Do your thoughts influence your health? Maybe it’s a question that you’ve never pondered, but it’s one that you should. Because our thoughts are not just things but a thing that influence other things. We explain it all right here.
Emotional mindset health and the mind-body connection aren’t topics I used to think about. To be honest, I thought I could just run the fat off and force myself to eat better. By force, I mean literally not enjoy much of what I “thought” I needed to be eating.
But that’s the thing about those “crash” diets or even if you don’t want to call them that, anything that you don’t necessarily love, dread or despise is going to have an emotional impact on your health.
Don’t think it’s true? Check out this podcast to learn exactly why hating your lifestyle and doing things you don’t love for the sake of getting to a specific destination won’t work, at least not in the long term.
It’s all a mindset, or at least most of it is and this mindset can change your entire destination.
Make sure you download my free guide on knowing your mind and creating the first steps in a healthy mental shift here.
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Can we think ourselves thin?
Some would probably laugh that I even brought up such a ludicrous idea. But ludicrous it actually isn’t. Our mind is a powerful tool, in fact, it is way more powerful than we’ve given it credit.
More and more research is coming out on the mind and its ability to influence our entire body. Bringing up important discussions on its influence on our health and maybe even proving why dieting doesn’t work. At least not in the way we’ve been going about it.
The bottom line, our thoughts are not just things but a powerful thing that influences other actions in our body. Every thought or emotion releases a neurotransmitter that races through our body influences each and every cell.
It’s signaling our hormones, our peptides our enzymes and communicating to the body on how it should respond to the environment. It’s a very intricate and delicate system that is designed for body protection.
how your mind affects your health
Your thoughts sculpt your brain and your brain sculpts your health.
Every thought causes neurochemical changes, some temporary and some lasting. For example, when people are consciously grateful they receive a wave of reward by neurotransmitters such as dopamine and experience an altering and brightening of the mind.
Whatever flows through your mind sculpts your brain in a permanent way.
Think of your mind as a flow of information through the nervous system. Which on a physical level is made of electric signals that move both ways, most of which you are unaware of.
When a thought travels through your mind, neurons fire all together in a different way, based on the specific information being handled and those patterns of neural activity change your neural structure.
Long story short, your thoughts are programming your cells.
If you change your mindset you can change your body.
5 ways to “healthify” your mind
We can talk all day about what we should be doing but without the right mindset, we’ll probably never do it long term. So how do we change our mind? Here are five ways to get started living with a positive mindset.
1. Practice Gratitude
Gratitude is one of the most studied mindsets of all time. In fact, there is quite a bit of data proving that people who are more grateful are also more healthy. Not to mention, they tend to have healthier relationships with everyone and everything.
The simple act of being thankful can change your mindset in a positive way. But sometimes it seems too easy to be true. Not this one. Make gratitude a part of your everyday life.
Create a gratitude journal or buy one and leave it on your nightstand. Every morning and every night write down five things you are grateful for and experience the positive power of this simple step.
2. Self Acceptance
Can you love yourself for more than just your size of jeans or how many carbs you ate? I know all too well how much shame and guilt are being carried around about how we look but know you were created for so much more.
Maybe the most critical part of health is simply knowing your purpose and who you were created to be. More important than how you look is what you bring to the table. I’ve created a free guide to help you create these positive mental shifts and dig into your purpose. You can grab that below.
3. Own your Habits
The power of choice could be the only thing we can actually control. To choose what lens we view life from and under what circumstances we allow to control our mind. What happened to you is not as important as how you chose to react.
As they say, you are what you think you are. Be aware of your habits, what you continuously choose to do and start to change your mindset around positive changes. Your actions are not driven by your desired destination but the emotion surrounding that.
Yes, emotions drive us not goals. So keep perspective of your emotions and use them to own your habits.
4. Live in the Present
Change can only happen in the present and while it’s easy to get lost in the what could be’s of the future, know that right here right now is where it’s bound to happen. Plus letting go of the past and the fear of the future cuts back on a lot of unneeded anxiety.
Choosing to see the moment for what it is can bring about unexpected happiness and joy. Not to mention make you more grateful for what you actually do have.
5. Find your Tribe
It’s been shown that you will become like those you surround yourself with. And we all know that others mentality can become easily rubbed off on other people. Take some time to evaluate your relationships. Question how healthy they are and choose to cherish those who lift you up. Those who inspire you and motivate you to be a better person.
take the evaluation
Now stop and ask yourself, how healthy is your mind? Take some time to just be, alone with your thoughts. Let yourself in, pull up the baggage, the stuff in the way back of the storage unit and sort through who you are and what it is you want.
If you need some guidance, download this free guide I have for you. It will walk you through uncovering your mind and changing it for the better. Click below to get the free mindset guide.
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