The thoughts we harbour affect our bodies in significant ways. Depending on the nature of the thoughts, it could promote our health or affect our health in negative ways which manifests in diseases or maladies of some form.
“Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.” –Charles Swindoll
There is a Chinese proverb that says “That the birds of worry fly above your head, this you cannot change. But that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent.” Indeed we may not have control over things that will come our way that may cause us to worry, have anxiety and despair. However, we can prevent these kinds of thoughts from building nests, or dominating our minds.
It is clear from medical research that thoughts affect our bodies. Thoughts may cause our bodies to react in a healthy way or in an unhealthy way. Negative thoughts sustained for a long time may cause stress within our bodies which then manifests as various kinds of diseases.
An article on Webmd.com How Worrying Affects the Body by Debra Fulghum Bruce says “Chronic worry and emotional stress can trigger a host of health problems. The problem occurs when fight or flight is triggered daily by excessive worrying and anxiety. The fight or flight response causes the body’s sympathetic nervous system to release stress hormones such as cortisol. These hormones can boost blood sugar levels and triglycerides (blood fats) that can be used by the body for fuel…When the excessive fuel in the blood isn’t used for physical activities, the chronic anxiety and outpouring of stress hormones can have serious physical consequences, including: suppression of the immune system, digestive disorders, heart attack…Although these effects are a response to stress, stress is simply the trigger. Whether or not you become ill depends on how you handle stress. Physical responses to stress involve your immune system, your heart and blood vessels, and how certain glands in your body secrete hormones. These hormones help to regulate various functions in your body, such as brain function and nerve impulses.
All of these systems interact and are profoundly influenced by your coping style and your psychological state. It isn’t the stress that makes you ill. Rather, it’s the effect responses such as excessive worrying and anxiety have on these various interacting systems that can bring on physical illness. There are things you can do, though, including lifestyle changes, to alter the way you respond.”
The Scriptures caution us not to dwell on thoughts that are limiting such as worries, anxiety and fear. Jesus uses the words that such thoughts that are within us and which we talk about make us unclean as opposed to food which at that time some kinds of food was considered to make someone unclean once they eat it. Mark 7:14-23 says:
“Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”
Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.”
And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”
Jesus also cautions us from worrying about everyday life. He asserts that worrying does not add a single moment to your life. In fact if we go by what scientists say, it actually reduces the length of our life. Elsewhere in the book of James 1:2, we are encouraged that when troubles of any kind come our way, we should consider it an opportunity for great joy. For we know that when our faith is tested, our endurance has a chance to grow. So we should let it grow, for when our endurance is fully developed, we will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
Aside from affecting our health, negative beliefs can also limit our potential in life. Limited beliefs can blind us to the potential we have of realizing our dreams and goals. This ultimately keeps us from achieving harmony in our lives. It is akin to the story about the elephants tied to a pole with a rope:
As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front legs. There were no chains or no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break free from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.
He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” the trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller, we use the same size rope to tie them and , at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe that they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.
The man was amazed. These elephants could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.
The beliefs we hold about our abilities may hold us back from realizing our potential.
An article in Scientificamerican.com titled Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits says “There seems to be a simple way to instantly increase a person’s level of general knowledge. Psychologists Ulrich Weger and Stephen Loughnan recently asked two groups of people to answer questions. People in one group were told that before each question, the answer would be briefly flashed on their screens — too quickly to consciously perceive, but slow enough for their unconscious to take it in. The other group was told that the flashes simply signaled the next question. In fact, for both groups, a random string of letters, not the answers, was flashed. But, remarkably, the people who thought the answers were flashed did better on the test. Expecting to know the answers made people more likely to get the answers right.
Our cognitive and physical abilities are in general limited, but our conceptions of the nature and extent of those limits may need revising. In many cases, thinking that we are limited is itself a limiting factor. There is accumulating evidence that suggests that our thoughts are often capable of extending our cognitive and physical limits.”
So for us to live an inspired harmonious life, we should be aware of our thoughts, ensure that we do not allow negative thoughts to dwell in our minds. When they come, as surely as they will, we should steer them away and replace them with empowering and building thoughts. If not for anything, our health and well-being calls for it. As Daniel Kahnehman said “It’s a wonderful thing to be optimistic. It keeps you healthy and it keeps you resilient.”
