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Can your thoughts affect your health?
We know positive thinking can benefit our outlook on life and generally improve mood, however, there is an emerging body of new science in western medicine (that has long been accepted in Eastern Medicine) that is showing the undeniable physiological benefits as well.
The same is true of negative thinking and how it can have a negative impact on our health long-term.
Positive thinkers think about the future, the good things that are going to happen, and the great possibilities that are in store for them. They do think about consequences, but tend to focus on positive outcomes rather than negative possibilities.
Negative thinkers, on the other hand, often look at potential problems as obstacles that can't be overcome instead of opportunities to improve their lives or learn new things. They see failure as an end instead of a means to get better.
Of course positive vs negative thinking ids a spectrum.
Here are some signs to assess if you screw towards being a positive thinker or a negative thinker:
If your initial reaction to assessment of past failures, or possibilities of future outcomes in relationships, at work and generally in life is optimistic, then you likely lean towards being a positive thinker.
If you find yourself thinking “it won’t work out” or “this won’t be good enough” or if you tend to chide yourself over past "failures" when it comes to your health, relationships, career goals, or otherwise, then chances are you lean towards negative thinking by default.
Positive thinking doesn't magically solve all your problems. It can however help with:
Implementing something as simple as changing our thoughts has the power to dramatically change our lives and our health in the long run. A lot of our issues start in our mind, then manifest into our physical reality, stress being a main cause.
Being driven by your negative thoughts not only causes stress but encourages it. If you find you're someone who views life glass half empty, your body interprets this as not feeling safe. Our autonomic nervous system is what allows the body to enter states of stress & panic as well as rest & relaxation. This nervous system is split into two parts:
Our sympathetic nervous system controls our fight-or-flight response. This is an automatic reaction that takes place when a threat presents itself. When in this state our heart rate increases, cortisol and adrenaline is produced and our digestive system is shut down so that we can harvest that energy to deal with the threat at hand.
However, in today's age, these threats are less intense - for example the threat of a saber tooth tiger chasing you. But our thoughts can create the same feeling of this threat in the body by allowing ourselves to feel stress and anxiety at work for example. A stressful call from your boss is not the same as a vicious animal chasing you - but the body can view these as the same, activating your SNS putting you in a constant state of fight-or-flight. As you can imagine, this can result in many negative physical effects in the body such as a weak immune system, gut issues, sleeping problems, etc.
Our parasympathetic nervous system when activated allows us to enter a state of rest and digest. Part of its job is to allow your body to relax by reducing heart rate, increasing your rate of digestion, allowing your gut to properly digest and break down food, and so much more.
Our autonomic nervous system wants to keep the balance, allowing us to enter a state of fight-or-flight when needed, then activating our PSNS after the threat has passed, allowing the body to relax and regulate itself.
Negative thinking increases your chances of having an unregulated autonomic nervous system keeping your SNS activated. This is because the more we convince ourselves that life is hard and stressful, the more our bodies believe us.
Keeping your body in a state of stress due to our thinking habits can manifest into a number of physical illnesses, some of these include:
Most believe that negative thinking such as constant worrying or negative self-talk lives only in the mind. It's important to recognize how over time our body will become accustomed to these thoughts which can change our biology and cause physical discomfort and illnesses.
Though sometimes it may feel like we don't have control over our thoughts, we need to understand that our mind is a muscle that can be trained. Going from a negative mindset to a positive one will almost never happen overnight, however there are many practices and habits that we can implement to change our mindset overtime, allowing us to not only create a better outlook on life but heal our bodies as well.
If you're dealing with the negative effects due to your current mindset, it can be hard to make the switch when you feel like your mind and body are against you. Feeling your best physically and viewing life in a more positive way works best when your mind and body are working in harmony. Regulating your thoughts is one step, giving your body what it needs to cooperate is another. A lot of mental health issues stem from poor health, when dealing with anxiety or depression - this could be a symptom relating to a hormone imbalance, inflammation, poor gut health, etc.
Here are a few things to consider when trying to heal the mind through the body:
With reaping the benefits of anything in life, consistency is key. When you allow yourself to look at positive thinking as a task to stay dedicated to, not only will your mind and body adjust allowing it to become your reality now - there are many long-term benefits to your health and well-being in doing so, a few include:
Life as we know it begins in the mind. Everything you know to be true starts with what you believe, and what your mind believes, your body believes. However, it's never too late to rewire your beliefs, to train your mind to take care of itself and your body through thought - vs allowing it to slowly take a negative toll. Shifting from allowing your thoughts to control you into controlling them is possible, take life lightly, express gratitude daily and know your thoughts hold power and being aware of this power is step one into harvesting it for the better.
References:
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