Stress, Anger, Irritability and Your Health - How Do They Connect? | Herbal Goodness

One thing many people fail to recognize is the effect of how intensely thoughts and emotions impact on our overall health and wellbeing.

People are viewed as the sum of discrete body parts as opposed to a unified being of mind, body and spirit. If someone is ailing from one organ or the other, or any part of the body, people tend to address their symptoms rather than attempt to seek out the root cause.

But what is remarkable is just how much influence our thoughts and emotions can have on our health.

The Correlation between Emotions and Health

What we think, feel and see has a remarkable effect on our physical manifestation.

Anxiety, for instance, causes hearts to race and blood pressure to go up, and we probably might experience stomach upset or nausea. Matter of fact, we don’t have to engage in a stimulating physical activity for our heartbeat to accelerate to the point of becoming grievous.

As well, stress is a well-known cause of insomnia, and one notable spillover effect of this is a lowered immune system.

Over time, stress can result to other physical issues like weight gain – which can in turn result to diabetes and the long list of health problems attached to it; weight loss – which is just as dangerous.

Over the years, we have also been served multiple studies linking poor wellbeing to long-term stress.

On the contrary, positive thoughts and emotion have an incredible effect on our health.

Folks who are more optimistic, calmer and generally lead happier lives tend to look younger and enjoy more years than their more pessimistic counterparts.

Despite the fact that specific health issues may not be as a direct result of fret or worry, chronic anxiety can result to living an unhappy life (existential depression included), which in itself harbors a hatful of side effects.

Some of the common issues that stem from unhappy living include constant eye or head pain, muscle and joint pain, not to mention overall fatigue. In turn, these can have a devastating impact on other aspects of our lives.

Cultivating a Happier, and Consequently Healthier, Mindset

Since, anger, stress and irritability are three of the biggest emotional detriments to your health, it is imperative that you take the necessary measures to eliminate them from your daily life.

If you can’t purge them in their entirety, which is a challenge in itself in this chaotic world we live in today, then it never hurts to set aside some time in the evening (or some other time that best suits you) to de-stress.

Practicing simple meditation or just half an hour of yoga can work wonders for you. These are just two of the numerous ways you can bump up the serotonin (a key mood stabilizer) levels in your body.

You may also have heard that cutting out the screen in its varied forms – television, computer or phone – at least an hour before bed is a good idea. That very much is true.

Aim to develop a calming nightly ritual that works for you. Reading, for example. Or soaking in a bath to unwind. Or even snuggling with a cup of our destressing relaxation Organic Graviola Leaf tea.

Little rituals such as these can wash away feelings of irritability, anxiety and tension. Consequently, this can ease insomnia, and even grinding of the teeth at night, which can both affect your health in negative ways.

As well, aim to incorporate empathy, compassion and forgiveness in your life.

You would be amazed by how far they go towards improving your emotional, and by extension physical, wellbeing. Holding on to anger, pain, grudges and upset emanating from stressful interactions with others is likely to lead to gastrointestinal problems like ulcers, as well as high blood pressure.

Being forgiving and compassionate allows us to let go of a lot of negativity that is often manifested like a ball of tension in the abdomen. This eases physical stress in the gall bladder, intestines and stomach, allowing these organs to relax and heal.

Last Word

As science begins to register an interest in the way our thoughts and mind impact our physical wellbeing, you can expect future health practices to place more emphasis on the mind and mental well being.

There is a reason everyone is waxing lyrical about eastern practices like the arts of yoga and mindfulness.