Be Still, My Soul...

The link between our emotions and our physical health is an established one. And science confirms it more and more with every passing year. "Stress", that ubiquitous, catch-all term, is the number one cause of illness in this country, when you consider the indirect causation, as well as direct. Mind-body connection has always fascinated me, mainly because Scripture speaks of it so clearly:

A sound heart is life to the body, but envy rots the bones. Prov. 14:30

For wrath kills a foolish man, and jealousy slays the simple one. Job 5:2

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Pr. 17:22

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Prov. 23:7

There are more scriptures than these...but neither of us have all day to be in front of this computer screen. It is more important now, than ever before, to walk in the peace of God. It is more important now, than ever before, to walk in faith-believing. After all, what we believe about a situation is what creates stress.

When we believe we are somehow the victim, we become jealous. When we believe that "this is too hard", it is. If we believe we are somehow in danger, our heart and our nervous system does not know the difference between the real and the perceived. I've a book on my shelf, entitled Deadly Emotions by Don Colbert, M.D.

Bits and Pieces:

"What one person may consider stressful, another person may not find stressful at all. One person may take planning a dinner party for 40 people...totally in stride, enjoying all aspects of the...process...another person may panic at the idea of giving an informal dinner party for six people. The difference in whether the event was stressful or not lies in the perception - it lies in what the individual believes....when it comes to stress, believing is the key."

"Fear, for example, triggers more than fourteen hundred known physical and chemical stress reactions and activates more than thirty different hormones and neurotransmitters."

"Stress occurs when our perceptions of events don't meet our expectations, and we don't manage our reaction to the disappointment."

"Researchers have directly and scientifically linked emotions to hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diseases related to the immune system. Studies have also highly correlated emotions with infections, allergies, and autoimmune diseases."

Lastly, here is a link to an interesting article connecting stress with a woman's health issues:

http://www.womentowomen.com/emotionsandhealth/stressmanagement.aspx

Caveat: though I cannot agree with solutions such as "reiki" and some of the other so-called relaxation techniques mentioned; nevertheless, the information regarding the impact our emotions have on our health is well explored in the above article.

Do whatever you have to do, to reach a place where you can say, "It is well with my soul!" It is my quest, and it will take work...emotional work. We have to "labor" to enter our rest. The results will be well worth the effort. We'll save ourselves a host of physical pains and ailments.