likely have the highest rates in human history, with those rates projected to increase,”
In the U.S., 28% of households have just one person living in them
What stress ?
Today’s modern lifestyle taking its toll on our health
Let’s start with day-to-day life. Birth, death, relationships, raising children, illness / physical pain, work, moving, prejudice etc.
Poor nutrition. “High-tech” food production is yielding nutrient-poor diets even in affluent areas.
Social Changes. Family dysfunction due to divorce, single parenting, step-parenting, drug-use etc.
Dealing with financial problems – often due to extensive overspending by utilizing credit sources.
Environmental Changes. Extensive changes to our physical environment due to thousands of new chemicals in our air, foods, water and household products, and exposure to unnatural electromagnetic frequencies.
Mental bombardment from a highly stimulated life:
- Our constant accessibility. Via cell phones, computers;
- Dealing with large amounts of information.
- Increased communication and travel speed. Email /instant mail/ phone vs. a letter, travel to almost anywhere in the world in a day.
- Leading fully entertained lives. Via an almost continuous input stream of music, radio, television, movies, video games, social events.
- The stress of getting to and from work. E.g. due to heavy traffic, seeing to family needs in a rush before you leave.
- Rate of advancement in technology. Requires us to be constantly absorbing and learning new information and methods of operation.
