What do you think your life would be like if you spent every day in a muddy hole in the ground?
Each day you would wake up in the mud. You would do your work in the mud and eat your meals in the mud. When work was done, you would rest in the mud. And then, at the end of the day, you would lay down to sleep in the mud.
24 hours a day, 365 days a year, you are in this hole, surrounded by mud and muck. What do you think your life would be like?
It’s easy to think that your clothes would be dirty. Well, not just dirty – they would be absolutely covered in mud. It would be caked on everywhere. It would be all over your skin, in your hair, under your fingernails… and you would probably find yourself swallowing a little from time to time.
(I know it’s gross! Just bear with me another moment.)
When you’re in a muddy hole all the time, mud is inescapable. It’s going to get everywhere and stay everywhere… it’s all you know.
This is your brain on negativity.
Consider this: you are with your thoughts 100% of the time. You are surrounded by them; your brain is bathed in them. 70,000 times a day, you feed something back to yourself.
Anything that is so all-encompassing is going to impact everything else about your life. You use your thoughts to decide whether you spend all day in a muddy pit or in a clean and cool oasis – and whether you spend the day refreshed and renewed, or covered in mud from head to toe.
Over the last several weeks, we have talked about several ways to care for your brain: fuel it right. Get blood flowing to it. Rest it. Hydrate it. Refresh it with fasting.
All of these highlight the brain, of course. But the mind has every bit of an impact on the physical body. Your thoughts are things. They may be intangible, but they start a very real chemical reaction in your brain…
Your brain was built with a specific response to stress called the fight or flight response. It is a widely known bodily response where your physiology prepares to attack a threat or flee from it.
Your cortisol spikes. Your heart beats faster. You’re panting. Blood is rushing away from nonessential areas and racing to the arms and legs in case you’ve got to run or attack. All of this is great if you’ve actually got to run or attack, especially since the stress response comes with enhanced vision and hearing and a decreased pain threshold.
But when it fires without a reason, it’s just flooding your system with cortisol – the stress hormone that suppresses your immune system, impairs your higher brain function, and elevates your risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s – among many other health issues.
Believe me when I say, for the sake of your heart and brain, tame your mind!
Besides – you deserve to spend all day in the oasis. A brain fortified by positive thinking produces serotonin, which boosts your brain function – and as an added bonus, has mood-regulating effects that have earned it the title of “the feel-good chemical.”
If you can, this week, take a “thought inventory.” Take a few days and write down as many of your conscious thoughts as you can. Ask yourself, “What effect did this thought have on me? Did I feel better or worse after I thought it? Was it useful? Was it true?” You will see where your brain is spending all its time.
And if your mind is in need of adjustment, you can take a look here at some practical tips to improve your thought life.
Make today your masterpiece!
Florina
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