Attitude is Everything!

"If you are distressed by anything exte
alrnthe pain is not due to the thing itself
but to your own estimate of it;
and this you have the power
to revoke at any moment." -Marcus Aurelius, 171B.C.

We are fortunate to live in a time when science and holistic health practitioners are discovering methods of prevention and self-healing that can not only prolong one’s life, but allow us to enjoy the later years free from the so-called “diseases of old age.”

According to the present knowledge of the constituents of good health, these are the six requirements for staying healthy all your life:

1. Proper nutrition
2. Regular exercise
3. Adequate rest and relaxation
4. Stress reduction: proper thinking and expression of feelings
5. No substance abuse
6. Social contact: love/family/friends (even pets)

The new medical model recognizes that the mind is a factor in every disease, except the very few ones caused by exte
al agents, such as poisons.

All diseases are in some way psychosomatic; not in the sense that they’re imaginary, but because they all involve our emotions. The mind and body are interdependent and together can cause, prevent or even cure illness. Our emotions affect every organ in our body, including the response of our immune system, which in turn affects our susceptibility to disease.

The new medical field that studies how the mind affects the body is called psychoneuroimmunology, and this science has concluded that our health is largely controlled by our brain!

Today we’ve all heard there’s a connection between stress and disease—but just what is stress? Basically, it’s negative emotions, such as worry, anxiety, depression, feelings of hostility, revenge, guilt, anger, hopelessness, and so forth. Fear for example, such as the anxiety that can be produced when you have to give an important speech, creates stress, and any anxiety causes muscles to contract, the hormone cortisol to be released, and blood vessels to constrict.

Researchers speculate that chronic indulgence in negative emotions creates a lowered resistance to disease by impairing our immune system. There is now confirmed evidence that grief, loneliness, helplessness and negative attitudes like anger and jealousy can measurably depress immune system functioning. We can easily see the direct relationship of our emotions upon our bodily functions when we experience strong feelings such as fear or anger, which tend to leave us feeling drained and exhausted.

We all have to face a great many crises, and sometimes even severe traumas, in the course of living our life. But, it seems it’s not so much the number or the severity of the stresses in life that create illness, but how we react to them. Far more important is the interpretation we give to the situation, and our resultant response.

Dr. Hans Selye, the world’s foremost researcher on stress, concluded that it’s not the stress of a particular situation per se, that impacts us, but how we appraise that situation. What causes disease is not the difficulties of our lives, but how we cope with those problems.

One way to stay emotionally healthy is through self-awareness. Tune into your body: if you become aware that reacting negatively to the daily hassles of life is creating tension, fatigue, headaches, backaches, etc., you might want to reexamine your responses and learn to become more tolerant or philosophical about the inappropriate behavior of others. (Such as other drivers!)

When people change how they evaluate their problems, and see them as challenges, or simply temporary setbacks, they understand that, even though they may not be able to control the situation, they can always control how they react to it, and that’s the crucial factor. Understanding this helps to restore and maintain a proper biochemical balance in the body and strengthens our immune system.

The Greek philospher Seneca said: “Everything depends on one’s opinion. We suffer according to our opinion. One is as miserable or as happy as one believes oneself to be.

In a word: Attitude is everything!