How Negative Emotions Affect Our Health

Did you know that negative emotions affect our health in an unhealthy manner?  Emotions such as anger, fear, resentment, jealousy, envy, rage, and sorrow, are some of the emotions that fall into that “negative” category.  If you are having any of these emotions for long periods of time, you could be doing damage to your health.

It is difficult in today’s world to stay away from being in negative emotion, whether it is listening to what is going on in our economy, our educational system, the political world, health care, or just worrying about our own personal life, negative emotions can take over if we are not conscious of changing them.

  

Stress is at its highest levels for many of us, and if you haven’t heard, stress “kills”.  Stress comes from having negative situations, accompanied by negative emotions.  It really does not matter what negative emotion you are having, for they all contribute to poor health in our bodies.

Some of the affects can be high blood pressure, stomach ulcers, anxiety attacks, headaches, extreme tiredness, insomnia, heart palpitations, chest pain, back pain, shortness of breath, upset stomach, weight gain, weight loss, just to name a few.  Prolonged affects can lead to heart disease, heart attacks, and a weakened immune system.  

  

Cortisol is a hormone in our bodies that is often called the “stress” hormone.  It is a important hormone that has positive functions in our body, but when we are constantly stressed, this hormone can cause negative affects such as increased belly fat, blood sugar imbalance, suppressed thyroid function, decreased bone density, decreased muscle tissue, higher blood pressure, and a lowered immune system.

  

How can we stay out of negative emotion when stress levels are high?  There are many things that we can do to control this situation.  First, we need to be aware that we are feeling these emotions, and choose to control our thinking about them.  This is a form of being in mindfulness.  Choosing our thoughts puts us in control.  We have approximately 60,000 thoughts going through our heads each day, and whether we know it or not, we choose each and every on of them.

 

Being conscious of those thoughts, and choosing to have better feeling ones can help lower our stress levels.  Choosing to exercise daily will also lower stress and negative emotions by releasing sedative like endorphins into the body.  Exercise always helps us to feel better.

Eating a diet primarily of “natures” foods, can help us to feel better.  Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, nuts, legumes, whole grains, and lean proteins are all foods that will help you to feel better.  Diets full of processed, high sugar, high fat, foods can alter our moods, and make us feel sluggish and lethargic.  This does not help if we are trying to de-stress and feel more positive.

Last but not least, practicing daily meditation can be an enormous help to lowering negative emotions and stress.  You need only to sit quietly, rid your mind of past, present, and future thoughts, and focus on your breathing.  Meditating five minutes a day is a good start, then, add more time as you become more comfortable with the process.  You will feel so much better adding this into your life.

 

Take control of your health by controlling the stress and negative emotions that control you.

Wishing You Happiness and Health,

Queenie