It’s important to understand how the mind impacts the body and how the body affects the mind. There is a link there that you might not be aware of and it could be impacting your health right now. There are many ways how we feel can change our bodies.
For instance, you might be feeling stressed. Stress can have a variety of causes. For instance, you might be dealing with some difficult deadlines at work. If you feel as though you’re not going to make the deadlines, you might think your career is in jeopardy. If that’s the case, it would be natural to experience increased levels of stress.
What you might not realize is that this stress will have an effect on your body too. Stress can lead to hair loss, weight gain, and even damage to the skin. That’s why if you want to stay healthy, it’s in your best interest to try to stay as calm as possible.
Interestingly, physical actions can impact your levels of stress and the way you feel. For instance, exercise has been shown to reduce tension. This might be because it gives the mind something else to focus on. Or, it could be due to the fact that when you exercise your body releases endorphins that do make you feel better, even for a short time. Here are some of the other relationships between the body and the mind.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
These words are truer than you might think because the diet does affect mood and how we feel. Chocolate, for instance, is a mood elevator and triggers the same endorphins in the mind that are associated with love.
People with bipolar disorder are even advised to stay away from foods with high levels of sugar. A key piece of bipolar depression info is that people with this condition have highs and lows. You might have noticed a similar effect just after you consume something high in sugar. For a while, you feel happier and then you sink again. You can imagine how difficult this can be for someone whose mood is already affected by a medical condition.
JUST SMILE
Smiling isn’t just about showing someone else that you’re happy. Research shows that by smiling, you actually increase your own happiness levels, even if you’re not actually feeling that great. You might wonder then how there can be any such thing as smiling depression. Well, the effects of smiling on your own happiness levels are quite minimal and certainly won’t completely alter your mood. However, the impact is strong and clear enough to be noticeable on a brain scan.
CALM YOUR MIND
This connection is particularly interesting. Studies have shown that Buddhist monks who have spent their lives meditating actually form new pathways in the brain and may increase cognitive intelligence. There is still a lot of research occurring investigating this phenomenon, but it certainly points to the possibility that meditation can be good for your health.
We hope you find these connections useful because understanding them could have a definite impact on your life and your level of fitness.