Believe it or not we are wired to be optimists. Chances are, if you are a pessimist, something in your upbringing or life experiences influenced you to believe that way. Your thoughts create your mood. We are not our thoughts, but they do influence our worldview and emotions whether we realize it or not. Seeing the glass half full doesn’t just feel better, your body and mind will reap the benefits as well.
A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones
Proverbs 17:22
Today we discuss the importance and perspective around how our thoughts and mood affect our well-being.
This chapter and verse of the Bible is yet another telling message about the brain, body connection. What a powerful one too. It’s simply a stating that our brain and body respond to our mind.
Our body responds to our thoughts. Are our minds giving us a message of hope and happiness or fear and despair? Being more cheerful is good for us. Being downcast and sad can bring feelings of negativity and distress as well as disease.
Negative thoughts create disease in our bodies
“Dis-ease.” When you read the word disease, the dis-ease we feel can create a lot of negative emotions in us. These negative emotions impact our cellular makeup, the tissue within our body, our organs, etc.
This verse from Proverbs 17:22 is literally telling us it’s important to remember that our thoughts create our mood. When we experience a fear based emotion, that feeling is going to negatively shape and impact us. Our thinking will become distorted and we will lose that sense of joy and the present moment. This causes our bodies to become vulnerable to disease and other illnesses.
Thinking in negative toxic manners involves stress. And that stress has been shown to reduce the size of certain structures in the brain. If however, your thinking is much more in a positive light, your mental and physical health will improve. A cheerful heart really is like good medicine allowing you to pursue your dreams because your brain and body respond to that feeling and emotion.
After all, we are created in the image of love, higher consciousness, and universal Christ consciousness. Remember this the next time you face some adversity. It’s very natural to want to get into a thought pattern of, my goodness – How am I going to handle this? As the anxiety increases, so do the stress hormones in our bodies.
Become the watcher of your thoughts
Take it for what it’s worth. Observe your thoughts. Become the watcher of your thoughts. See each life situation you face as what it’s going to teach you think about life. This helps us to first observe, then respond, and finely to find the positivity in the life event. This is how we continue to rewire our perspectives for the better in our lives.
The Bible is trying to tell us our thoughts create our realities. This life lesson is in other teachings that we’re going to get into another time. But for today, and everyday, be aware that your thoughts create your mood. Be aware that your mood is what creates either positive life balance or negative life balance, for more health and vitality or more negativity and “dis-ease.”
Which side of the coin do you want to live on? Choose yourself more positive each day. You are at the helm. Consciously choose your thoughts and the ones you listen to each day wisely.