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How to Think Yourself Healthy
3 Masterful Ways to Achieve Mind over Matter
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Our bodies produce actions, but it’s our minds that create thoughts. In the past, these two realms were not thought to overlap. However, now science is proving otherwise. It turns out that the way we think really does affect our health.
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To many people, this all sounds rather strange and rather supernatural. How can mere thoughts influence the health of our bodies?
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However, it turns out that there is a mechanism connecting these two realms. We need to remember that our brains are still very much a part of our body. And activity in our brains is central when it comes to controlling our body’s processes.
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If we’re in a good mood, our autonomic nervous system carries on as normal. If we’re stressed, we start sweating, get upset stomachs and generally feel tense.
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That our brain can affect our body in such profound ways suggests that the body isn’t some separate machine operating by itself. Our health and vitality are directly affected by our thoughts and moods themselves.
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Here in this post, we’re going to investigate what the science says about mind over matter.
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Is Thinking Yourself Healthy Really A Possibility?
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Think Yourself Healthy Hack #1:
Heal Yourself By Trusting Others
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Human beings are social creatures. We need other people to be around us to be at our best. It’s part of our evolution.
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But until recently, we didn’t understand how important this was. Now, though, scientists are discovering just how important social interaction is for our well-being. People with satisfying social lives have been shown to sleep better, respond to vaccines and age more slowly. Some have gone so far as to argue that having a great social life is as important as giving up smoking.
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Charles Raison studies the effect of social interaction on health at Emory University in Atlanta. He says that a warm and open social life is the strongest behavioural gift. People who have great social lives don’t get sick and live much longer than those that don’t.
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The reasons for this aren’t entirely clear. But one of the most promising avenues of research suggests it might have something to do with cortisol.
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People with poor social lives had higher cortisol and a greater inflammatory response. Their immune systems were in overdrive, possibly causing them to age faster.
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Scientists theorised that this could be an adaptation to perceived isolation. Humans who were cast out of the tribe would suffer a far greater risk of physical trauma. As a result, their immune system would go into high gear to protect themselves from injury.
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Raison says that most people don’t have anything to worry about. Even if you only have a couple of close friends, you’re probably okay. The problems come when you’re nervous or anxious about going out to interact with other people. That’s when you need to think about doing something about it.
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Think Yourself Healthy Hack #2:
Meditation
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According to scientific studies, meditation reduces depression, boosts the immune system and even slows HIV and even help those who struggle with swallowing.
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One of the ways that meditation could work, according to the University of California, is through telomeres.
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Telomeres have become a popular subject in the media recently, thanks to their relationship with aging. Telomeres are the caps on the end of strings of DNA in our cells which protect the DNA as it divides.
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The longer your telomeres are, the more times your cells can divide without harming your DNA. Scientists now think that meditation upregulates an enzyme that makes telomeres longer. People who went to meditation classes for three months had more of this enzyme in their system than those that didn’t.
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Meditation, it is believed, works much in the same way as social interaction. The idea is that it helps us to feel better by reducing stress responses in the body. Those who meditate, like those who hang out with friends, have lower cortisol. They also show less activity in the amygdala, the area of the brain responsible for flight or fight.
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In the meditation experiment, participants went to a retreat for three months. But you don’t have to give up three months of your life. Research shows that the health benefits of meditation can be felt in as few as 11 hours of training.
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Think Yourself Healthy Hack #3
Have a Purpose for Your Life
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One of the strangest ways we can overcome health issues is by having a purpose in our lives.
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The idea that purpose is important was put to the test in a study, published in In Vivo. 50 people with advanced lung cancer were split into two groups. In one group were all the patients judged by doctors to have a spiritual purpose. In the other were those that didn’t.
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The idea of the study was to find out whether those who had a purpose responded better to treatment than those who didn’t.
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The results were surprising. The study found that 40 percent of the people with a higher purpose were alive three years later, compared to just 10 percent of those without.
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Science has unearthed lots of links between spirituality and health. It’s been known for quite a while now that people with faith often live longer than those without.
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But according to scientists, there’s no need to invoke divine intervention to explain the results. According to certain scientific authorities, spirituality acts as a sort of placebo. It helps people manage the stresses and strains of their lives and cope better.
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This makes sense in the context of what we’ve already discussed. People of faith have tools to help them cope during hard times. They also have a community they can go to for support.
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