What Are You Thinking

The mind has great influence over the body, and maladies often have their origin there.  ~Moliere

The Science of Being Well
Chapter 4 - What to Think (27:57)

Even though there are those who say we have no control over what we are thinking, in all actuality, we do have the ability and we must use it if we want to be healthy! What we choose to think about has a huge influence on how we feel and those feelings significantly impact our health.

The first step to better health  is to become aware of what we are thinking at any given time. Make an effort  to pay attention to the dialogue going on inside your head.  Become conscious of what you are thinking  throughout your day.  Begin right now.  What are you thinking in this moment? 

Most of us have a running monologue in our heads.  Whether we are consciously aware of  it or not, it is playing in the background and affects everything we do. 

If the self-talk is negative, and unfortunately, it has been reported that seventy percent of all thoughts are negative, these redundant, negative thoughts become the energy patterns of disease that, when continuously held in our mental body,  may manifest as disease.  

Take control.  Use your inner thoughts to talk to yourself in a positive manner, as frequently as you can, in order to create a healthy body.  Take action to increase your well-being.

We can make a positive impact on our well-being by beginning our day with gratitude. We can appreciate the opportunities a new day brings and embrace the possibilities that are available.  We can set the tone for our day by deliberately intending it to flow with ease and joy.  Expect miracles; they really are everywhere!

There are many actions we can take to improve our mood and our ability to keep our thoughts toward the positive.  Here are some of my favorites. 

1.  Set aside short spans of time to monitor your thoughts, quickly replacing any negative ones with a positively reframed statement. When I catch myself in a negative thought, I like to say "Cancel, Cancel, Cancel" and then state the positive revision.  

2.  Spend some time outdoors.  Spending time outdoors can make a dramatic difference in how we feel.  Sunlight stimulates the brain to produce serotonin and just 10-15 minutes a day can significantly improve our mood.   

3.  Stand up Straight.  Good posture makes you seem more tall and thin and reflects self confidence. It also affects our mood and our productivity in a positive way.  Standing or sitting tall makes us feel happier and smarter.  Good posture also keep our organs and muscles working optimally, which in turn, improves our overall well-being. 

4.  Engage in some type of activity.  Moderate activity releases endorphins. Endorphins work to help decrease stress, reduce anxiety and improve mood which are all good things when it comes to keeping our outlook positive.  All these good things can be had by jumping rope for just 30 seconds.  More good news: you needn’t jump fast -- even a slow skipping pace does the trick.

5.  Laugh or at least smile.  Laughter increases health. Even fake laughter is beneficial.  If you just can't bring yourself to laugh then at least smile... David Lewis, a psychologist and director of research at Mindlab International in Brighton, England, which conducted the study, says a warm smile can create a "halo" effect, helping us "feel more optimistic, more positive, and more motivated."

Our  well-being really is dependent on how we think and behave.

Someone with an erect posture and happy facial expressions evokes positive responses from the people around  them. These positive responses, in turn improve the mood of everyone around.  It is a cycle worth continuing!

When we take the time to monitor our thoughts and gain a measure of control over them, equanimity - maintaining inner peace –  becomes our constant state.  Training our thoughts toward health is the secret to a long, joyful life!

Tip of the Day:

Smiling is a great prescription for health.  Smile as much as possible and notice that things just appear better somehow.  Practice smiling frequently to get your facial muscles used to the physical act of smiling.  Go to the mirror and smile  a big, open, happy smile.   If you don't know how to smile, then try this:  

1)  Open your eyes as wide as you can - (try and get your eyebrows right up to you hair line) 

2)  Slightly open your mouth  

3)  Pull the corners of your mouth back to your ears (If you’re unsure pull them back with your fingers so you understand what it feels like and then try again without your fingers).   

4)  Repeat these steps about 50 times to get your facial muscles accustomed to smiling. 

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work. ~
Thich Nhat Hanh 

 

 

 

Stop the Madness

Every human being is the author of his own health or disease - Buddha

The Science of Being Well
Chapter 3 -   Life and Its Organisms (20:42)


Sometimes something is so important to me that I just want to SHOUT IT OUT LOUD....This is one of those moments.  The medical community is a BUSINESS....Whether we are talking about the local GP or the whole industry, it is a business that only makes money if we are sick and NEED their services....


What if the recommendations for check-ups and screenings are just a marketing ploy...what if all the commercials for drugs condition you to look for symptoms and call your doctor....
What if everything the medical community does is a means of keeping you sick.... and coming back for more treatment to keep them in business....

Our basic blueprint causes perfect functioning, but our thoughts, and sometimes our actions, alter the blueprint.  For the most part, we are trained from birth that we need a doctor to determine the state of our health.  This conditioning inserts an additional step into the healing process so that we must "visit the doctor" in order to move toward health.


This step is unnecessary and creates an unnatural disconnect, but very few of us rely on our own "knowing" to determine the status of our being.  


This disconnect is fueled by outside warnings and dictates that danger and disease are lurking all around and even inside us so we must have checkups and tests.  This leads to dissecting and picking apart the systems of the body where we will surely find something "wrong" that needs to be treated. This leads leads to more treatments that get more systems out of whack.  Then we will probably need  another checkup that leads to more treatments and we should study our disease and worry about what will happen next and we should find a support group so we can dwell even more on our disease.....All to keep the medical community in business....

Fortunately,  we can stop the madness....

If we want better health then we must devote our thoughts to HEALTH.  Regardless of our circumstances, we always have a choice of  where we focus our attention.  

Getting control of our thoughts and reconnecting with our body will go a long way to improving our health. Wattles advises us to "sever mental relations with disease and unify our thoughts with health." 


The body is a magnificent mechanism and has an amazing ability to repair and regenerate itself. 
There are many things we can do to help. Understanding how the body works is not necessary, but learning to effectively man the controls has many benefits.  The controls are our thoughts and beliefs. With a little effort, we can monitor our thoughts. 


The body also reacts and conforms to the beliefs that we hold.  It is possible that some of these beliefs may be held in our subconscious without our awareness.  There are methods to release these beliefs that are relatively easy and painless to perform.   

Tapping is one of my favorites because it is easy to learn, anyone can do it and it releases the emotional charge attached to events that have lasting effects on us.

I was recently introduced to  Rikka Zimmerman and Access Consciousness as a way to "destroy and uncreate" unwanted thoughts and beliefs.  This is an interesting process and feels very uplifting, but I have very limited experience with this method.


Once again, I say awareness is crucial.  Pay attention to what you are thinking and saying that pertains to your health.  

Start with something easy, such as how you answer the routine question "How are you?"
Do you answer with a positive statement such as "I am great and getting better every day?"   


Continue to choose each thought carefully as the day unfolds. Cancel any negative thoughts that come up  and reframe  them with a positive counterpart.

The important thing is to keep the mental body free of negative thoughts.   Have faith in the process and believe in wellness.

Tip for the Day: (From Pat Carrington)

Stress Check 

A Stress Check is easy to do. It simply involves bringing to mind any problems that are currently bothering you. When doing the Check you ask yourself, "What is uppermost in my mind right now that is causing at least some tension or stress? How much stress do I feel about it (on a 0 to 10 point scale)?" Then use  tapping to clear any issue that turns up.

 

The issue you identify when answering these questions can consist of almost anything -- something that is going wrong with your plans, a physical distress, a deadline which must be met, or whatever else may be causing tension in your life. The point is to stop as soon as you identify a troublesome issue 

The point of an Stress Check is to bring your stress level down to as close to a 0 or 1 as you can by using tapping, then ask yourself, "what else is bothering me somewhat (or a lot) today?"

This second question may well bring up other issues to tap on. If you don't have time to tap right away on your next issue I suggest  write it on a 3" x 5" index card, put that into your pocket or purse, and tap on it later in the day.

Clearing issues when they come up stops them from accumulating in the mental body where they can eventually damage the physical body.