There is growing evidence that diseases in the body are trapped emotions that are affecting us in a real and physical way.
By releasing the suppressed, repressed and trapped negative emotions, we can heal our bodies and our minds.
In this article, we will look at the ways in which emotions affect your body. Here are the ways how your emotions affect your health.
Of course, you can feel emotions in your body as physiological changes.
For example, when you feel embarrassed, your face turns red and you feel hot from the torrent of blood on your face.
In this way, you can realize how some emotions can be physically felt in the body.
In the same way, fear could make you feel a tightness in your stomach and muscle tension.
There is a mental component in how we process emotions, in how we interpret the event that is happening.
For example, if your car breaks down on the way to work, you may feel frustrated about it or you may feel that you have received a message that you need to stop this morning and take care of your valuable possessions.
Deciding how to feel about a physiological emotion in the body is the mental component of the mind-body connection that determines how emotions affect your body.
How negative emotions affect your health
Dr. Mercola says that “the classic definition of stress is: any real or imagined threat and your body’s response to it.”
The natural stress response of your body can have a significant impact on your immune function, brain chemistry, blood sugar levels, hormonal balance, and much more.
A study by the University of Michigan analyzed whether or not we can cultivate positive emotions to affect our body and optimize health.
They found that “negative emotions (for example, fear, anger and sadness) narrow the repertoire of the reaction of the individual’s momentary thought to specific actions that fulfilled the function of promoting survival in our ancestors.”
In other words, our response to fight or flight is evidenced when we have a negative emotion and we feel aggressive or like we have to hide from feelings.
Researchers at the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, say that “psychological factors can influence the immune system’s ability to mediate disease.”
In addition, the study found “substantial evidence that factors such as stress, depression, social support and repression / denial can influence both cellular and humoral (lymphatic fluid) indicators of immune status and function.
Negative emotions have a major impact on the body’s immune system.
“At least in the case of less serious infectious diseases (colds, flu, herpes), there is consistent and convincing evidence of links between stress and negative affects [emotions] and the onset and progression of the disease.”
In other words, if you’re in a bad mood, you feel sad, angry or stressed, you’re more likely to get sick from even something like flu.
How positive emotions affect your health
When you feel joy, happiness, emotion, hopeful, appreciated, respected or loved, your body responds by releasing endorphins and oxytocin, often called “hug hormones.”
We feel good when we have these emotions and we want even more positive good emotions, it’s like a whim.
Unlike the negative emotions that can remain trapped in the body, positive emotions help eliminate the effect of negative emotions in the body.
Positive emotions do not get trapped in our bodies, but they are thought to cause cellular changes that improve the normal functioning of the body.
Scientists at the University of Michigan say that positive emotions (for example, joy, interest and contentment) expand the momentary repertoire of thought-action of an individual, which in turn can build lasting personal resources for that individual , which also served as a function of promoting survival in our ancestors.
One implication of the expansion and construction model is that positive emotions have an unfavorable effect on negative emotions.
Expanding the momentary repertoire of thought action, positive emotions loosen the grasp that negative emotions gain in the mind and body of the individual, undoing the psychological and physiological preparation for a specific action.
In fact, empirical studies have shown that contentment and joy accelerate the recovery of cardiovascular side effects from negative emotions.
How you can use this information to affect your health in a positive way
Learn to identify the negative emotions in your body. Practicing self-awareness and mastery is the key.
When you realize that you feel frustrated, for example, where do you notice the changes in your body?
Once you feel these stress changes in your muscles and internal organs, you can better identify the emotion and deal with the internal processing of the emotion, and relax your muscles to change the way you feel.
