“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear” ~Mark Twain
The medical establishment has been proving that the mind can heal the body for over 50 years. We call it “the placebo effect,” and we know that when patients in clinical trials get nothing but sugar pills, saline injections, or fake surgeries, but believe they might be getting the new wonder drug or miracle surgery, their bodies get better 18-80% of the time.
While many are aware of the seemingly mysterious placebo effect, fewer people know about its evil twin, “the nocebo effect.” When I was researching my book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, I became convinced, without a shadow of a doubt, that a combination of positive belief and the nurturing care of the right healer can activate the body’s natural self-repair mechanisms and help the body heal itself.
But was the opposite also true? Do negative beliefs about our health or harsh care from insensitive doctors harm the body?
Harmful Beliefs Poison Your Body
As reported in an article in The Lancet, researchers in San Diego examined the death records of almost 30,000 Chinese-Americans and compared them to over 400,000 randomly selected white people. What they found was that Chinese-Americans, but not whites, die significantly earlier than normal (by as much as 5 years) if they have a combination of disease and birth year which Chinese astrology and Chinese medicine consider ill-fated.
The researchers found that the more strongly the Chinese-Americans attached to traditional Chinese superstitions, the earlier they died. When they examined the data, they concluded that the reduction in life expectancy could not be explained by genetic factors, the lifestyle choices or behavior of the patients, the skill of the doctors, or any other variable.
Why Did The Chinese-Americans Die Younger?
The researchers concluded that they died younger not because they have Chinese genes, but because they have Chinese beliefs. They believe they will die younger because the stars have hexed them. And their negative beliefs manifested as a shorter life span.
It’s not just Chinese Americans whose fears about their health can result in negative health outcomes. One study showed that 79% of medical students report developing symptoms suggestive of the illnesses they are studying. Because they get paranoid and think they’ll get sick, their bodies comply by getting sick.
I know this from personal experience. I was a first-year medical student, studying the numerous ways the body can run amuck, burning the midnight oil memorizing the litany of pathological processes that can lead to thousands of different illnesses – everything from porphyria to Dengue fever to osteogenesis imperfecta to narcolepsy.
Then suddenly, my heart rate was 230 on my ICU rounds, and suddenly, what I had feared when I was reading my chapter about cardiac arrhythmias was actually happening to me. My attending physician hooked me up to an EKG, my fellow medical students diagnosed me with “supraventricular tachycardia,” and for years, I was plagued with heart palpitations.
And it wasn’t just me. The student health clinic didn’t seem the least bit surprised to see me and my fellow students, traipsing through just before finals with bizarre complaints and a slew of strange symptoms we had self-diagnosed. Not only had the doctors and nurses staffing these clinics heard similar complaints from years of experience caring for medical students. They also informed me that the syndrome had actually been given a name: “medstudentitis,” or more formally “medical student disease.”
You Can Think Yourself Sick
Whether you’re a Chinese-American, a medical student, someone like Angelina Jolie, who may have been “medically hexed” with a poor prognosis or a high risk of disease or death, or even if you’re just someone whose subconscious mind is filled with limiting beliefs from your childhood like “I’m the sickly type” or “My family gets cancer,” focusing your attention on illness has been scientifically proven to predispose the body to illness. Excessive knowledge about what can go wrong with the body can actually harm you. The more you focus on the infinite ways in which the body can break down, the more likely you are to experience physical symptoms.
While the placebo effect demonstrates the power of positive thinking, expectation, hope, and nurturing care, the nocebo effect demonstrates the physiological effects of negative belief, fear, anxiety, and what Martin Seligman terms “learned helplessness.” These negative emotions trigger the amygdala in the limbic brain to send out a red alert that activates the “fight-or-flight” stress response. And as I describe in great detail in Mind Over Medicine, when the nervous system is in “fight-or-flight,” the body’s self-repair mechanisms don’t function properly and the body is predisposed to illness. All because you thought yourself sick.
How Long Do You Believe You’ll Live?
The good news is by changing your thoughts, you can change your health! Becca Levy studied how our beliefs about longevity affect how long we live. What did she find?
Spoiler alert: Those who lived longest were those who believed they would live the longest.
When I first met Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of Love, Medicine & Miracles and one of the faculty in the MD training program I founded, the Whole Health Medicine Institute, Bernie asked me how long I intended to live. I said “100 years,” and he said, “Good answer, because what you believe will come true.”
I’m not suggesting that positive belief is the only factor. Obviously, accidents happen, genetic risk factors influence our health, and bad things happen to good people with positive thoughts. But the studies show that, even in light of these things we can’t always prevent, what we believe, especially what we fear, has a tendency to manifest itself in reality because negative beliefs fill our bodies with harmful cortisol and epinephrine, while positive beliefs relax our nervous systems and allow our bodies to heal. (Read here for 10 Signs You Have WAY Too Much Cortisol. And if you don’t like what you read, read 10 Fun Ways To Reduce Your Cortisol Levels).
You Are The Gatekeeper Of Your Mind
You wouldn’t take a pill from a bottle with a skull and crossbones on it, but every time you think negative thoughts about your health, you’re potentially poisoning your body with stress hormones that deactivate your body’s natural self-repair mechanisms. You are the gatekeeper of your mind, and it’s your responsibility to protect what you think.
Preview Is there scientific proof we can heal ourselves?
Lissa Rankin, MD | TEDxAmericanRiviera
What thoughts do you choose to think about your body?
Faith overcomes our Fear
But what happens when fear becomes psychological? Fear of inadequacy, of loneliness, of failure—these fears burrow into your psyche and can affect you a on a daily basis, sometimes even preventing you from living a meaningful life full of positive relationships and experiences. These psychological fears are unnecessary. The only purpose they serve is to damage your chances of living in light and love. It’s time to get those fears under control!
Psychological fear wears many masks you need to watch for, including anxiety, worry, depression, and embarrassment. Even fate can camouflage fear, as in, “I’ve had three bad dates, so it must be a sign I’m not meant to find love,” when really you’re afraid of vulnerability. As a spiritual teacher and energy healer, I often see the trickster of fear masquerade as logic. For example, my student Molly wanted to join a choir. The choir required an audition that Molly had prepared for and felt good about. But when the day arrived, she came up with a dozen logical reasons why it was impractical for her to join the group: the commute was too far, the choir would cost money, she was particularly busy at work, who would feed her kids those nights, etc., etc. But the real, honest reason was that she was scared of failing. The audition was emotionally risky, so fear donned the mask of common sense and convinced Molly it was a bad idea.
Fears and their guises take years to become buried in your mind and heart so you can’t expect them to disappear overnight. But here are five ways you can begin to slowly move out from under those dark clouds of fear and walk into the light.
1. Acknowledge Your Fears
As a former addict, I know that the first step to any recovery is awareness. Ignoring your fears will only make them worse and give them more power over your life. Admit to yourself what you are truly afraid of, whether it is being wrong, or being alone, or losing a loved one. Open up and identify the truth of your fear so you can start the healing process.
2. Uncover the Cause
Psychological fears always have a root source. In working with Molly, I discovered the foundation of her fear of auditioning was a childhood in which she was expected to always be the best and was met with disappointment and even disapproval from her parents when she received less than an A+ or didn’t make the team. This had created in Molly an intense fear of failure, which also manifested as anxiety over trying new things or taking risks. Ask yourself, “What is the underlying cause of my fear? What is its origin?”
3. Express Yourself
Expressing your fears helps to release the grip they have on your psyche and helps you regain the power and energy they take from you. In my workshops and healing courses, I recommend journaling as a way to release negativity and liberate those pent-up emotions. Writing allows the scared pieces of you to be exposed to the light so they can start to mend. Talking through your fears can be incredibly beneficial as well. Whether it is a trusted friend or a professional listener like a religious counselor or trained therapist, speaking your fears aloud frees them from your mind and leaves room for peace.
4. Manage Stress
When you’re stressed, you become vulnerable to attack. Fear walks right through those open doors of exhaustion and strain and settles in your mind and body. Your chakras are especially susceptible to fear’s draining energy and can become blocked. Meditation is one of the best ways to manage your stress levels so you can keep those doors closed to fear and your chakras clear and unencumbered. Meditate every day, and I promise that your fears—along with some of those pesky fear-in-disguise feelings like anxiety and depression—will begin to decrease. Exercise, including walks and yoga, can also go a long way in lowering your stress levels and keeping you protected from the constant fight-or-flight response produced by psychological fears.
5. Practice Love
Love is the greatest power in the universe, and the best weapon against fear. Work on bringing more love into your life by spending more time with friends and family, volunteering for those less fortunate than yourself, and basking in the unconditional adoration of your pets. Connection to other living beings can alleviate feelings of isolation and improve the frequency and quality of love in your life. Don’t forget to practice self-love, too! Whatever form your fear takes, love is the one thing that will truly conquer it.
Bruce Lipton – Fear versus Love State and Stress’s Effect on Your Body
Bruce origins are from the area of Cellular Biology study. A fascinating path. This became his metaphoric platform to a greater understanding of how our perceptions of our environment has on the physical temples our consciousness reside within.
He came into my own awareness quite early on when my Conscious Exploring really kicked in. What he taught me is the vitalness in mastery of my emotional state. Revealing Meditation’s importance. Then be foundational component in gaining my own Sacred Neutral Perspective of our Reality.
This segment was one that I integrated into my observation of my emotional state very early on. The 2 core emotional states we can reside in. Fear or Love. I also learnt I do not need to be a passenger to my emotions. I have a choice in what i wish to experience.
Bruce explains the effect of Fear vs. Love on the body. The growth our body receives when in love verses the cost of experiencing and living in fear. The vital role of our perception of the environment in which we find ourselves based upon our Beliefs. How the experience of stress has in our ability to master this all. And, much more. I thank Bruce greatly for this and offer a taste of his wisdom to you here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Releasing the Unseen Fear of Healing https://takemetotruth.org/nouk
Just as there are many different experiences of anxiety and depression, there are a variety of options for treatments and coping techniques to help manage symptoms. The recommendations in this section take an integrative mental health approach, which incorporates health-promoting lifestyle changes; evidence-based holistic therapies and healing practices; and mainstream interventions, including psychosocial therapies and the judicious use of prescription medication. We cover each of these areas in detail–click the links or see the menu on the left for more information.
Note that some of the treatments for depression and anxiety overlap, so it is beneficial to learn about both disorders.
Preview Deliverance from Fear and Anxiety
Here are some ways to start to take care of your brain (and the rest of your body) and perhaps alleviate your anxiety and depression. But be sure to read about all the treatment options in the menu (above left).
- Breathe………..slow exhalation helps relax the body
- Move your body
- Spend time in nature
- Get regular, replenishing sleep
- Spend time with supportive friends/family
- Accept imperfection
- Eat real/functional foods and drink lots of water
- Meditate (sitting or moving) or take regular time for self-awareness practice
- Practice forgiveness
- Practice gratitude daily
Impact of chronic fear
Living under constant threat has serious health consequences.
- Physical health. Fear weakens our immune system and can cause cardiovascular damage, gastrointestinal problems such as ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome, and decreased fertility. It can also lead to accelerated ageing and even premature death.
- Memory. Fear can impair formation of long-term memories and cause damage to certain parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus. This can make it even more difficult to regulate fear and can leave a person anxious most of the time. To someone in chronic fear, the world looks scary and their memories confirm that.
- Brain processing and reactivity. Fear can interrupt processes in our brains that allow us to regulate emotions, read non-verbal cues and other information presented to us, reflect before acting, and act ethically. This impacts our thinking and decision-making in negative ways, leaving us susceptible to intense emotions and impulsive reactions. All of these effects can leave us unable to act appropriately.
- Mental health. Other consequences of long-term fear include fatigue, clinical depression, and PSTD.
Preview How Does Trauma Effect the Brain
- Content?
- Energized?
- Connected?
- Balanced?
Are you able to put the bad days in perspective and live with a sense of purpose?
If you answered yes, then you are experiencing wellbeing, a state of being in alignment (body, mind, and spirit).
But many of us aren’t there. Our lifestyle is causing us pain, whether we are tired or stressed or overweight. We feel disconnected from others or stuck in a routine that hold no meaning. We are dissatisfied with our daily lives. We live in worry.
The good news is that—with practice, we can enhance our wellbeing and achieve a state of balance and contentment.
Begins with a question
Wellbeing begins with the simple question—what can I do to feel content and balanced? Asking this shifts our whole perspective—we are no longer looking to our healthcare providers or government or food companies to tell us what we need to do. We are empowering ourselves to explore what we really need and to evaluate for ourselves what makes sense.
Wellbeing comes from within https://www.wellbeingalignment
Your path to wellbeing will be unique to you, arising from an awareness of where you are and what you need. As you proceed:
- Listen to your body and mind.
- Take small steps.
- Create a positive environment where you can succeed.
- Include support from others.
- Be compassionate to yourself as you go and start again whenever you need to.
- Remember that wellbeing is our natural inclination.
- Savor successes.
https://www.psychologytoday.co
Easing emotional stress is important not only for your mental health, but also to help your body properly heal. The relationships between wounds and stress go both ways: A wound can cause stress, which can in turn negatively affect wound healing.
If severe, psychological stressors can lead to a weakening of the immune system that increases the chance of infection and ultimately slow the stages of recovery.
Daytime and nighttime wounds
According to a team of British scientists, wounds (including burn wounds and cuts) healed almost 60 percent sooner if the injury originally occurred during the daytime as opposed to during the night, as reported by CNN.
The researchers from the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, looked at the treatment records of more than 110 burn patients from facilities in Wales and England. The findings published in Science Translational Magazine.
The scientists found that patients whose burn wounds occurred between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. took more time to heal than those that happened between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. More specifically, wounds that happened at night healed in approximately 28 days, compared to wounds incurred in the day, which healed in approximately 17 days.
So why does the wound healing process differ depending on the time of day the wound happened? The research points to circadian rhythms, which also naturally control your sleeping cycles, as well as your blood pressure and the behavior of your genes.
The scientists pointed out that each cell has an individual biological clock and they all synchronize thanks to temperature and hormones, as well as other bodily factors. The entire system is controlled by the section of the brain called the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei.
The body clock
They believe the faster healing in the daytime is due the body clock, which moved skin cells faster to the wound site to aid in repair. The increased speed of healing was reportedly due to the heightened activity of proteins during that time of the day, or more responsive during the active phase than during the resting phase.
Experiments on the effects of the time of day on wound healing were conducted on mice. According to the lead author of the study, Ned Hoyle, it is the individual cells, and not body signals, that drive the response.
“One of the main jobs of these cells in a whole animal is to respond to wounds by moving into them and secreting proteins to repair the damage,” Hoyle told CNN.
Furthermore, Hoyle and other researchers believe that the healing properties and cellular clock of the individual cells can possibly be adjusted to respond to the best time for healing. They suggest that surgery could be performed to coincide with the patient’s individual biological clock. Patients who are “morning people,” for instance, could have their surgery done in the daytime when their cells will respond better, while “night owls” can have theirs performed in the evening.
For us to heal, we must be willing to not fear, fear. https://irenelyon.com/2017/08/
A new program uses acupuncture as one of the weapons in the fight to beat opioid addiction.https://www.usnews.com/news/
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Fear of failure or “atychiphobia” can be so paralyzing that it can prevent you from moving forward to achieve your true goals. People who suffer from this fear often subconsciously undermine their own efforts to avoid disappointment or failure. Many people who grow up with overly critical parents, carry the humiliation and negativity into adulthood with them. This fear can be show up as a reluctance to try something new, self-sabotage, anxiety, low self-esteem and perfectionism.
The fear of failure can act as the catalyst for mental illness such as generalized anxiety disorder, depression, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Some people with a fear of failure may appear successful in one area such as wealth accumulation, but suffer in their interpersonal relationships. They are unable to achieve a work-life balance and never feel happy no matter how much money they acquire. https://www.activebeat.co/your
The more we engage with fear and collaborate with it the more we heal.
- Standing still in the face of fear starts to shift you out of a sensation of being powerless and into a sensation of being powerful. This is a process that takes time but is the essential shift of healing.
- Fear contains powerful messages, facts and information useful to healing. The more you connect with, identify and act on these messages the more direct, focused and efficient recovery becomes.
- Healing is about more than creating a sensation of safety and control; it’s about directly addressing what we’ve been so afraid of and finding ways to become bigger, more powerful and more strong than the origin of the fear itself.
Healing Anxiety and PTSD Symptoms is Frightening
There are many reasons to be tempted to dismiss fear as the enemy; this is a mistake. Fear is a mirror. It reflects back to you where you feel weak, powerless, unsure, uncertain and overwhelmed. These reflections let you know where you need to do some work.
But that’s not all.
In fear’s reflection are many positive elements, too. Fear lets you know who you are, what matters to you, where you need to grow and in what way you and/or your circumstances need to change so that you learn how to reduce symptoms of anxiety and PTSD. Fear has much to teach and it doesn’t all need to be learned at once. Engaging with fear can begin simply with conscious awareness, and by replacing resistance with acceptance.
When I started the process of engaging with fear I literally spent a day admitting it, saying to myself, “For such a long time I’ve been living in so much fear!” (Amazingly, this was a big revelation to me.) I also had sympathy and compassion for myself for feeling fear. Then, I wrote out a list of what I was afraid of. I still have the list. It completely covered both front and back of an 11 x 17 sheet of paper. From there I systematically started to address each item on the list.
As a catalyst, directly confronting fear can embolden recovery, remove resistance to the healing process (especially if that’s one of the things on your fear list) and give you a more clear strategy for the work that needs to be done. In a healing process that lacks a road map the street signs of fear can be tremendously useful in helping you chart a successful recovery route. This terrific talk by Constanzia Hooker is on releasing unconscious “blocks,” and has a really encouraging Spirit on it. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=950CerKWtmU