Articles

Healthy Mind

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How to Jump-Start Your Emotional Health
by Patricia Wagner

You've probably heard the expression: "It's not what you're eating. It's what's eating you!" This well-known saying reminds us that the thoughts we entertain can have an impact on our health. Scientists have discovered that what you're thinking actually affects your physical health as well as your emotional well-being. Ulcers, indigestion, nervousness, high blood pressure and a wide variety of diseases can result from an injured immune system brought on by harmful thought patterns.There are thoughts that heal and thoughts that hurt.

If you read this article through to the end, you will discover an effective tool to enhance your emotional and physical health.

Here are five keys to emotional well-being:

1. Emotions tag right along behind your thoughts, so guard your mind carefully.

Your emotions can't tell if what you're thinking about is really happening or if it's just an image in your head.

Prove this to yourself by thinking back to when you watched a terrifying scene on television on in a movie. Even though you knew what you were watching wasn't actually happening, you were still scared - weren't you?

Here's something to consider. About ten minutes after you start to dwell on something, corresponding emotions will follow.

We are what we eat - both physically and mentally. Pay close attention to what you're feeding your mind. The books, television, movies, newspapers and even the jokes we hear enter into our lives and become part of us.

So what's eating you? Examine what you're feeling and then ask yourself this question, "What have I been thinking about recently?"

If you have a garbage can for a head, life will look like garbage to you.

2. Learn to develop a cheerful attitude toward life.

Life can be painful, but it's possible to overcome.

Choose to behave in a cheerful way as much as possible even if you don't feel like it. You may be surprised at what happens. Cheerfulness is contagious.

A positive attitude toward life may help ward off sicknesses. Psychology Professor Sheldon Cohen (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh) found that relaxed, happy people are less prone to catch colds than unhappy, anxious people.

3. Deal with stress as an opportunity to grow.

Stress can be a killer.

People who go through stressful events seem to get sicker more often than those who have less problems confronting them. But some people thrive on stress. This tends to show that the problem is not stress, but how we deal with it.

When we experience times of anxiety and fear, our brains release hormones as part of the fight-flight syndrone to prepare us for dangerous situations. When the body receives too many of these "danger" messages from our brains, our disease-resistance systems are weakened.

Stressful situations seem to cause increased illnesses in those who consider themselves to be victims and who react with anxiety and frustration.

Others consider stressful situations as opportunities to overcome. So why not choose this positive approach yourself?

4. Make the right friends.

Select people who are cheerful instead of depressed for the majority of your friends.

Emotions can be transferred almost by osmosis. Retired baseball Coach, John Scolinos (from California Polytechnic College, Pomona), used to tell his winning baseball players, "Show me who you're with and I'll tell you who you are."

We need a positive social life that includes friends, close family members, churches and members of organizations. Those who have satisfying social lives enjoy improved resistance to illness.

5. Let wisdom from the world's greatest book be your guide.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones" (Proverbs 17:22 NIV).

"All the days of the afflicted are bad, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast." (Proverbs 15:15 NASV).

Want to jump-start your emotional health? Stop letting what's eating you hurt you and begin to enjoy life in a brand new way.

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The Power of Healthy Words
by Patricia Wagner

How would you like to improve how you relate to others and become more energetic at the same time without having to purchase anything?

Here's a surprising truth - one of the most powerful weapons to enhance your life is your own tongue!

A powerful pep zapper is distress over troubled relationships! Worrying about them can quickly siphon off needed energy. So why not try a more effective way to resolve these problems?

Here's a simple five-point plan for improving relationships and increasing your energy level at the same time.

1. Practice speaking encouraging words instead of negative ones.

Concentrate on the qualities in other people that you can affirm and dwell on those things instead of on their faults. This alone should do wonders in relieving stress in your relationships.

Doctors know that prolonged anxiety harms you, but healing words can soothe stress and a peaceful mind leads to improved physical health too.

What we say can have a permanent effect for good or for evil. Think back in your own life when someone encouraged you. You still remember what they said, don't you?

We store in our minds in a kind of mental art gallery what others have said to us. What words of yours would you like to have permanently installed in someone else's mind?

2. Avoid fueling verbal fires.

When someone starts to blow up all over you, be careful about your response. Why burn your relationship house down with your own mouth? Try spraying water on an argument with calm words instead of using a flame-thrower.

How many marriages have been destroyed when in a fit of anger people spew out hurtful accusations to one another that are never forgotten. You might as well punch a hole in a feather pillow and let the feathers fly all over the place and then try to collect them one by one! You can't get back the damaging effects of those hurtful words either. Want to free yourself from an entrapping verbal situation? Practice waiting a while before answering someone when you're angry. Then carefully choose what you are going to say. Your reply could well be remembered for the rest of the other person's life! "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" (Proverbs 15:1 NKJV).

3. Don't be a motormouth.

Listen more than you talk and think about what you're going to say before you say it. Don't just blurt out whatever is on your mind.

People who constantly chatter on and on about themselves and their opinions strain their relationships. If you enjoy monopolizing conversations, think about what other people may be experiencing when they're with you. Also, the more you talk, the more likely you'll be to put your foot in your mouth. That's known as "foot-in-mouth disease!" So think before you let something out that you'll regret saying.

4. Nip hurtful speech in the bud by carefully choosing your thoughts.

If you could put what you're thinking on a CD, what would you entitle it? Thought patterns will come out sooner or later in your conversations. Abraham Lincoln is remembered as being one of the United States of America's greatest presidents. But he experienced many failures along the way. These failures were in the areas of formal education (which was very limited), business, farming and in obtaining desired political offices.If Abraham Lincoln had thought of himself as a loser when he failed so many times in life, he would have been unable to fulfill his destiny.

5. Pray for healing words to tap the Source of wisdom.

Consider praying about what you are saying. Here's a to-the-point prayer: "Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips" ( Psalms 141:3).

Want to have a better life? Choose better words!

Start afresh today to create beautiful art-word exhibitions in other people's minds with loving and caring words.

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