What Really Creates Health and Wellbeing?
by Margaret Paul, Ph.D.
Most of us know that eating well and exercising is important for good
health. Yet often we hear about people100 years old and older that are
still vital and have not eaten perfectly or exercised much. What is the
secret of their good health?
Research indicates that a major factor in good health – more important
than genes, food, or exercise – is how we handle stress.
Our bodies are equipped with a “fight or flight” mechanism that enables
us to mobilize our strength when necessary. This mechanism allows us
to fight or flee from real and present danger. However, this mechanism
is also activated when we BELIEVE there is danger, even when no
actual survival danger exists.
For example, it is appropriate for the fight or flight mechanism to activate
if you are being physically attacked. When the stress response is
activated, blood is taken from our brain and organs and put into our
arms and legs to enable us to fight or flee. Our immune system shuts
down to give us more energy to physically protect ourselves and ensure
our survival in the moment. Once the danger is over and we have
discharged the stress through fighting or running, our bodies go back to
normal and blood again flows to our brain and organs.
However, what if your thoughts are creating the stress? What if you are
imagining being attacked, or being rejected, or losing money, or losing
your job, or losing a loved one? In this case, there is no actual real and
present danger
occurring in the moment. Yet the body does not know
the difference between something that is really happening and
something that you are thinking about. The body goes into the stress
response the moment you think scary thoughts. But instead of being
able to fight or flee, you are stuck with the anxiety caused by your
thoughts. The blood is in your arms and legs with no way to be released.
You can’t think very well due to as lack of blood in your brain, your
organs are being robbed of necessary nutrients, and your immune
system is not functioning properly. Strenuous exercise may release the
stress response, but if you keep thinking the scary thoughts, it will just
come right back.
Perhaps the most important thing you can do for your health and
wellbeing is to become conscious of your thoughts that create stress
and become adept at changing your thoughts. People who have
learned how to let challenging things roll off their back generally have
good health. People who allow the challenges of life to constantly stress
them out often have health problems, even when they eat well and get
exercise.
Our minds have been programmed from infancy with many untrue
thoughts – many false beliefs. It is when we think these untrue thoughts
that we cause ourselves anxiety and our bodies go into the stress
response. However, we all have a “Wise Self” that knows truth from lies.
When we move “out of our minds” and into our knowing, we will stop
thinking the
thoughts that cause anxiety and instead operate from the
truth of our knowing.
Thoughts that are untrue cause anxiety. The truth brings peace. If you
have a thought that you cannot survive being rejected or being alone,
you will feel anxious. However, while this might have been true as a
child, it is not true as an adult. Your anxious feeling is letting you know
that your thought is untrue. If you then think – from your Wise Self rather
than from your programmed mind: “I can handle rejection. I’ve been
rejected many times and I have not died. I’ve been alone many times
and I have not died,” your body will release the anxiety and you will feel
peaceful. Your peaceful feeling is telling you that you are now thinking
the truth.
The very best thing you can do for your health and wellbeing is to
become aware of the thoughts from your programmed mind that create
anxiety, and practice thinking the truth from your Wise Self that creates
inner peace.
Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling author and co-author of eight
books, including "Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You?" and
“Healing Your Aloneness.” She is the co-creator of the powerful Inner
Bonding healing process. Learn Inner Bonding now! Visit her web site
for a FREE Inner Bonding course: http://www.innerbonding.com or email her
at margaret@innerbonding.com Phone Sessions Available.
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