What Really Creates Health & Well-Being?

by Margaret Paul, Ph.D.

Most of us know that eating well and exercising is important for good health. Yet often we hear about people100 years old and older that are still vital and have not eaten perfectly or exercised much. What is the secret of their good health?

Research indicates that a major factor in good health – more important than genes, food, or exercise – is how we handle stress.

Our bodies are equipped with a “fight or flight” mechanism that enables us to mobilize our strength when necessary. This mechanism allows us to fight or flee from real and present danger. However, this mechanism is also activated when we BELIEVE there is danger, even when no actual survival danger exists.

For example, it is appropriate for the fight or flight mechanism to activate if we are being physically attacked. When the stress response is activated, blood is taken from our brain and organs and put into our arms and legs to enable us to fight or flee. Our immune system shuts down to give us more energy to physically protect ourselves and ensure our survival in the moment. Once the danger is over and we have discharged the stress through fighting or running, our bodies go back to normal and blood again flows to our brain and organs.

However, what if our thoughts are creating the stress? What if we are imagining being attacked, or being rejected, or losing money, or losing our job, or losing a loved one? In this case, there is no actual real and present danger occurring in the moment. Yet the body does not know the difference between something that is really happening and something that we are thinking about. The body goes into the stress response the moment we think scary thoughts. But instead of being able to fight or flee, we are stuck with the anxiety caused by our thoughts. The blood is in our arms and legs with no way to be released. We can’t think very well due to a lack of blood in our brain. Our organs are being robbed of necessary nutrients, and our immune system is not functioning properly. Strenuous exercise may release the stress response, but if we keep thinking the scary thoughts, it will just come right back.

Perhaps the most important thing we can do for our health and well-being is to become conscious of our thoughts that create stress and become adept at changing our thoughts. People who have learned how to let challenging things roll off their back generally have good health. People who allow the challenges of life to constantly stress them out often have health problems, even when they eat well and get exercise.

Our minds have been programmed from infancy with many untrue thoughts – many false beliefs. It is when we think these untrue thoughts that we cause ourselves anxiety and our bodies go into the stress response. However, we all have a “Wise Self” that knows truth from lies. When we move “out of our minds” and into our knowing, we will stop thinking the thoughts that cause anxiety and instead operate from the truth of our knowing.

Thoughts that are untrue cause anxiety. The truth brings peace. If we have a thought that we cannot survive being rejected or being alone, we will feel anxious. However, while this might have been true as a child, it is not true as an adult. Our anxious feeling is letting us know that our thought is untrue. If we then think†– from our Wise Self rather than from our programmed mind: “I can handle rejection. I’ve been rejected many times and I have not died. I’ve been alone many times and I have not died,” our body will release the anxiety and we will feel peaceful. Our peaceful feeling is telling us that we are now thinking the truth.

The very best thing we can do for our health and well-being is to become aware of the thoughts from our programmed mind that create anxiety, and practice thinking the truth from our Wise Self that creates inner peace.

Margaret Paul, Ph.D., best-selling author of eight books, including Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You and co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding healing process.  E-mail Margaret @ margaret@innerbonding.com . Phone sessions available.  Learn Inner Bonding, visit www.innerbonding.com for a Free Inner Bonding course: