“Be vigilant; guard your mind against negative thoughts.” ~Buddha
Can the mind heal the body? It is certainly one of the most powerful tools we have when it comes to keeping ourselves healthy. Unfortunately, the mind can also make us sick. Scientists have shown that stress , tension, conflict, anger , jealousy, resentment, and other negative emotions have a direct effect on suppressing the immune system. Of course a suppressed immune system makes us vulnerable to all sorts of illness.
Since the immune system suppression following negative emotions lasts for six to eight hours, if we have ongoing stresses or difficulties in our lives, our immune system will be chronically suppressed.
We would not knowingly expose ourselves to toxic substances, yet we may continually flood our system with toxic emotions. Part of this has to do with the people or circumstances around us, but part of it has to do with how we handle things, how we respond, and what things we choose to focus on.
If we cannot create improvements in negative relationships or working environments, for the sake of our health and wellbeing we should move on. It could, in the long run, be a matter of life and death.
Some people harm themselves not because of negative circumstances in their lives, but simply because they are always thinking negative thoughts. Constant complaining, criticizing and judging others, feeling sorry for oneself, being pessimistic—all of these have the same effect on the immune system as being in a stressful situation. The only difference is that in this case, we are our own stressful situation.
We do not always constantly evaluate our own thinking processes, but we would do well to become mindful of just what our own thoughts may be doing to our bodies.
(For information on obtaining my Positive Thinking , Heal Your Body or other self-help/healing CDs see below.)
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