Mental Health
There is a side to being healthy that has less to do with the physical side of things and more to do with the way in which the mind is working. That's not to say that anyone should ignore the great deal of importance that should be attached to maintaining a healthy physical aspect. But it should be understood that there is more to being healthy than just keeping fit in a physical sense. Health comes in two parts from a person's point of view. One is the physical and the other is the mental. It's the mental side of things that this article takes a look at and presents ideas as to why it is such an important consideration.
Healthy Mind Equals Healthy Body
As long as a person takes care of their physical health by eating the right kinds of food, maintaining an adequate level of daily exercise and takes care of themselves by not taking foolhardy personal risks such as with some extreme sports, then they should expect to stay fit and healthy. They should not have to worry about weight loss or obesity or weight related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease or circulation problems as their lifestyle should take care of that side of things. But the state of the mind can strongly influence that perceived happy state of health in some unsuspected ways.
When the mental attitude of a person is generally upbeat, positive and they carry a predominantly happy disposition, then their health will generally fare very well especially if they observe the physical side of their health, as already mentioned. Yet a downbeat, negative mental state coupled with a generally unhappy disposition can seriously impact that person's health and even undo a lot of the physical good that may be done through an otherwise healthy lifestyle.
We'll go into the reasons why this should be so, presently.
Positive Influence
A predominantly positive mental attitude is highly desirable for helping to maintain a healthy physical aspect for the simple reason that when a person feels positive, their whole outlook on life is one of growth, optimism and eagerness to enjoy life. The cells of the body are directly influenced by the mind, particularly the subconscious part of the mind, which has the task of maintaining the body from the cellular level through to all the minor and major functions that keep us alive. It naturally follows that if the subconscious part of the mind is positively influenced by an upbeat, happy emotional mental state, it will transmit that state through every cell of the body.
It has been scientifically proven that when human cells are influenced in this way, they expand in strength, vitality and even in intelligence. More new, healthy cells are created in this state, to replace old cells that have come to the end of their lives. The whole body therefore, gets a positive boost in terms of health from the cellular level.
Negative Influence
On the other hand, a predominantly negative attitude is detrimental to the body's health right down to the cellular level. The subconscious transmits the emotional state to the cells of the body and if the emotions are negative, downbeat and sad, this is reflected in the state of our body's cells.
It has also been noted in extensive research that negative emotions create the opposite effect on the body's cells so that they contract, become lethargic and decrease in intelligence. Fewer new cells are created and this, drastically in some cases, increases the net loss of human cells over time. The impact to the person's health can be measured and displays a reduction in overall health. The body's immune system is similarly impacted, being less effective at resisting the attack from bacteria and other diseases that are constantly bombarding our organism, allowing for greater susceptibility to illness.
Why People Get Negative
It may sound to some like a very simplistic question, but it is surprising just how many people don't even know how they can break free of a predominantly negative state to become more positive and upbeat. Millions of people are walking around every day with their heads full of inner conversations with themselves. This is normal, but in many cases, those inner conversations are destructive, negative and even toxic. This happens when the conversation concerns events that have come to the attention to the person that they strongly dislike, resent or are irritated by.
What happens in many cases is a person will read a bad news story that they feel particularly strongly about and then they will carry on a conversation or even an argument in their heads with the perpetrator of whatever it may be that has caused the news story to be published. The news story may be about a politician that is raising taxes on certain controversial items. Or it may be about a murderer getting a very lenient sentence from a judge. Or perhaps it's a war going on in a foreign country that is causing the civilian citizens particular hardship. Or whatever it may be that rankles the reader (or TV viewer).
In any case, the person will start their own argument with that politician or maybe the judge or whoever and they will "give them a piece of their mind" in a heated conversation that can boil into angry confrontation, resentment and hatred. All this is happening inside the person's head and they are carrying that conversation with them all day long. All this anger and resentment can go nowhere except internally, because it's all happening inside the person's consciousness and has nowhere else to go. The emotional state is adversely affected by this and a negative disposition is created, thanks to a prolonged wave of negative emotions pumping through the person's being.
The Truth
Scientific studies into how the emotional state affects the physical body have been carried out on the sweat produced by test subjects after being stimulated to display certain emotions. It was found that all negative emotions produce sweat that is more acidic than those displaying positive emotions. More profoundly, those displaying what is considered to be the most destructive of the negative emotions, which are resentment and guilt, produced the most acidic sweat. Now we all know what happens when we get acid on our skin. It burns!
The same tests revealed that internally, our bodies actually become more acid when we harbor pronged instances of strong negative emotions. You have no doubt heard the expression "burning mad" or "in a white heat of anger". Well now you know where they came from!
Of course, the politician or judge or warlord isn't hearing any of this so they are completely unaffected. They can get on with their day and enjoy themselves any way they like. The only person suffering is the person having that inner conversation! And that suffering can lead to real illness, declining health and can even bring the risk of fatality from a coronary. It can happen because they were so wound up and stressed that their blood pressure could go through the roof and the consequences of that can be dramatic.
How to Be Positive
But no one needs to experience such unhealthy, detrimental emotions all the time if they don't want to. And believe me, you don't want to if you want to be healthy!
What needs to happen is that those inner conversations that people have with themselves need to be more upbeat, happy and enjoyable. Simply thinking about a situation in your own life that was a happy one, or one that made you laugh out loud or feel exceptionally good, these thoughts will automatically lift your mood and create positive emotions.
Reading newspapers and watching the news programs on TV may make you feel like you're keeping up with current events, but what they're really doing is giving you a ton of ammunition with which to kill yourself with. Most news stories are bad news. They are reported on with lots of emotion designed to get you more than just interested. They deliberately get you personally involved!
Why they do that is obvious once you take a step back and think it over. They want to sell more newspapers and get more people watching the TV news so they can charge the advertisers more for showing their ads during the show!
If you really want to improve your life and keep a more positive, happy mental state, then you have to stop reading newspapers and stop watching the news shows on TV. There's no question that by doing this your life and even your health will improve dramatically. When you don't have things that you can do little or nothing about inside your head, then you are not holding destructive inner conversations over them and you are not producing acid forming negative feeling of resentment, frustration, hatred and anger.
Instead, if you must watch TV, then watch comedy shows or things that make you happy! If you want to read, then read a good book that will make you feel happy or a magazine that brings a happy smile to your face.
Being positive and happy is absolutely the way to improve your health from a mental aspect. And the great thing about this is that it's real. It works!