Scientific research has shown that if you are feeling down or depressed this will have a negative impact up on your health. When you are feeling low mentally you are inevitably left more vulnerable to physical illness.
Needless to say the majority of research into these areas concentrates upon the more "major" diseases such as susceptibility to heart disease or cancer. We less often think about the mind-body collection in relation to minor illnesses such as the common cold or food poisoning or viruses. This fact was brought home to me in the last week as I succumbed to a rather nasty episode of food poisoning.
Unusually for me I was feeling rather low about something on the Saturday and even kept saying things like "I just can't lift my spirits about this". You know those days don't you? Something happens which is outside of your control, or keeps on happening until eventually you feel like you have been mentally run over by a bus. In reality, when you hit one of these events, you are probably being told something to the effect that you are trying to do something the wrong way or you at the very least need to step back and rethink.
Never the less, on Sunday morning I woke up feeling rather uncomfortable, and by afternoon it was clear that I had food poisoning. My boyfriend, a bio-chemist, immediately pointed out that my mood the day before was what had paved the way to making my physical body more vulnerable. The mind-body connection was abundantly clear to both he and I.
As he pointed out to me, theres bacteria in your intestines and stomach all of the time. Problems occur when they are allowed to accumulate in too large a quantity. I had been very aware that everything about my physical body had been slow and sluggish during the previous day - I had walked more slowly without any bounce in my step, my back wasn't held straight and so on. My body language was displaying a sinking, lowering, turning down tendency. Goodness only knows what the impact was beneath the surface of my skin!
The mind-body connection is totally amazing when you begin to contemplate it. Every thought which you have has the potential to impact greatly upon your health and well being. It pays to learn how to only allow uplifting and positive thoughts to hold your primary focus in life. I'm usually pretty good at this, although like everyone else I have a few weak spots!
Needless to say the majority of research into these areas concentrates upon the more "major" diseases such as susceptibility to heart disease or cancer. We less often think about the mind-body collection in relation to minor illnesses such as the common cold or food poisoning or viruses. This fact was brought home to me in the last week as I succumbed to a rather nasty episode of food poisoning.
Unusually for me I was feeling rather low about something on the Saturday and even kept saying things like "I just can't lift my spirits about this". You know those days don't you? Something happens which is outside of your control, or keeps on happening until eventually you feel like you have been mentally run over by a bus. In reality, when you hit one of these events, you are probably being told something to the effect that you are trying to do something the wrong way or you at the very least need to step back and rethink.
Never the less, on Sunday morning I woke up feeling rather uncomfortable, and by afternoon it was clear that I had food poisoning. My boyfriend, a bio-chemist, immediately pointed out that my mood the day before was what had paved the way to making my physical body more vulnerable. The mind-body connection was abundantly clear to both he and I.
As he pointed out to me, theres bacteria in your intestines and stomach all of the time. Problems occur when they are allowed to accumulate in too large a quantity. I had been very aware that everything about my physical body had been slow and sluggish during the previous day - I had walked more slowly without any bounce in my step, my back wasn't held straight and so on. My body language was displaying a sinking, lowering, turning down tendency. Goodness only knows what the impact was beneath the surface of my skin!
The mind-body connection is totally amazing when you begin to contemplate it. Every thought which you have has the potential to impact greatly upon your health and well being. It pays to learn how to only allow uplifting and positive thoughts to hold your primary focus in life. I'm usually pretty good at this, although like everyone else I have a few weak spots!
