How much time do you spend worrying about an outcome that often doesn’t even materialize?
🙋🏽 I know I do…
It’s human nature to worry. It is our risk-analysis, self-preservation, be prepared for anything and everything-ness.
Here’s the thing: It’s vital to have the fight or flight response when something dangerous is happening in the moment. We’re designed for that. What is detrimental to our physiology is maintaining that stress-response level in our bodies – otherwise known as “worry”.
Before we continue, let’s break down the complicated science of the mind-body connection when it comes to thought:
- We think a thought 💭
- Our body reacts to that thought by giving us a feeling 😌
- Based on that feeling, we think a related thought 💭
- Our body reacts to that thought by giving us another feeling 😌
- Repeat 🔄
OK yes, it’s not that complicated. But you can see why it would be hard to get out of a “bad mood” when you don’t deliberately choose your thoughts. Our default program takes over and the habitual cycle continues.
© MY AWAKENED SPIRIT
The catalyst in all of this? Our body doesn’t know the difference between something that is happening in real time or not. It produces the necessary hormones and chemicals to combat (what it thinks) is happening in real time.
For example: Every time we bring up a memory of a situation that happened (good or bad), our body reacts as if that situation is happening right now. It doesn’t know the difference. When you think of a fond memory, you feel calm, happy, warm. When you think of a bad memory, you get upset, agitated, and your heart races. Therefore, every time we think of a past situation, our body is physiologically making chemicals associated to that memory.
So, it would only stand to reason that when we worry or stress about the future, our fear brain steps in and begins this nasty cycle of thought/body destruction.
Your mind is in dis-ease; therefore, your body creates disease.
The more we allow our minds to wander with worry, the more likely we are to reprogram our subconscious mind to that of anxiety, fear, and stress – and make it our default mode.
This is where the practice of mindfulness and mediation work like magic. In a downward spiral of stress worrying about the future, or feelings of guilt and shame thinking about the past, mindfulness and meditation act as the diffuser to the ever-expanding pressure bomb, and with it releases ease and awareness and calm by bringing you into the NOW. This creates clarity and therefore an ability to problem solve.
We all deal with stress – it is a part of our everyday lives, but you can limit the severity and duration (and therefore destruction) by catching yourself before the momentum becomes too powerful. The more you practice, the easier it becomes – and the more at peace you will be.
