We have all heard the saying mind, body, and spirit connection, right? It's true it's all connected from our emotions to our cells. It all matters. How much we stress, worry, feel depressed, anxious, and overwhelmed drastically affects our physical health. Our emotions are connected to conditions such as depression, obesity, autoimmune conditions, thyroid conditions, ADHD, and much more. There was a study that found a 50% increased risk of cardiovascular disease for those who are dealing with high amounts of work stress. To cope healthily, we must first understand our emotions and how they affect us. In this article, I will give you the tools to help you understand emotions, trauma, and thought patterns.
How Emotions Cause Disease
For years, we have associated the cause of disease with only something that can happen metabolically; research now finds that our emotions are connected to so much more than we thought they were.
Alzheimer's and dementia are both neurogenerative diseases that cause the brain to shut down different sections of it, such as working memory, motor function, emotion regulation, mood stability, and much more. They have found in studies that blunt force trauma, childhood abuse, emotional neglect, and much more increase the likelihood of neurodegenerative disease. This has not been proven, but they have seen that when we do not treat our mental health seriously, it can increase the risk for these types of diseases.
Our emotions are directly connected to our heart rate when we feel overwhelmed or stressed. Anxiousness and depression directly affect our heart rate. Our heart rate is meant to be relaxed throughout the day unless you do some mild and controlled exercise. When we have anxiety, our heart rate stays elevated, which stresses the heart out and puts us at risk for heart disease. Our emotional health is directly correlated with how we regulate our emotions when we struggle with anxiety and depression. These are both severe mental conditions that you should talk to a therapist or psychiatrist about to help you find the proper treatment plan. One study found that if you struggle with a mental illness such as bipolar, PTSD, or major depressive disorder, you have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Our emotions shut down our ability to properly digest food. When we feel overwhelming emotions, it can cause oxidative stress in the blood and create a response of loss of appetite. When we have this happen, especially consistently, you put your gut at risk for depleting of good bacteria, emotional eating, bloating, constipation, and much more. Over time, this can cause you to make unhealthy eating choices, and this will cause fatigue, gut inflammation, weight gain, and much more. The calmer we can be, the better our gut can operate.
Our thyroid helps regulate our thermodynamics and balance the reproductive hormones in our body. When our emotions are all over the place, it puts a lot of stress on the thyroid, creating inflammation and holding it back from being able to do its job like it's supposed to. When your thyroid is out of balance, you might experience an increase in anxiety, a decrease in energy, and an increase in depressive symptoms. Our thyroid can cause us to gain weight, be more tired, have improper hormone balance, and create instability in our mood.
We should look at what our emotional health is connected to and what symptoms we should look for.
What Signs Are Connected To Poor Emotional Health
Regarding emotional health, there are various symptoms and signs that relate to different illnesses, diseases, and conditions that affect your metabolic health. When the body is in constant fight or flight, it produces oxidative stress in our cells, which can create stress on the heart, gut, brain, and other parts of the body, affecting our sleep, digestive tract, hormones, and much more. What are some of the signs and symptoms to look out for?
Constant fatigue
Consistent anxiety
Panic attacks
Chronic depression
Joint pain
Regular constipation
Skin conditions
Memory loss
Heart palpitations
Back pain
Lower libido
Insomnia
When we struggle with symptoms like this, it can cause us to be drawn to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as alcohol, smoking, drug usage, and more. Building optimal awareness of these symptoms and feelings can empower you to reach out for help. If you feel you are struggling with any of these things consistently, please see a doctor or psychiatrist to figure out a suitable treatment plan.
We Regulate Our Emotions The Way Our Parents Did
Have you ever noticed how you talk to yourself? Have you ever seen how your parents speak to themselves? If so, you've probably noticed similar behavior; this is because, as children, we are like sponges; we learn everything we see, and we use that to our advantage because we have nothing else to go by. So, how you react to situations, relationships, and social settings is all determined by how you were raised and how your parents talked and treated themselves and you. When we don't receive the proper guidance or treatment to improve our behaviors and habits, it can negatively impact our physical health.
Various studies have concluded the more negative our self-talk is, the more we feel pain, sickness, sadness, fatigue, and enhanced symptoms of diseases. These negative conversations we have with ourselves can cause us to create limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs can decrease our confidence and put us in a place where we can feel like we are not enough, and this can hold us back from making healthy, proactive lifestyle choices. This puts us at risk of having unhealthy eating habits, a more sedentary lifestyle, and a decreased quality of life.
This all starts with how we were raised and what we learned as children. Throughout your life, you have used the exact coping mechanisms to survive, not at any fault of your own, just from what you've learned. You can change the way you think and talk to yourself. They have found that the more we can speak to ourselves in loving and gentle ways, the more we can decrease pain, improve heart health, and even increase our energy.
How You Can Naturally Improve Your Physical Health Through Emotional Regulation
There is no one-way track to regulating our emotions; it takes time, mindfulness, and a lot of practice, but that doesn't mean it's not possible. You have the power within you to make all the changes necessary; you have to be willing to listen to your intuition.
Disconnect to Connect to Yourself
The majority of society runs through their day on autopilot without even giving themselves a chance to breathe. This has been shown in many surveys nationwide, showing that most people are exhausted from work or school. This is only sometimes from an overwhelming amount of work; most of the time, it's an imbalance in taking the proper number of breaks. Skipping lunch, not moving away from your computer, and working long hours overstimulate the brain. Take a few small breaks daily to improve productivity and help manage your stress response. They found that taking 1-2 small daily breaks increases energy by 25%. Not just on your lunch breaks, but at least twice a day, take a small break and go for a walk around your office and focus on your breathing; this helps with getting in touch with your body and balances out your stress response hormones. Disconnecting gives your mind and body the time to adjust to the next stimulus you will put through. Remember, our mind can only handle so much stimulus in a day, so the more you can create balance with it, the better your mind will respond to it. Connect to yourself and ask intuitive questions that can help you to process what emotions you might be feeling in that moment.
Heal Your Emotional Home
Our emotional home is like a familiar place we return to, often without even realizing it. This emotional space feels comfortable because it's what we've grown accustomed to, regardless of whether those emotions are positive or negative.
For instance, if stress, anxiety, or sadness have become our default emotional states due to past experiences, upbringing, or coping mechanisms, they can feel oddly familiar and "comfortable" in a sense. This familiarity doesn't necessarily mean these emotions are pleasant or desirable, but rather that they've become ingrained patterns in our emotional landscape.
Just like returning to a childhood home, even if it's not the ideal environment, it still feels familiar and somewhat comforting due to its familiarity. Similarly, our emotional home, even if negative emotions characterize it, can feel comfortable simply because it's what we know best.
Breaking away from this cycle often requires conscious effort and self-awareness. It involves challenging ingrained patterns, exploring alternative emotional responses, and cultivating new habits that promote emotional well-being. By consciously reshaping our emotional home, we can create a healthier, more supportive environment that nurtures positivity, resilience, and growth.
Understanding our emotional home is crucial because it influences how we perceive ourselves and how we interact with the world around us. It shapes our attitudes, behaviors, and responses to life's challenges and opportunities. Moreover, our emotional home can impact our relationships, career choices, and overall well-being.
While our emotional home may be influenced by various factors, including past experiences, personality traits, and external circumstances, it is not fixed or immutable. We can cultivate a more supportive and nurturing emotional home that aligns with our values, aspirations, and desired outcomes with self-awareness and intentional practice.
This process may involve exploring the underlying beliefs and thought patterns that contribute to our emotional landscape and adopting strategies for emotional regulation and self-care. By fostering a sense of balance, authenticity, and compassion within ourselves, we can create a more harmonious and fulfilling emotional home that serves as a foundation for personal growth, resilience, and well-being.
Decompress From The Day
Just like with disconnection, decompression is a tool you can use in the evenings to prepare you for a great night's rest, get your mind off of work, and help make you more present for your family. When we are in our head for long hours all day trying to solve problems, it can drain us and make us feel stressed because our ancestral trait with problem-solving is that we are not comfortable trying to survive something. This causes our minds to race and nonstop think about work, even just sitting on the couch watching TV. Or you are attempting to problem-solve something else in your life, like how to get out of a relationship, navigate your children's hyperactivity, how you are going to help your child get better in school, or anything that can cause you to feel emotionally stressed. When we can't transition properly, this sets us up for improper emotion management. One of the best tools is decompressing before you head home from work. What you do is create a time where you can decompress from your day and get everything going on in your mind out on a piece of paper by writing down the most pressing thing that happened to you that day. Then, write down a positive thing that occurred to you that day, and then write down something you are excited about for that evening. This helps to get us out of our heads and into our bodies. This allows you to have more mental space to be present with your child doing homework, use those tools your therapist gave you in your relationship, and help you to get out and be active with your hyperactive child. This tool may take 5-10 minutes.
Find Your Place of Peace For Your Emotions
When we are faced with high stress, overwhelming situations, or anxiety, it can cause us to shut down, freeze, and run from what we are afraid of. Your place of peace is where you run to in your mind to find comfort and face your fear with a healthy coping mechanism. Whereas when we run from our fear, we generally use external stimuli to cope with the fear, like social media, food, drugs, alcohol, or smoking. Using your place of peace trains our mind to run towards that instead because it brings more positive hormone release instead of stress hormone release. The way you find your place of peace is within yourself. You return your memories to a place where you feel calm, safe, and secure. This can be anywhere in the world. The main thing you want to focus on is finding safety, security, and peace. Once you have seen it connect to your breath, focus on releasing the tension in your body while sitting in your place of peace. Anytime you feel stressed (except when driving), find your place of peace.
On an emotional level, this has been shown to reduce the amount of cortisol our body produces in a state of stress. The more mindful we can be about our breath and stress, the more it helps to reduce oxidative stress and enhance our ability to adapt to stress.
What We Choose To Consume Determines our Physical Health
From the food we eat to the shows we watch, it all affects our physical health. Our logical and emotional centers in the brain determine these choices. What we choose to put in our body affects our self-esteem, emotional response, emotional regulation, stress response, mood, and energy. Eating considerably unhealthy foods creates a negative stress response in the body, leading to fatigue, inflammation, and metabolic dysfunction. When faced with life stress like financial strain, loss of job, relationship turmoil, chaotic household, or toxic work environment, these factors can drastically affect our food decisions and stress response. Still, the more awareness we can bring to these situations, like understanding your emotional home, taking breaks throughout the day, and then surrounding yourself with choices that make you feel good, the less the negative implications of these situations on your health.
Surround yourself with things that make you feel good; bring healthy snacks to work, like fresh fruit, nuts and seeds, healthy protein bars, and Greek yogurt. This reduces the stress in your body and keeps it simple for you when deciding what to eat throughout the day. When choosing what to watch, like the news, TV shows, and movies, be aware of what causes you stress, spikes adrenaline, or triggers you because when we watch these shows, it is no different than living in that environment, which can cause even more stress than you might already be dealing with. Choose light-hearted shows, take a break from the news, and try listening to calming music, do some evening yoga, go for a walk, or play a board game; doing these types of activities can improve brain function, decrease stress levels, and improve emotional regulation. This not only helps with managing your emotions, but it also improves your decision-making skills and problem-solving skills.
Takeaway
Understanding the profound impact of emotional well-being on our physical health reveals a crucial aspect of our overall wellness. While we may not always have direct control over our emotions, cultivating awareness empowers us to comprehend them more deeply. By fostering a healthy relationship with our feelings, we equip ourselves with invaluable tools and strategies to mitigate potential health issues stemming from emotional imbalances..
Comments