How “Invisible Emotions” increase disease in your body.
“Invisible Emotions”:
Fear: An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.
Stress: Pressure or tension exerted on a material object.
Doubt: A feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction.
Anxiety: Anxiety is the mind and body’s reaction to stressful, dangerous, or unfamiliar situations. It’s the sense of uneasiness, distress, or dread you feel before a significant event.
This is a big issue.
Abnormal levels of fear and anxiety lead to significant distress. Nearly one in four people experience a form of anxiety disorder (Little over 1.8 billion people!) and nearly 8 ( little over 150 million people!) percent experience post-traumatic stress disorder.*World Health Organization
How?
Scientifically:
Two parts of the brain:
The Amygdala detects the emotional salience (how much something stands out) from our thoughts . High degrees of salience alert the brain, triggering a fear or anxiety response.
The Hippocampus is the part of the brain that encodes threatening events into memories.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3684250/
Logically:
Letting the words and actions of others or ourselves suggest we are not enough.
The desire to excessively control emotions vs a mindset of acceptance and detachment.
From Mind to Body:
Effects anxiety has on your body ( *HealthLine.com )
Sheldon Cohen, professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon conducted an experiment on how stress promotes disease.
Study #1:
After an intensive stress interview, 276 healthy adults were exposed to a cold virus and monitored in quarantine for five days.
Cohen found the stress of the virus on the body was associated with the inability of immune cells to regulate inflammation.
The lower the inability to regulate the inflammatory response , the more likely to develop colds when exposed to the virus.
Study #2:
79 healthy participants were assessed for their ability to regulate inflammatory responses and then exposed to a cold virus and monitored for the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, the chemical messengers that trigger inflammation.
He found those less able to regulate inflammatory responses before being exposed, produced more inflammation-inducing chemical messengers when infected. The immune system’s ability to regulate inflammation predicts who will develop a cold, but more importantly it provides an explanation of how stress can promote disease, when under stress. Cells of the immune system are unable to respond to hormonal control, and consequently, produce levels of inflammation that promote disease.
Because inflammation plays a role in many diseases such as cardiovascular, asthma and autoimmune disorders, this model suggests why stress impacts them as well.
*Cohen S, Janicki-Deverts D, Doyle WJ, et al. Chronic stress, glucocorticoid receptor resistance, inflammation, and disease risk. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012;109(16):5995–5999. doi:10.1073/pnas.1118355109
You did what?
Behavior’s role in stress.
Anger
When we’re pissed off, chemicals are released that increase adrenaline and hyper sensitivity, this extra energy produced needs an outlet. The intensity combined with a high frequency of outbursts can place a big burden on the body.
Criticism
Negatively criticizing ( name calling, questioning intelligence, placing your worries and fears to others, or feedback rooted in jealousy or limitation) others impacts your stress and the stress of those being criticized. When one negatively criticizes, it’s really saying “you are not good enough”, “I’m better than you, you’re not as important as me.
The emotions felt by those on the receiving end are one of the leading causes of suicide and depression in the world. Unfortunately, it’s a double edge sword because those doing the criticizing are typically also in pain and the build up of regret from their actions can further exacerbate their unhealthy mental condition.
Criticism must not be mistaken for constructive opinions. The difference being that construction opinions are rooted with empathy, kindness and desire to raise a person up. While criticism takes on the persona of what was mentioned above.
When we know stress hurts us, why do we still continue to do it?
Automation.
Like everything, there’s good and bad. Automation has quickly risen as one of the most impactful tools in business. It’s also the exact reason it’s hard to break bad habits.
It’s why when you tell someone that wants to lose weight, “just eat right and exercise”, isn’t all it takes. Those are really just “tools” to make the product.
It’s the habits that have become hard wired and happen without even thinking about it, if nothing is done consciously to intervene.
When negative emotions are emitted, there’s a chain reaction.
Negativity — → ugly symptom — → loops back to negative emotions.
Possible example:
Insult leads to doubt, doubt leads to anxiety, anxiety leads to depression, depression or pain lead to alcohol/drugs/overeating/anger, alcohol/drugs/overeating/anger leads to distorted mind/body/ spirit, distorted mind/body/spirit leads back to negative actions.
A roller coaster from hell. It’s like being the ball in the pin ball machine. You just get the shit kicked out of you and then get dropped in a hole until it’s your turn again to get the shit kicked out of you.
In order to break the wires, serious pattern disruption is needed.
Just like a battery, the brain can be fully charged or ready to die. Take an iPhone for example. The “program” has already been completely conditioned, from top engineers in the world to boot! However, we know it’s not worth a damn if we can’t find our charger. Without that “power”, all the beautiful and helpful automation goes out the door.
It really comes back to habits. It’s “making it your life”, not just a destination. This concept takes the edge off because it’s rooted in patience and joy, rather than “lack” and “what’s missing”.
Do you feel addicted to negative thoughts and emotions?
We all have them at times, however; do you feel like they are happening too frequently in your life?
Questions that indicate negative emotions might be taking too much space in your life:
Do you feel irritated by others who are happy, confident or excited about life.
Do you find happy people in-genuine or annoying?
Do you feel like these type of people are hiding something or flaunting their easy lives?
Do you hang out with people who have a ton of complaints on a daily basis?
When others share their creative ideas and dreams with you, do you frequently point out what’s wrong or what they are missing?
When others disagree with you on issues you deem important, do you attack them personally?
Does drama follow you wherever you go? Do you experience one crisis after the next?
Do you critique total strangers negatively? IE: The waitress, the guy crossing the road, and the woman in line at the grocery store?
*https://www.humanunlimited.com/blogs/blog/80203334-addicted-to-negativity
If you feel you strongly resonate with these questions, chances are extremely high you’re addicted to negative emotions.
Break on through to the other side.
Like any habit we want to break, decision is the first step.
Do I want to change?
Change comes when the pain becomes unbearable or when death will come very quickly if we don’t change.
If pain is the trigger ( fear of the future, regret of the past, self doubt, “not enough”), the way to break the addiction is make our WHY for doing it so compelling, so vivid, AN ABSOLUTE MUST!
As Tony Robbins likes to say, we must turn our shoulds into our musts, take the island and burn the fucking boats. It’s “I’m doing it or I’m going to die” mentality.
Simply put we have to create the urgency and hunger to make a change now.
How I created a compelling WHY for a behavior change I wanted in my life.
I completed an Ironman 5 years ago. Trained for a year, 40+ hours a week, everyday.
2.4 mile swim, 110 mile bike ride, then a marathon.
When I started, I was fired up. New gear, new bike, fresh sense of adventure. New community.
Like every new beggening , law of familiarity sets in. If the task is big enough, you’ll get smoked if you don’t put in the work.
The principle of WHY. How I gained massive leverage on myself.
Leverage so strong, the pain of not following through far surpassed the pain of the race.
First, I told everyone I knew what I was doing and posted consistently about it on social media. Strong, but not strong enough.
This changed it all and took me to the finish line.
I dedicated the race to my father and linked every mile towards raising funds for an organization that takes homeless families off the streets and gives them housing, food, clothes and life skill training.
That took it to a whole new level.
It became spiritual. Bigger than myself. A way to help others.
A point of no return.
From then on, training became filled with countless goosebumps and frequent moments of gratitude.
I tell this not to gloat, but to demonstrate how to gain leverage.
Deepen your WHY, in order to create the change and momentum you seek.
Conclusion:
In my own life, it’s taken me a long time to understand just how interconnected everything is and how much is happening automatically once habits are formed. The brain is a “piece of software” largely controlled by conditioning, filtering, and sorting functions.
Tying it back to the title of the article, “How invisible emotions increase disease”. If you believe the brain works like computer software, it’s simple to see why this happens. Input equals output, no bias, just black and white data. Continue to input crap, it becomes full of crap. Input awesomeness…fills up with awesomeness.
