Your body's endocrine glands secrete chemicals called peptides. These are tiny proteins that communicate chemical messages thoughout the brain and organs of the body. The pituitary gland is the master endocrine gland. Located in the brain, it alone secretes close to one hundred different peptides.
The release of peptides is triggered by emotions. Adrenaline is the most commonly known of these chemicals. It is released when fear, anxiety or stress occurs. Different combinations of peptides are secreted as our moods & feelings shift. Positive emotions generate beneficial peptides, negative emotions trigger damaging ones. Endorphines are positive peptides. Triggered by sexual release, love, physical exercise or even chocolate, they make us feel relaxed and happy.
Eventually a build-up of any chemical must effect the organ or tissue hosting it. Physical reaction occurs. Peptides can create a positive or healing effect just as easily as a negative one. That is why many people with cancer or chronic illness seem to recover or go into remission simply by virtue of their attitude.
It is also why many of the holistic health practices are so effective in creating healing and regeneration. They address the cause or root of the problem, rather than just the symptoms. Many holistic healing techniques work simultaneously on the emotional, electro-magnetic and physical aspects of the body. In addressing and re-balancing the source of illness or disease, they allow the body to facilitate its own natural healing abilities, in many cases even speeding up this process considerably.
Fear, anger, and resentment are the most dangerous of the emotions, especially if they are repressed rather than expressed openly. The negative peptides they stimulate damage major organs. Excess worry and anxiety injure the stomach, resulting in ulcers or digestive upsets. Anger injures the liver and gall bladder, preventing them from detoxifying internal wastes passing through the bloodstream.
Kidneys filter deception--whether self-deception or that of others. If you are not being honest with yourself, if you are living in denial, or if you are failing to examine the honesty and motives of others, your kidneys will eventually reflect this. Fear also injures the kidneys and bladder.
Excessive intellectual thinking injures the spleen, because it focuses energy toward the brain, thereby leaving vulnerable the body organs that keep us grounded and in balance. Being ungrounded stresses the adrenals, pituitary, and vital organs. Symptoms of speen imbalance include dark areas around the eyes, stomach problems or constipation, excessive emotions, memory loss, and lack of concentration.
The balance between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, our analytical and intutive minds, is important also to our digestive system. Our body's physical state is a mirror reflection of our own internal state. Quite often our body tries to communicate to us those things that we are unable to perceive intellectually. Therefore, by watching for signs of physical imbalance, you can begin to adjust the mental state accordingly.
For instance, problems with constipation or food digestion often indicate that you are having trouble mentally "digesting", assimilating or adjusting to what is going on in your environment. Conversely, problems with diarrhea or loose bowels can indicate that you are over-analyzing a situation.
Louise L. Hay's books teach that all disease comes from a failure to forgive. Her books reveal where specific emotions manifest physically. If you bury a feeling it will stay somewhere in your body blocking energy. Athritis is a good example of this "bottled hurt".
Physical exercise, strenuous labour or sports activities can help to remove these blocks by releasing endorphines as well as keeping energy flowing along the meridians or energy conduits within the body. Activity is particularly effective for channelling pent-up rage, anger and resentment.
The legs, calves and feet store much of our trauma, resentment, jealousy, and emotional pain, both past and present. Pent-up emotions, negativity and internal toxins can be released through the feet. Take off your shoes and walk barefoot through grass or along the beach. Soak your feet in hot epsom salts and water. Or have a foot rub. Apply warm aromatherapy oils and massage. Most importantly, give yourself permission to feel, regardless of the strength or comfort level of the emotion. Accept what you feel as valid, and do your best to express how you feel honestly, but as tactfully as possible.
There is much scientific evidence emerging to coroborate what we have essentially always known--that we are as we think. Thoughts create, not only in the sense that their energy phyically impacts the environment, or that thoughts motivate us to action, but also that thoughts and emotions chemically affect our bodies. Since every thought, feeling or inter-action directly impacts our well-being, the obvious conclusion is to foster a positive outlook and nurture our emotional responses. This will go a long way toward securing a healthy, vibrant life.~~
