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When you are sick, either from something minor like a cold or from a more serious health problem, have you ever noticed how your mental attitude can really contribute to the way you feel?
I can remember throwing myself some pretty good pity parties when I was bed-ridden with the flu or pneumonia or something. Along with feeling very sorry for myself, I would think things like, “I feel so sick.” “My fever is not going away.” “This is just horrible…I’m never going to get better.”
If we’re all being honest here, I think thoughts like these are pretty normal. It’s just the worst to be sick, stuck at home with all of the miserable symptoms that go along with being ill.
I also had a difficult time staying positive while I was recovering from my hysterectomy. I was so sick afterwards and feeling so miserable that my brain played along thinking negative things all day long about how awful I felt.
In the past few months, a few things happened that have really shown me how our thoughts and feelings can impact our health. First, I had a conversation with a dear friend of mine who is a huge believer in affirmations. As we were chatting over coffee, we got on the topic of positive thinking and she explained how ones body will often go along with what ones mind is thinking. So, if we are lying in bed telling ourselves how rotten we feel, our bodies will essentially obey these thoughts and continue to feel sick.
On the other hand, my friend explained, if we make an effort to think positive thoughts about our health and how we are feeling, our bodies will “listen” and respond accordingly. Examples she gave me included phrases like, “I am healthy.” “My body is healing every minute.” “I am well.”
Not too long after this conversation, I came home from work feeling headachy and tired. The next morning I woke up feeling stuffy and with a sore throat. As I reached for the Advil and orange juice, my friend’s advice came to me, and I decided what the heck, I’d give it a shot.
Instead of focusing on how crummy I felt, I repeated over and over to myself, "I’m healthy." "My body is very strong and healing." If I caught myself feeling sorry for myself, I replaced those thoughts with positive words.
And you know what? It worked. I got over my cold in record time.
So, I started to research the connection between our thoughts and our health, and if what my friend was saying and what I had just experienced was backed by science. It didn’t take long to find multiple websites devoted to this phenomenon, as well as a name for it: mind-body medicine.
Basically, this branch of medicine looks at the effect our thoughts can have on our immune systems and our health. Additionally, some studies have shown how our psychological health can impact our physical health.
I was happy to see that some medical facilities are even using this approach with their patients. For example, here is a website to an organization in the Boston area that teaches people about mind-body medicine:
www.mindbodymedicine.org
Cancer Treatment Centers of America also believes strongly in the mind-body connection. This is just so encouraging and amazing to me. I saw first-hand how it worked on my cold, and to think that staying positive can impact something as serious as cancer is incredible:
www.cancercenter.com/complementary-alternative-medicine/mind-body-medicine.cfm
And here is a center devoted to mind-body medicine. This one is in Washington, D.C:
www.cmbm.org
Have you had experience using mind-body medicine? What do you think about it? Do you think we can essentially will ourselves to be well, or do you think it’s just a coincidence when it happens? I am looking forward to reading what you have to say on this topic.
Add a Comment47 Comments
We have to be careful that we don't cause many to feel more sick since the "cancer" does not go away by just thinking positive thoughts. As well, this line of thinking can cause us to believe that those in poverty are there due to their own "willing". There is a "happy" medium to everything and while positive thinking at the right time is good, the extrapolation of positive thinking to all areas of life at all times is very bad indeed.
August 8, 2009 - 11:01amThis Comment
so, does that mean that negative ppl falls sick more often and die earlier?
August 6, 2009 - 10:35amThis Comment
Anon,
That's the danger, isn't it? That we make sick people feel that it is their "fault" because they weren't positive thinkers. Or that if they just didn't make the time to have cancer that they wouldn't have gotten it. Right?
There may, however, be a correlation in this way: Optimistic thinkers deal with stress better. And stress is a direct cause of many illnesses. So if you can battle stress better, you may indeed be sick less and live longer. And if you feel you're a born pessimist, you can learn optimistic habits. Here's a Discovery Health story on "Learned Optimism" and its benefits to your health:
http://health.discovery.com/centers/mental/articles/optimism/optimism.html
December 9, 2009 - 8:48amThis Comment
I have been "sick" one time in 15 years. Why because the body does what the mind sayes. I wake each morning in a good mood and looking forward for what ever may happen. I do not have time to be sick therfore I am not sick. If more people could understand that you control your mind your mind does not control you. I have been around many people that have had the "cold or flu" but I have never been sick.
July 24, 2009 - 4:46pmThis Comment
there are a lot of reasons why you are not often sick, and positive thinking is probably the least important factor. how frequently are you exposed to pathogens? If you don't have little kids, chances are you get a lot less exposure. do you have a good diet? do you exercise? do you have good immunity genes? you should probably take into account all factors before you attribute cause to the factor you find most gratifying.
October 4, 2009 - 5:42pmThis Comment
What you are reffering to it also known as the law of attraction.
It's principals are routed in the earliest teaching on karma etc.
Also known as the Master Key System (To which Bill Gates attributes all of his microsoft success)
Other earlier forms are found in Rosicrucianism - Of which many great thinkers have been part.
July 20, 2009 - 4:09amThis Comment
Do I detect a little hubris and elitism here? Who are the great thinkers and what contribution did they make to the state of the World?
One should learn how to think not what and because a "great thinker" contributed.
Think for yourself. Now that takes some doing.
December 8, 2009 - 4:58amThis Comment