“A person’s mind is so powerful. We can invent, create, experience, and destroy things with thoughts alone.” This includes your overall health and quality of life. Health isn’t just about what we eat. Amazing health is created by your environment which also includes your connection and exposure to the Earth, the people you surround yourself with, and even the thoughts you think. The conversation you have with yourself in the privacy of your own mind has a massive impact on your physical health, probably more than you’re aware of.
Your body has it’s own innate pharmacy – your mind. Your internal pharmacy is primarily modulated via neurotransmitters and hormones which are triggered by the brain’s deep capacity to learn and anticipate. As evolutionary biologist, Dr. Robert Trivers stated, “What the brain expects to happen in the near future affects its physiological state.” What we anticipate and expect stems from our past experiences and thought patterns. These perceptions and beliefs are generally formed in childhood, but they can be changed!
Thoughts have an overt physiological impact on cellular expression. Negative thinking increases the stress response in the body to help you prepare for survival. You may not think that your stressful and demanding job or going home to a toxic relationship or financial worries are a threat to your survival, but your brain perceives otherwise. When your thoughts focus on lack and scarcity, your brain then sends out stress hormones to drive fibrinogen, higher cholesterol, higher blood sugar, higher blood pressure while simultaneously turning off digestive secretions and sex hormones. The sympathetic nervous system mode purposefully impairs the body’s self repair mechanisms in the name of survival. If you’re under threat and running away from danger, why would you want to stop to eat, digest food, or to have a good bowel movement? The goal is to survive, so these things wouldn’t happen.
While this may seem like a crazy notion, our brains have not yet evolved enough to differentiate between the danger of a Sabertooth Tiger vs. the constant dread of going into the office another day.
The brain also doesn’t know the difference between reality and what is perceived. Have you ever watched a thrilling movie or read a suspenseful book just to find your muscles contracted, your breath short and shallow, your hands clenched and sweaty? Even though the scene in the movie or book isn’t actually happening to you, your brain perceives that it is and reacts accordingly. The same thing happens when you think suspenseful, negative, anxious thoughts.
Thoughts Impact on Heart Health
Lisa Yanek, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, led a study that determined that people who have a cheerier disposition are less likely to suffer from cardiac events. Yanek and her colleagues asked a group of siblings with early onset coronary artery diseases to rate their levels of cheerfulness, anxiety, energy, and overall life satisfaction.
In a 12-year follow-up, those who were at the highest risk for coronary artery disease had nearly a 50% reduction in risk (taking into account other factors, like age, smoking, and high blood pressure). Her research suggests that this reduction in risk for developing coronary artery disease was due to the mind-body interaction, as those who reported having less anxiety and a more positive mind-set have better coping mechanisms to combat higher stress levels that may spike cardiac events.
Mindset’s Impact on Genetic Expression
Our genes are made up of predetermined DNA when we are born. However, according to Bruce Lipton, PhD, the cells in our body are affected by our thoughts, meaning our belief system determines how genes are expressed. Lipton believes that different genes are turned off and on according to the way our brain functions and responds to the world around us. This could mean that a person who has a genetic predisposition toward self-sabotage or addictive behaviors can consciously redirect the way this gene is expressed, if at all.
Whether we have a positive or negative mind-set, these thoughts have the power to alter our genetic code. Cells learn and evolve according to new experiences, creating perception proteins that can rewrite our genetic code.
How we think about, talk to, and feel about ourselves and the world around us creates an imprint on our cells that affects not only us but also everyone around us. Though we cannot see this vibrational energy that makes up the body-mind and sustains us, it is nevertheless a vital part of us. It is the life force that keeps our hearts beating and our lungs breathing even when we are asleep. When we shift our consciousness to have a healthier belief system, we can change the course of our body’s health.
Written by Sue Rapley
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