The Physical Toll of Negative Emotions
Living Primally is first and foremost about taking responsibility for your own health. Though we might not be able to control each and every facet of our lives and genetics, we have considerably more power than we think. Diet, exercise, sleep, sun, social connection, and play all figure centrally into our health. (If you’ve been with us at MDA for even a week, you’ve probably figured that out.) That said, there are also more nuanced facets to wellbeing – subtler influences and interactions that we might not consider each day. True, when we rein in the bad habits and rewire unhealthy patterns, we open the door for an unprecedented level of thriving. Some of us, however, carry other kinds of baggage burdensome enough to keep us from ultimately passing over the threshold. I’m talking about the emotional cargo we live with – the anger, resentment, repression, sadness, guilt, or inertia (to name a few) – and its inevitable toll on our physiological health.
A few months ago, Dr. Albert Fuchs wrote a post highlighting the role of guilt played in some of his patients’ symptoms. Many physicians, Fuchs explains, see people whose physical suffering has no apparent medical source – somatization in medical jargon. Their conditions, which range from insomnia to chest pain, are rooted in guilt. What these folks need, Fuchs argues, is emotional and spiritual “absolution,” not medical treatment.
Fuch’s observation is just the tip of the iceberg, I’d suggest. In recent years, studies have highlighted the role stress, emotions, and personality traits play in serious health risks. For example, research shows sadness increases our perception of pain. Anxiety increases our chance of heart attack. Stress heightens our risk for stroke. Depression raises levels of inflammation-promoting proteins and increases the accumulation of abdominal fat. Suppressing our feelings even suppresses our immune function!
Our emotions aren’t just intellectual configurations. They’re wholly visceral processes. Imagine the emotionally charged times when you’ve had sweaty palms, a tightened chest, muscle tension, a knotted stomach, constricted throat, or light-headedness. It’s all part of the inherent mind-body connection. Our emotions elicit biochemical signals that set in motion a chain of positive or negative physiological events that include or influence everything from blood pressure to blood viscosity, gastrointestinal function to pain perception.
We’re designed, of course, to experience (and recover quickly from) a wide range of emotions, but when we get stuck in a negative rut for too long, it exacts a physiological as well as psychological toll. Over time, our physical condition reflects our emotional state. The persistent physiological impact of our feelings becomes imbedded in our body itself – in skewed neurochemical patterns, inefficient systemic functioning, even epigenetic profiles.
Eastern medicine more readily acknowledges the nuances of our mind-body connection. Yoga, for one, attends to the physical tension we carry as manifestations of emotional strain. Within the strategic focus of poses and the centering of breath work, we can cultivate a physical and emotional sense of release. It’s a discipline that mirrors many other Eastern and alternative practices which appreciate either literally or metaphorically how our bodies and minds are inherently imbricated.
From an evolutionary standpoint, it also makes sense. The more we discover, the more we understand about the body’s and brain’s complementary operations in animals and in our own species. Emotions and emotional perception were part of the larger picture of survival. They spurred us to action or inaction that could save our hides when we were up against a predator or a hostile or helpful stranger. They fostered our successful interactions with kin and even our childhood caretakers.
Today, in a world much safer and more mentally detached from the imperative of the present, I think it’s easier to lose ourselves in emotional narratives (that destructive penchant for self-talk) that can extend and expand our pain beyond the actual situations that prompted them to begin with. How much of our emotional anguish is caused by an unfair or unfortunate scenario, and how much is caused by our unrelenting grip on it. Our negative emotion (e.g. anger, sadness, guilt) likely had at least some legitimate value when the circumstances occurred, but at what point does it spring not from the original event anymore but from our own self-destructive clinging?
From a personal standpoint, how many of us have lived for weeks if not months with our stomachs in knots over stress? How many have ever gone months or even years stressed by a negative relationship (be it partnership, friendship, family, or work) that caused chronic headaches, muscle tension, or other symptoms? (A literal as well as figurative pain in the neck?) How many have felt perpetually fatigued by the weight of resentment?
Hanging onto emotion after the fact, in its lesser forms, can hold us back from experiencing full thriving. In it’s worst manifestations, we let it cannibalize us. When we take responsibility for our health, we also take responsibility for our mental health and the self-talk that fuels (or constrains) our lives. It helps to cultivate a “let it go” approach to life and to let go of negative self-talk that sends us down a useless emotional path. Counselors commonly suggest patients who tend to fall into negative thought patterns nip the process in the bud by learning to identify the physical sensations that begin the downward spiral. Maybe it’s a flushed face, a head rush, or a queasy stomach. Staying attuned to our physical cues can be more effective for many people than trying to mentally police runaway thoughts.
However, taking responsibility also means being honest with ourselves about what we resist addressing in our lives. It calls us to make hard choices sometimes – to let go of friendships that aren’t serving us anymore, to take a risk moving on from a soul-sucking job, to either leave a relationship or commit to the hard (and mutual) work of reshaping it. It calls us to get real about the negative thoughts and patterns that lead us to self-sabotage our lives, actions that result in continual mental and physiological consequences. Responsibility for our wellbeing is undoubtedly life’s grandest opportunity, but it’s also our most profound accountability.
Thanks for reading today, everyone. How do you identify with or respond to the role emotions play in physical health? What advice, practices, or truths have you found meaningful in taking responsibility for your full wellbeing?
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
Nothing keeps me attuned to my emotional state as well as my toddler. She is so affected by what mood I am in, to the point that sometimes I may not realize I’m in a negative mood until she starts throwing unnecessary temper tantrums. I can put on a smile and a friendly voice, but she knows if it’s genuine or not. It’s gotten to the point that when I wake up in the morning, before I get out of bed, I take a minute to think about how I’m feeling and address any negative feelings. I do this throughout the day and started to realize that I am more stressed out than I thought. So I went back to yoga, which has a profound impact on my emotional state. I’m amazed at how much better I feel between having a daily practice and eating primal now. And my daughter is suddenly a happier child with a lot less resistance and crying.
Hi Mark,
Thankyou for being such a holistic writer, realising that good health is greater than just the food we eat This post is timely for me too. I have been very stressed by family circumstances for a few months and for no apparent reason began feeling nauseous nd exhausted. A visit to my acupuncturist showed that all my organs were producing too much heat and were affecting my entire body. One visit has helped greatly. Certainly I’m a subscriber to the ‘anxious mind causes physical symptoms.’ keep up the great work Mark.
Great post. I think that there is so much value in moving beyond just the physical and that often the mental can be far more important. Once you address the mental the physical more often than not follows. I think yoga is so so beneficial and it basically saved me from myself. I am in the process of healing myself from the years and years of emotional beatings I gave myself, all the destructive internal self talk that wasn’t helping me but I couldn’t stop it. I am taking responsibility for my whole life, not just my health but my emotional well being as well.
Great post mate! Thanks for that 1.
I second the recommendation for the Power of Now by Tolle.
Also, for more difficult cases of emotional trauma (like PTSD), this sounds promising:
Experimental treatment for PTSD: Ecstasy
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/01/health/ecstasy-ptsd-1/index.html
A healthy living is only one component of the whole, an important component, but only one component….
I know few in the late 70s, some in their 80s, still going strong. My first question was always what do you do? What do you eat? I find their diets varied according to their cultural upbringing and background. But i notice one thing they have in common. They are mostly still working, paid or not, they have a strong family bond, and they are not self obsessive about anything, that is life more than about themselves.
According to Ayurveda, the inner health of mind & spirit supersedes the outer physical body…
I have to admit im not that
successful in the inner health as yet….
What Mark wrote makes great sense. Thank you, Mark, love your blogs…i look forward to all of them, and always learn something new…LOVE them all!!
Thank you Mark!! I treasure your hard work and information.
This is one of the best, most universally applicable posts I’ve read in a while! Thank you. As a massage therapist, I have seen and felt this through my fingertips over and over again. People come in with severe back pain, I ask about life circumstances, and it all comes gushing out. Getting in touch with the emotions and where they are finding a spot to settle into our bodies is an incredibly healing process. I highly recommend cranio sacral therapy for helping address many of these issues.
I’ve spent my whole life dealing with PTSD and depression due to childhood sexual abuse by my dad. In the last three years I’ve lost my Mom to cancer, my sister, my home and most of my family due to mental illness (not mine- long story). If I didn’t have Emotional Freeing Technique and Tapas Acupressure Technique I’d probably be dead by now. I also have two amazing therapists AND an MD, ND and endocrinologist who accurately diagnosed my hypo-thyroid and adrenal issues. Now that I’m on the correct medication for my thyroid and working really hard on the adrenal issues I’m doing MUCH better than I have been over the last three years.
The paleo diet has made a huge difference in my health over-all but dealing with my emotions, my thyroid and sleeping enough have made all the difference to me. I’m still somewhat overweight but as I get more and better quality sleep my emotional issues ebb and my health gets better.
Check out EFT and TAT for a pair of great ways to deal with emotional problems (free to learn and use at home!) and give them a try. They’ve both worked wonders for me!
When ever something brings me down I think of this story.
This farmer had only one horse, and one day the horse ran away. The neighbors came to condole over his terrible loss. The farmer said, “What makes you think it is so terrible?”
A month later, the horse came home–this time bringing with her two beautiful wild horses. The neighbors became excited at the farmer’s good fortune. Such lovely strong horses! The farmer said, “What makes you think this is good fortune?”
The farmer’s son was thrown from one of the wild horses and broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. Such bad luck! The farmer said, “What makes you think it is bad?”
A war came, and every able-bodied man was conscripted and sent into battle. Only the farmer’s son, because he had a broken leg, remained. The neighbors congratulated the farmer. “What makes you think this is good?” said the farmer.
Only when we connect our feeling to something we give it meaning in are live like “this is good” or “that is bad”
I can testify that emotional issues can make one physically sick. I had symptoms of being physically ill, including severe hair loss and acne skin while I was in my 30′s. For 2 years blood tests and other test results showed that there are physically nothing wrong with me. No medication or treatments (for my skin and hair) had any positive results. On top of the physical symptoms, I was depressed, I struggled to control my temper and I couldn’t sleep. Mentally I have dealt with my issues and with all the bad things I have experienced in my life, but obviously on an emotional level I haven’t dealt with it and that was what made me ill. Eventually a pharmacist referred me to a hypnotherapist who helped me to deal with accumulated trauma and stress that I’ve experienced since childhood. It was the best thing that I have done for myself, my marriage and my relationship with my children. It is so worth it to take the responsibility and address the issues that we allow to destruct our lives and our relationships. Often we cannot deal with it on our own. It is not a sign of weakness to get help. It is taking responsibility and giving yourself another chance of living life to its fullest and enjoying it.