I watched a presentation recently – from a doctor who explained how fear kills, he said fear manipulates the brain to send messages to your body that cause the body to self sabotage.
When we fear something we get stressed, and this stress can kill.
Doubt is the usual accomplice to fear, they’re a seductive pair and difficult to pull away from once they get inside your head.
If you don’t think your thoughts and emotions can affect your physical health, you’re wrong.
The mind is more powerful than we give it credit for, if we can master our thoughts in a more healthy way, our bodies will thank us for it.
The human body is pretty savvy
When the mind is afraid of something (real or imagined) the body reacts by shutting down all the functions that would normally keep you healthy and fight disease.
The immune system literally takes a back seat while your body fights to survive the ‘threat’.
The body does this so that all it’s energy and limited resource can be channelled toward the perceived threat – the thing we fear.
However, the body isn’t savvy enough to differentiate between a threat to life and a threat to your feelings – it reacts in the same way, regardless.
Put simply, this doctor used the example of a lion or tiger chasing you – in this case it would make perfect sense for your body to give all it’s resources to avoiding and fighting the threat – which is likely to be a short lived threat, since the lion won’t be chasing you for days, months or years at a time.
This means your body would get straight back to taking care of you and your immune system pretty soon after the incident.
Worries, which in many cases are unfounded, can stay with us for days, months and years at a time, in some cases – a life time.
So for days, weeks, months and years, our worries are hindering our immune systems, making us much more susceptible to illness and ill equipped to fight it.
It sounds crazy when you think about it like this.
Our bodies are simply following strict biological orders
Our bodies don’t differentiate between a lion and a deep insecurity about whether we’ll succeed or fail at that new business venture, or whether our friends will still like us if we stop trying to ‘keep up with the Jones’.
The body simply reacts to the fear in the same way as if it was a life and death situation.
That’s pretty intense.
We all know that stress and illness are linked – we hear about it enough in the media to the point where it’s become a bit of a cliche, and it’s clear that a lot of us have become complacent about this aspect of our health.
It’s so important that we look after ourselves, identify when we’re feeling anxious and address it head on before it overwhelms our thoughts and behaviours.
Part of the ‘self care’ movement is about making time for ourselves, keeping the scales in life balanced and feeding our minds with thoughts, feelings and experiences that nourish us and help us to develop our weak areas, stretch our talents and create enjoyable experiences to cherish and look forward to again and again.
Down time is important, time to take ourselves away and relax or immerse ourselves in new interests – to give the mind breathing space to start putting ‘things’ (life) into perspective.
Get a grip on your fears and reduce stress before it gets a grip on you
Don’t let stress get the better you.
Workplace stress seems to be on the up these days – if it means a new career or relocation, fresh start, giving up some of the luxuries we have or the energy sucking people in our lives – then maybe thats a better deal than sacrificing our health and wellbeing.
Stress in teens is reported to be on the rise, particularly in relation to accessing social media via smart-phones.
Last year the number of hospital admissions in the UK for stress and anxiety was the highest it had been in the last ten years, a worrying picture.
If worries are linked to something we can change then we need to start doing something about it, trying to change it – with positive moves forward on our minds, rather than doom and gloom.
I know this is easy to say, and there will be some situations where this type of wishy washy advice will feel absolutely impossible to embrace; we are emotional creatures after all, but we can try….
Start putting yourself first, learn to recognise your own stress signals and act on them, otherwise you could end up being no use to anyone and that would be a waste of ‘you’.
Isha
Hi, would love for you to check out my blog and let me know what you think ☺️
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Hilary Tan
I’m beginning to think that I unconsciously self-sabotage due to fear. I have a ton of anxiety and when I’m most fearful, I tend to do things that counteract what I need to do to succeed. Fantastic blog post you wrote 🙏🏻💕
Cherryl
Awww Hilary, I really believe little steps can change your whole life, or sometimes one positive experience can wipe away a multitude of insecurities – I hope this happens for you soon so you can feel light and free again – it will happen. God bless you, and thanks for reading 💛🔆
Hilary Tan
At least we have control of the little things we can do to improve the situation. You’re totally right – knowing I’m doing something productive usually does make me feel better and gives me a sense of accomplishment. I’m currently reading this massive textbook (an examination prep book) hoping that I’ll be more knowledgeable when I go back to school in January. I’m learning things I did not pick up on in school, and despite the fears I have, counselors have told me that it will get better. Thank you for your wise words of wisdom, Cherryl 🙏🏻💕
Cherryl
Wishing you all the best with your school plans – that’s a really positive thing to look forward to in January – and great that you’re giving yourself a head start 😊x
Hilary Tan
Thank you very much 😊💕 After failing the term in winter 2019, I didn’t want to go back to school in winter 2020 (this term only comes once a year). This setback also set back future plans, so I often feel like I not only failed myself but my family as well. I’m doing what I can at the moment and taking it from there.
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” -Theodore Roosevelt
Cherryl
You have not failed, even though other people might think it – we all go through setbacks in life at some point – we just have to move with the tide of life, and I think everything happens for a reason, just trust the journey 😊x
Hilary Tan
I’m not sure what the reason is for this yet, or why it happened, maybe because I wasn’t prepared enough and they were going too fast. I’m in an accelerated program and they pile loads of info on us, and idk how anyone has the time to fully absorb this information.
So instead of finishing in 2 years, it will take me 3 years. It’s still faster than the standard 4-year degree. #silver-linings
Cherryl
Yes- three years gives you time to pace yourself a bit more and put the quality time into it that’s needed – sometimes it’s years later that you look back on life and see the reasons for things – how things worked out for the best, even though they didn’t make sense at the time lol Wishing it all goes well for you Hilary 😊x
ashok
Oh yes. Absolutely! We need to replace Fear with Faith. Or Fear with Love 💕
Cherryl
Yes – very true 😊