Mental Health
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This One Powerful Change Can Improve or Destroy Your Performance
They say, “Time heals all wounds.” But I would disagree. It helps, sure. But it takes a lot more than that.
And there is one major healer that too many people overlook.
It’s a simple one, too, but we get broadsided and forget how important it is. It sucks that life comes with upsetting events. It sucks even more when they happen because we’ve had to make painful decisions that were in our best interests. Somehow, it doesn’t make sense that a good decision should feel so bad.
At least it helps to know that we’re the ones who have made those decisions. It can make it easier to choke down the hard parts.
But what about those painful parts of life that are the result of events or circumstances that are beyond our control? They feel even worse when we’re forced into situations we do not want.
Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever found yourself wrestling with what you got when it’s not at all what you wanted? You can scream and yell and throw things or you can hole up under a duvet and cry. But it won’t change anything.
All that will happen is you’ll continue to feel miserable. And it doesn’t take long for it to show in your performance, your ability to concentrate and focus, and to stay on top of your game—in all areas of life.
Our thoughts affect us far more profoundly that we might think. They have a direct and instantaneous impact on how we feel emotionally as well as physically. In fact, they can be major contributors to illness of all kinds.
It is astonishing to consider how extremely complex the central nervous system (CNS) is, yet many of its functions begin with a simple thought. The brain generates its own significant electromagnetic field. Your thoughts produce electromagnetic waves. Incredibly, they create chemical messengers out of nothing.
My favorite way to describe this is that if you wanted to bake a cake, you would go to the kitchen and take out the flour, sugar, eggs, etc. and mix them together. But a thought has no substance. A thought has no molecules.
Yet somehow, that electromagnetic wave causes the immediate creation of a chemical messenger that is instantly sent out and picked up by receptors on cell walls throughout the entire body.
At one time, it was believed that the CNS operated only as a one-way system of communication with neurotransmitters and neuropeptides remaining only in the brain. But we know now that this is only half the story. Through various methods, such as the immune system and the bloodstream, chemical messages are being relayed constantly from cells in the brain to receptors on cell walls throughout the entire body, and back again.
We know that cells are constantly communicating with each other, too, because the body is one entire unit, and it has been designed to function as such.
Approximately 60 different neuropeptides in the brain allow cells to communicate with each other in four ways: brain to brain, brain to body, body to body, and body to brain. These neuropeptides (and therefore, the messages that they carry) fluctuate and change constantly with your thoughts and feelings all day, every day. They play a significant role in whether you become ill—or well.
Every single thought, belief, or idea you have creates a feeling, whether positive or negative, helpful or harmful. And all of them carry chemical consequences as they are delivered to receptors on every single cell in your body.
We are not designed to tolerate the negative. It makes us sick. It makes us exhausted. It slows—or stops--our ability to heal. I remember a particularly powerful moment of understanding about this. To tell it, I must back up a bit.
Some time ago, I was struggling with a life-threatening heart problem and various other ailments. I had run out of options and on thinking of people who cured themselves of cancer and other terminal illnesses, I swore that somehow, I would be one of them.
I set out on a journey of research and experimentation and during that period, I was working with a hypnosis client who wanted to stop smoking. As always with my hypnosis clients, I was being careful of how I phrased the suggestions. I couldn’t say “You won’t want to smoke” or “You won’t like smoking” because the subconscious doesn’t accept the negatives. It would only hear “You want to smoke. You like smoking.”
In that moment, I understood the depth of our inability to tolerate negativity. And like a fast-forward film of my entire life, I saw decades of toxicity that had been the result of a frightening childhood and how it affected my adult life and health.
Every time you have negative thoughts, those chemical messages wreak havoc and alter your chemistry. This can cause disease or weakness in any system in the body.
Therefore, in the pursuit of happiness, good health, being successful and performing to the best of your ability—in any area of life—you cannot rely on “time” to heal you all by itself. You can wait and wait and wait until “The Very Hot Place” freezes over. But if you choose to focus on the negatives, longing for what was, refusing to accept what is, and ignoring the blessings in your life, you will never feel well.
The more you focus on all that negativity, the more you’re doing yourself physical harm and setting yourself up for all sorts of diseases and other health issues.
It’s not so great for your emotional health, either. It can keep you stuck in anxiety and/or depression, as well as adversely affecting your sleep and your overall ability to feel well and perform to the best of your ability.
If you find yourself dwelling on the negatives or if you’re struggling to heal an emotional wound, do your best to change how you view it. Find the positives in your situation. Look for the good; it’s always there, even if you must dig for it.
Insist on injecting more positive thoughts into your daily life. Not only will you feel happier, but your body will also thank you for it, too. If your performance took a hit during your slide into the negativity pool, it should improve again once you’re back on track and thinking better thoughts.
Oh, and to tidy up the story about my self-healing journey, it was massively successful. After several months, I was in the best health of my entire life. I learned so much it became one of my books, The Power and Simplicity of Self-Healing, which has been helping people heal in various parts of the world.
