Most people don’t realize that when they feel negative emotion, which is caused by their limited point of focus or negative attention to a subject, they are putting their body in a negative chemical environment. One could also say that what they feel as the physical sensation of emotion (both positive and negative) are the chemical reactions that happen in the body in response to thought. The body reacts to this negative state the same way it does to a threat perceived by other senses.
Your body is constantly receiving feedback from its environment so it can make appropriate adjustments and adaptations in order to survive. Outside of the primary physical senses (taste, touch, sight, and so on) your body receives a large part of its feedback about the environment from your conscious input, from your awareness and interpretation of what is happening in your surroundings. If you have a negative response to something, your body is going to want to protect itself by creating a defensive plan to ward off danger and survive.
When you perceive something as negative, you launch a series of chemical reactions that stimulate certain parts of the brain. These parts of the brain do not know whether you are being chased by a mountain lion or are mad at another driver for cutting you off. The end result is that the same signals are sent (signals that something is wrong) to a part of your brain called the hypothalamus, which starts a chemical cascade that puts your body into survival and protection mode.
This protection mode, which is designed to help you in fight-or-flight situations, is created by a chemical process called the HPA Axis, which consists of the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal gland (adrenal cortex). When you perceive something as “bad” (whether it is a perceived annoyance or an imminent danger) you send a signal, much the same way your hand that gets burned sends a signal, to your hypothalamus that says, “Something is wrong, take immediate action.” Instantly the hypothalamus releases chemicals (peptides called vasopressin and CRH—corticotrophin-releasing hormone) that stimulate the anterior part of the pituitary gland to release another chemical (ACTH—adrenocorticotropic hormone) that in turn acts on the adrenal cortices that then release more chemicals like cortisol, which is a corticosteroid hormone.
Cortisol is a chemical that is naturally occurring in the body. Under normal conditions it helps regulate blood pressure, metabolizes glucose properly, releases insulin for proper blood sugar maintenance, works as an immune function, and responds to inflammation. But when the body is under high levels of stress, like that of thinking negatively (it is said that the average person thinks between 2,000 and 3,000 thoughts a day, up to 75 percent of which are negative), cortisol production works to provide the body with a survival mode of activity, which takes a toll on our health and wellness. High levels of cortisol production cause an increased metabolism of glucose and a corresponding rise in blood sugar, suppresses the immune system, works as a diuretic, and increases blood pressure. Long-term exposure to high levels of cortisol can cause a decrease of bone formation and damage to the hippocampus, which impairs learning.
The point is, it is hard for your body to thrive under these conditions. When you are under a real threat like having to get out of the way of a speeding car, this system is a great advantage to have. But if you are consistently in a negative frame of mind, you are putting your body in a state where it is going to have a hard time thriving, which will eventually lead to poor health and weight gain. In fact, it has been shown that increased levels of cortisol production cause weight gain, especially in the abdomen area. Think of it this way: If your body took extra energy (and that includes getting energy away from other processes happening in the body) to protect itself and defend itself from a perceived threat and you never expended that extra energy, where do you think it would go?
Take this one step further and think about what dwelling on your body conditions alone would do to your body. Not only are you creating stress that results in an increased level of cortisol production, but your body is getting even more signals from those higher centers of your brain telling the cells to behave in the exact way you are perceiving them to be. This is also done via hormones released by the hypothalamus. Your hypothalamus produces other hormones (branch chained amino acids) that serve as messengers to tell your cells how to behave in response to your every thought and that are sent to every cell in your body relaying the messages from your input. So, when you think “bad” about your body, not only are you programming your body to look and behave in the way you are observing it, but you are also creating an environment that is making it worse via cortisol production.
It’s easy to see why diets and exercise programs don’t often work. If you are consistently creating a negative environment for your body and programming it to behave inefficiently, there is only so much exercise and diet can do to make up for that negativity. One way to look at it is, the more negative you are, the more physical effort you have to provide to make up for the negative effects of your thinking to put you into a positive state where change can occur. One downside of doing more work in an already stressed body is that sometimes more stress (work) can break the body down too much and cause bigger problems. More stress on an already stressed system can have real negative effects.
This is why I talk about making peace with where you are in regard to your body and health before you start the physical action of exercise. By reducing your stress surrounding your body and health, you start to reduce the negative effects that are going to work against the positive effects exercise and eating a healthy diet can create, thus making those actions more fruitful. Not to mention, the intent behind the action when you are at peace with where you are changes the way in which you approach the activities, which ultimately makes the action journey so much more enjoyable (and less stressful).
And once you learn how to rework the self-imposed stress you are putting your body through in regard to itself, you will then be able to carry that over to the rest of your life. Before long, you will be managing your life from a powerful place, and everything will become easier to manage. Your mental health precedes your physical health, so when you take care of the mental part, the physical part is easy to manage—meaning, you will be certain to get more results with less action.
