Someone once told me that diseases of the mind are far more destructive than the diseases of your body. And I’d like to add to that and say that it’s so often that I see a person who has a disease in the body that started off with a disease in the mind. Now, are they directly correlated? I’m not a scientist, so I can’t tell you whether they are or not. But I can tell you that anecdotally, it occurs to me over and over that when people have physical destruction going on in their body, when their body is deteriorating, when things aren’t working, physically, in their body, it seems to be preceded by thoughts that are focused on, “Life sucks.” “I’m bad.” “Why did I do that?” Regret and guilt, these kinds of thoughts. To allow the drunk monkey in your head to have these kinds of thoughts will be so degrading to your experience.
I can think of times when I go into a slump in my own life, I find that I am naturally drawn to things that I know are not good for me. I find myself more drawn to sugar, more drawn to fat. I find myself more drawn to staying up late, not getting enough sleep. When I’m feeling down, when I’m feeling bummed out, when I’m not appreciating my world, I find it’s so much easier to skip meditation, to skip working out. When I am eating effectively, sleeping effectively, meditating, working out, when I’m doing those kinds of things, being preventative in my way of operating, my physical body responds very positively and I’m not getting sick, and things like that.
But when I’m leaving those things out, my body begins to deteriorate. So, the disease of the mind is definitely more destructive than the diseases of the body.
5 Comments
I can attest to that! I think the most important thing I do in my office is the emotional work. When they break those barriers health can return rapidly. It’s sometimes astonishing that even after the best food, exercise, sleep, etc. people will still be in poor health. But, when you find the self-limiting belief, past emotional trauma, or negative/hurtful subconscious everything drastically changes.
Thanks for all your great work Matthew! Your work has helped me personally, but I have also used many of your techniques with patients in my office. You should almost send over business cards I talk about you so much!
Dr. Brant
I don’t know if this is a ‘what comes first, the chicken or the egg’ situation. Don’t take the time to exercise, eat correctly and maintain healthy sleep and stress habits and you’ll find yourself spiraling into poor mental health. But then what sets up for this to happen in the first place?
Katherine!!! Yes. Great point. What gets you into the frame of mind to take on positive life bringing habits in the first place? I believe the key to getting new habits in place is powerful accountability and structure. The last time my exercise program disintegrated I asked the universe to send me the perfect accountability partner. And in about a month I found someone who was willing to meet me everyday at my gym and workout with me. I had troubles every morning. I was grumpy and I didn’t want to it. But the structure of meeting someone else, got my booty out of bed whether I was grumpy or not. I highly recommend accountability structures to get the good habits going.
Dr. Brant,
I am forever grateful to you and your work. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of the healing you are bringing to so many. Through years of accidental investigation, I have seen that incorrect beliefs that go unexamined bring about the worst possible results for human beings. Let’s keep helping as many people as we can see this truth.
Great post Mathew. I agree completely. Science has shown how negative thoughts and stress can decrease the body’s immunes system and positive thoughts can increase it. I too know from personal experience how the quality of ones thoughts and language can have a huge impact on our ability to not get sick and our ability to heal quickly when we are sick.